World Cassowary Day

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Speaker 1: Ruby.

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Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz.

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Speaker 1: What does the world Marco went?

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Speaker 3: And this This is Amazing Wildlife. It's a podcast where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. And this podcast is in production with iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo. And this amazing place, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: That was my castaway as Dracula.

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Speaker 2: Translating a rare species.

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Speaker 3: I think this location is probably your most favorite at this point.

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Speaker 1: I mean, friend, I am trying not to get so excited.

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Speaker 2: I think the shot, they can probably see it behind you, so do you guys? Look Nyony.

00:00:54
Speaker 1: For those of you who visually know what's going on, we're at the walk About Australia behind the castaway right now. So these are Yara.

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Speaker 4: And Maka And I'm super sick because this episode, Buddy, I can't even focus.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: I know now because this is going to air during world cast.

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Speaker 3: Come out a little bit beforehand, yes, but this is really a great opportunity for us to shine the spotlight on what I even considered one of the more unique species of bird that I have ever come across. And when I first saw them, I thought, wow, these are really unique.

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Speaker 2: This is cool.

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Speaker 3: But then we started to learn more about them. For the anual Planet series that we filmed here a couple of years back, we got to spend time with them and I was like mind blown. So again, yes, for anyone watching, you can see the cast Whorris behind us.

00:01:35
Speaker 2: We're at the cast were a habitat area.

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Speaker 3: For those of you that are listening, when you come to this flypark, come to walk about us. Like Marco said, this is sort of in the top back area behind what looks.

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Speaker 2: Like the woolshed. Yeah.

00:01:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta go through it right and you see it and you come.

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Speaker 3: Out the other side, and it's kind of this beautiful little corner of this flypark that again they do such a great job here where Yeah, we are in the middle of southern California. We are in wow life habitat that is inland from the ocean, so it's a bit dry and almost desert like. Yeah, but when you come here to the Fari Park, you come through walk about Australia, you forget you're in southern California.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I know, man, it's such a vibe here too.

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Speaker 4: And you know, back in the day, this was an area that was managing and to your point, this for me, it's just magic.

00:02:16
Speaker 1: You have the world gardens or fightstrees above us.

00:02:19
Speaker 4: But now you know, I had to pass on the baton because I got to get an awesome roles of spokesperson just like you a Migel. And so we have a wonderful, very passionate human being that is managing these wonderful dinosaur birds.

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Speaker 1: Right, So let's talk about why.

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Speaker 3: Did you introduce yourself to our guests and our audience. Tell us your name and what's your title here.

00:02:37
Speaker 5: My name is Anna, Hi everyone, and I'm a senior zoo keeper here at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. And yes, I do manage the castowaries. I've been with them for about five years, about in twenty twenty is when I took over from Marco, and it's just been really amazing working with these guys.

00:02:56
Speaker 2: So you're staying around twenty twenty, things improved.

00:02:58
Speaker 4: Here, hold on, hold on, don't want to pull out my castiwary talent.

00:03:06
Speaker 5: Absolutely amazing and he really worked well with them, so easy to take over from him because they just start such great birds, and he had it all ready to go, and it was just a turnkey situation.

00:03:20
Speaker 1: You know, Anna's being really humble because she's remarkable.

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Speaker 4: You know what I love about the bird department is we have so many different skill sets every department really with wildlife. But when I came in, it was more behavior oriented. Was my experiences, and and and many others on the team showed me a lot, especially about reproduction and nesting and just maintaining wonderful habitat.

00:03:39
Speaker 1: So props to you and for doing amazing work.

00:03:42
Speaker 3: Speaking of wonderful habitat, one of the things that again we had mentioned kind of an intro. We're in this beautiful like transformed area of Australia, but it is wooded, it is dense forest. Can you tell us a little bit about cashworry habitat in the wild.

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Speaker 2: Where are they usually found?

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Speaker 3: Obviously we mentioned walking about Australia, so down under book, maybe tell us a little bit about where they can be found in the wild.

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Speaker 5: They can be found in New Guinea and northeast Australia, so like the Queensland area. So it's generally a rainforest area. They do prefer like old growth rainforests, so as you can see the trees behind us for people who can see, we've got these huge Ficus trees on our fighters trees. We do have misters so when it gets warm, we can increase the humidity with the misters and the birds really love that. They are very much water creatures, so we do have pools and wallows, and we do have a new feature where we can take a stream and fill up the wallow from the pool and they can play in that in the afternoon pretty easily. So it's a nice fun enrichment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I really love that you mentioned their water creature is right, because everyone forgets like.

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Speaker 5: Rat such good swimmer, exactly.

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Speaker 4: Right, and just being that group of birds and rat tites we talked about, right, like Ostrich from Africa Kiwis you know we help with Kiwi conservation here as well. From New ze We have one of my favorites is Zara from South America. But these guys, to your point you said, Northeastern Australia and New Guinea, but this force air is really really unique and especially what they eat, right, Can you talk a little bit about what is this particular?

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Speaker 2: You see this big bird, right, so a giant claw. This is god.

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Speaker 6: This is like someone's going to kill the animals, right, I'm assuming, right.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, they well those eyes went way up, Amanda, you're behind the see do you see those eyes grow up in her head?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I saw that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: They're very very ferocious. They're very predatory. No, I'm just kidding. They love fruits. They love to scavenge around for fallen fruit, so anything that falls off the trees is fair game. They do have a big, long, four and a half inch claw. They kind of use that as a rig to look through the leaf litter for yummy snacks.

00:05:48
Speaker 1: Thank you.

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Speaker 4: I'm glad he pointed out the main purpose for that, right, I mean, because I know you and I have both seen it. But every now and again, if guests spend some time here, you'll see the cast wearris and it kind of reminds me of like a jaguar or a leopard and a tea jungle area where they're watching their step in a heavy force area. There's roots, there's leaves and twigs, and to your point in that, you see them doing it sort of like a raking behavior. When they're going around right and early you mentioned, you know, the joke about being a big scary bird. I always kind of tell people like folks, folks who are listening right now. If you're listening, you got a smartphone, If you look up Cassawery, you're gonna hear or see something like World's most.

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Speaker 1: Dangerous Bird, right.

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Speaker 4: And the Internet it's sensationalizes things quite a bit. But I have but back me up, Anna, I mean I tell guests like, you know, it's kind of like a rhino, you guys, I mean, we all know not to upset a rhino for a very obvious reason. And I would say the same thing about a castwhery, right. They have the potential for defending themselves. And in this intent, it's a bird. A female over six actually can talk about that. The size alone, right of this.

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Speaker 5: Bird, Well, the females are about five six and they weigh about one hundred and fifty ish pounds, whereas the males are about five to two and they weigh about one hundred and twenty five pounds. The males are a little more relaxed and chill. The girls have a little bit of a spicier added a.

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Speaker 1: Little sauce or the females saying they're more.

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Speaker 2: So when it comes to behavior.

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Speaker 3: If you have very specific difference as far as the females are a little more spicy, maybe a little more territorial aggressive, males a little more laid back. Is there a reason we have seen why that might be for survival or is it has to do with different roles they play for the species?

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Speaker 5: Good questions, very good question. The females are the ones who will meet up with the males and they hang out for two to three weeks, They lay three to five eggs for the male, and then they leave. The male is actually responsible for incubating those eggs for fifty to fifty five days, raising those babies for about a year. So they're more chill, they're more tolerant. The females they kind.

00:07:50
Speaker 2: Of get to do well. They kind of manage a.

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Speaker 5: Larger territory, whereas the males. Two or three males will be within one female. It's almost like a ver.

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Speaker 2: We're expecting to see animal world is.

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Speaker 3: Where it's the male has one territory, he wanders amongst the females.

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Speaker 5: This is flipped well, and that seems to be kind of the way it is in the family that kind of breaks off before flighted. You see that in Kiwi's and ostrich and email also, and then it's more than males that take on that parental role.

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Speaker 2: I love it.

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Speaker 1: And back to the rat tite concept you're saying, the ostriches are is a kiwis castworries. Well, I love him so much.

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Speaker 4: They're finding a dinosaurs anathona you know, you know, being such a big bird. But also to your points, you know the gender reversal, I absolutely love because think everyone listening like Australia, think New Guinea, New Zealand. These are islands that have really evolved to have really unique wildlife, right, and so you see birds yeah, exactly, not the size of a female, bigger, I mean to your point, And it's the female right with the large territory, with the males.

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Speaker 1: She's dropped on those eggs and she's out. And it's the dad.

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Speaker 4: When I think of Father's Day, I think of castle like a macha rating Indiana right now?

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Speaker 1: Are male?

00:09:00
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: He everyone for listening.

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Speaker 4: The mail sits on the eggs for like fifty four days straight and raises the babies for up to a year. So if mom and daddy driving right now, Mom gives some eyes to do that to your hobby and remind them about the castary rolls, right and.

00:09:13
Speaker 2: High five to the single dad.

00:09:14
Speaker 4: Job all right, yeah, hi first job. Yeah right, that's great. And you brought some props today that we can highlight because it's so hard to describe the castory, but can you start describing it? And I'm gonna pull some of these bio facts that we have here visually and we can go through them.

00:09:30
Speaker 1: Is that pork for you?

00:09:31
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:09:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well makes it so unique and paid to Like an Ostrich as an.

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Speaker 5: Example, Well, they're really really spectacular in their bright blue coloring on their neck and then they have these two little wattles that are bright red, so that's a big contrast. And since their whole body is covered in feathers except their head really and it's just these big, long black feathers. It almost looks like a horse's mane. The feathers are just real thick.

00:09:57
Speaker 1: I'm gonna grab him because you brought some rick. Let me show you here so.

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Speaker 3: Anybody who listening and not watching, The feathers aren't wide like you see with regular birds, like no pigeon, chicken, hawk, whatever, like you said.

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Speaker 5: They mostly look like a piece of hair, but then little tiny hairs off of the edge of it. And the reason that castowaries have feathers, it's a dual feather. There's two feather veins, and then it's got the little tiny little feathers off the sides of it. And it's to trap more air because it's really hot and humid and it's hard for them to thermal regulate, so it really helps trap more air. Creature is the most insulating thing, so it really gives them this like nice little air pocket around them. The other thing that it helps with is they are running through the rainforest. They can run to thirty one miles an hour, so there is lots of broken sticks and branches and such, so it kind of gives them a little layer of bubble wrap around their belly.

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Speaker 4: I bring up usually for a raincoat, you know, but never thought that as well, you know, for insulation and anana. You brought these two little things here, so let's describe it, right. For thinking, the castaway, you look at this big feathered bird, and on the sides, the wings actually are really really small, right, These are flightless birds, rat tights I were talking about.

00:11:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're flightless, so ostrich can take their wings and kind of move them around and dance a little bit.

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Speaker 2: Oh right.

00:11:18
Speaker 5: Cassowaries don't even have that ability. They don't have the musculature the tendence to even do that, So their wings just kind of hang down by their sides and they're just a little bit above their leg right against their body. You'll see it almost looks like little black pencils or little black chopsticks.

00:11:35
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, right now, yeah, acts that's a good point.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, like little black chopsticks.

00:11:39
Speaker 4: Or if people a little more feather orange or aware, or when a feather's just growing out, the little like casing around it kind of looks like that, like a premature.

00:11:46
Speaker 5: Feather, and they're like, you know, they can be as long as like twelve inches long. Yeah, and some of them are shorter, but they do molt out every single year, just like their feathers. So I do find them around the exhibit.

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Speaker 3: You mentioned, and that the bodies feathers. Marco's saying that they're like a raincoat. They're a bubble wraptor installation. Why do we have dangly chopsticks off the wing.

00:12:09
Speaker 4: I asked the same question I've wondered about, and I don't know if you've experienced this Anna once before.

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Speaker 1: So we have four castwarris here at the Safari Park, two.

00:12:16
Speaker 4: That our guests can experience and walk about, and we have two others in our bird conservation center where they're focused on helping with population.

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Speaker 5: Right.

00:12:23
Speaker 1: So Kaya, she's the big female.

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Speaker 2: Reputation personality.

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Speaker 4: But what I was going to say when I first was introduced to Kaya again, you know, some animals communicat in different ways. So she wanted to show me she's a big bird, and I needed to watch myself, you know, which I totally respect. So what she did is actually came towards me, facing me, and she flared out those things to me. And that was the only time, you too, that I've ever seen any use of those casings, you know, the rudimentary feathers. Was that to present more of a threatening position to make sure that I knew and it worked back the way we were intimidated.

00:13:03
Speaker 1: I mean, we're making Jack.

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Speaker 4: So I also want to point out what makes your job so unique, I think, and props to all the work that you do with these animals, and that It's also a term that we use here into world called protected contact.

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Speaker 2: Right. So for instance, we're not.

00:13:15
Speaker 4: Going to go in with maybe an animal like an elephant or a jaguire, right, or a tiger, And we want to do that with a castory as well.

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Speaker 1: We have good relationship with these birds, but right we're not going to be going in.

00:13:25
Speaker 5: No, there is no reason to go in with the cassuary. I mean, their first line of defense is always to run. But why would we want to scare them, you know? And why would we want to The only time they're going to use that claw in a dangerous manner is if they feel cornered and nervous or scared. So I don't want to put them in that position. I don't want to put myself in that position. My kids would not appreciate it. But they are very well trained. They know how to shift. We can move them from exhibit to exhibit, we can put them in the barn for a few minutes. They do go into crates if we do need to transfer them somewhere else, So there's no need for us to necessarily get in the same space with them. Even when they're being vaccinated. We do have our vet staff come out and they see our vet staff at least once a month, if not more, and we practice giving their injections and doing a fake exam so that when it comes to the real time to do it, they're not worried. It's a no big deal.

00:14:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see, it's great voluntary inoculations.

00:14:25
Speaker 4: But it's one of many aspects for the health of the animals under our care right to do these amazing things.

00:14:29
Speaker 1: So I absolutely love that.

00:14:31
Speaker 4: And you know, we got distracted with other attributes of Castworry, but I wanted to say, because we were describing the feathers, can you also talk about the foot because you brought a really cool mold of the foot of a.

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Speaker 2: Kind of a couple times.

00:14:43
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's bigger than my hand, you guys.

00:14:46
Speaker 2: So it's so for those of you are listening, he's holding.

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Speaker 3: Up a casting of a castworry footprint and yeah, definitely bigger than a human hand, right, pretty.

00:14:55
Speaker 1: Big, right, Yeah.

00:14:55
Speaker 5: So she has a really big, giant middle toe and then there's two toe on either side, and that inside toe is the one that's got the four and a half inch long nail. We weren't able to get a good cast of the toenail because it really doesn't touch down on the ground. But her right, Yeah, good print looks exactly like a dinos and.

00:15:17
Speaker 1: People always bring that up.

00:15:18
Speaker 4: And yeah, I tell people because again, like it started with the dinosaurs as a kid, and when they look at a castilorry, how can you not think of the dinosaur. There is one called an oliver raptor, which is a dinosaur that eight eggs. It looks remarkably similar to this animal. Now we're not saying there's scientific evidence of a dinosaur linked to a castawary, but there's a lot of good opinion and some evidence it shows that hers are modern.

00:15:39
Speaker 3: I think if you look at the skeletule structure of what we've seen in fossils, you look at the skeletal structure of the castwerry.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: If nothing else, the castwerry allows us to imagine how dinosaurs would move. Oh, exactly, look right, just on a much larger scale, totally.

00:15:53
Speaker 4: I mean everything about it, even including the eggs, right, And can you describe to our listeners, Will I grab this object here that you've brought, what does it look like?

00:16:02
Speaker 5: The egg is a big green egg. It's almost like a lime green It's almost about the size of a very large avocado or a mango, but it's a really bright green color. And you would think that that green color would stand out like a sore thumb in them in all the rainforest, but with all the different greens and stuff, it just totally blends in and is totally camouflaged.

00:16:24
Speaker 4: I know.

00:16:24
Speaker 1: I love that.

00:16:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, and again, for those that are only listening and not watching Marco's God in his Lap now a makeshift nest with three eggs, they are I think mangoes are good.

00:16:32
Speaker 1: I want to point out right, yeah, yeah.

00:16:34
Speaker 3: But yeah, they're bout the size of a mango, but the coloration almost remind me of a not quite right watermelon. Colors in the sense to speckled, are not striped, but in the sense of the coloration of those shades of green, and absolutely sitting out here with us right now is like, well, those are quite obvious, but yeah, perfect camouflage in the wild, like we see a lot of the bright parrots sometimes blend in perfectly into the trees because those colorations break up very well in the sunlight and everything else. So do we know why they're I mean, obviously we just said they're camouflage, but is there a particular mineral in their body or what isn't that makes it green?

00:17:07
Speaker 1: To me, it's more of the being a forest bird.

00:17:09
Speaker 4: So I think of an animal like a tinumu, remember Anna, like that beautiful green egg that a tinamu has, very similar, but they're both terrestrial or ground dwelling animals, so it has to do with that. I think it's more camouflage, right and can when I think about a tinumu egg as well, which I know Ron is.

00:17:25
Speaker 1: Also part of the team here in Australia.

00:17:26
Speaker 4: He has a really cool fact that the tinumu is actually the living descendant of the Tyrannosaurus racks.

00:17:31
Speaker 1: Just want to point that out too as well.

00:17:33
Speaker 4: So even the smallest little word right, all right, Ron, you're being called out here, you know the.

00:17:38
Speaker 2: Show Who do you Think you are?

00:17:39
Speaker 1: Like?

00:17:39
Speaker 2: I'd love to see that interview, right, little.

00:17:43
Speaker 4: Quail looking thing, you know I identify as a t rex? No, But my brain's buzzing because there's so much to talk about these birds. But the one that I absolutely love for Meana and Rick, it's that they're forest twellers to neither forest guardians. You talked about it a bit already being a frugal or an animal that eats a lot of fruit out there in the wilds and the forest where they're from, right, Yeah, and.

00:18:04
Speaker 5: Then one really cool thing about that is they are really good at seed dispersal. Yes, So in areas where there are cassowaries, the species diversity goes up by twenty five percent. Yeah, so it's really important that we have castawerries out there to keep that biodiversity.

00:18:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, giving to point those old growth forests, and I had read it's over thirty different species of endangered trees that grow best when they go through the gut of a cassowerry. I mean, the intestines are so short that fruit like a whole mango, which they can consume, one of the only animals in that area that can swallow a whole mango down.

00:18:37
Speaker 1: And then because it's a short digestive track, it doesn't really absorb all the material, all the meat of the fruit.

00:18:42
Speaker 4: So when they defecate, when they go poop, you know, they're putting out a big old thing, maybe a mango seed or a pie seed, depending on the fruit. And I had to talk about my favorite poop the other day and guess what I talked about.

00:18:56
Speaker 2: It's what I'm talking about.

00:18:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can tease me. All you want to listen is with my thing. I'm sure you do it too.

00:19:01
Speaker 4: And in the morning, you know, you have to check out where the animals have been moving around in their activity. And I would love to inspect the castlory poop every day because it looks so cool, right, can use.

00:19:10
Speaker 5: Big chunks of stood in it. I mean you'll see like a whole quarter of an apple, a bit of a pair. You know, you can definitely recognize what types that. You can see pieces of honeydew melon. In the wild, they do have a fruit called the castawary plum, which is very, very toxic. The only species that eats it is the castawary. Because their digestive track is so short, it's not really toxic to them. Isn't that insane?

00:19:35
Speaker 3: And I think initially, I mean we kind of talked about their seed dispersive, so it gives the answer. But I think initially someone who would hear that, oh, food comes out only half digested at most, what's the point of that. But they can glean the energy they need from it, and then the forest benefits tremendously because they're basically pooping out fertilizer with the seeds and giving the seeds the nutrients they need then to sprout and grow. The connection between animals and plants.

00:19:58
Speaker 2: And you know, just like in general, is so so amazing. Sometimes it really is.

00:20:03
Speaker 5: And sometimes the feces will grow like a white fuzz to it. Sometimes it's an iridescent blue. Wow, it's so interesting, like the next morning.

00:20:16
Speaker 1: Rainbow.

00:20:17
Speaker 5: It just looks different at different times of the year. I think in the winter we see more of a blue tint to the poop. So I don't know what kind of a fungus yeah is growing on it, but it's just interesting to see how it changes.

00:20:30
Speaker 4: It's all those nuances of being a forest animal, right right, not only nesting, trying to track the mate can be difficult. I mean you mentioned the female's dominant one with a bunch of males in her territory, but you know they got to find each other, right.

00:20:42
Speaker 1: Can you talk about what makes a cassiary vocal?

00:20:46
Speaker 2: These birds are huge, These birds are big. How can you not see each other? A forest?

00:20:50
Speaker 4: I mean it's a thick rainforest, friend, you know, I mean I've been in places where a lot of people and I have trouble seeing my husband.

00:20:55
Speaker 1: And actually, I'm going to admit something right now.

00:20:57
Speaker 4: I use a peacock hall because, for instance, will make the only places where he gets very excited. He's kind of a labrador runs off, you know, he knows. I mean that's in a good way. He's very loving and I love him very much. But when he gets excited, I do a call, a bird call to get his attention, you know, because he knows that call is me, and it works.

00:21:11
Speaker 2: Oh, I feel like you are basically doing what castiworries do to find each other. Maybe maybe maybe might be a little more primitive.

00:21:19
Speaker 4: You know.

00:21:20
Speaker 2: How do castaworries find each other? Even though they're big birds and they cannot be seen in the forest.

00:21:26
Speaker 3: They can't see girl because it's a dense forest far And I mean, I will admit I'm surprised. A bird that's weighing over one hundred pounds is extremely quiet too. It's amazing how quiet they are, even walking in the leaf litter. So Anna, how do they find each other in the forest.

00:21:39
Speaker 5: Well, they do make these low booming noises. And when Maka and Yard do it in the barn. I can actually feel it in my chest before I hear it, and then it kind of subsides again and then I can't hear it, but I can still feel it.

00:21:53
Speaker 2: So it's a sub sonic sound, so it's so low.

00:21:57
Speaker 5: You can't hear it, but then it's a boom. Marco, would you like to do the bar?

00:22:00
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not there get at it, but I'm gonna track. It's kind of like that, all right, sound care?

00:22:04
Speaker 1: Here we go. It's like a but it's like very white deep. It's like very white could go even ten times for those of you who knew very white is do any of you back then looking at your face?

00:22:15
Speaker 2: Cheese?

00:22:15
Speaker 1: No, I'm calling it the young one out. But anyway, the call, it's so deep.

00:22:19
Speaker 4: It's the deepest vocal of any bird on the planet, and it's wicked. It reminds me of elephants, is anything same thing? They have a really low for you, Yeah, and it travels for them across savannahs. But to your point, Anna and Ricka the ecosystem.

00:22:32
Speaker 1: For a castworry. Their calls gotta go way.

00:22:34
Speaker 5: Out there right, definitely, And so both of them will call to each other and so they'll do basically like an echolocation type of situation the lower frequencies. So that's how they do find each other.

00:22:46
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, I got distrack in my head and thought like I went like the cassary, like the castaway.

00:22:51
Speaker 2: Can you hear me? They're singing through the bars of the bird world.

00:22:57
Speaker 5: Well, one thing that really does help the cast to where carry that low frequency sound further is the cask on their head. It's like a little helmet.

00:23:06
Speaker 3: I was going to say, we talked about the little stubby wings. There's a lot of similarities that they have with others in their families. So this is an ostrich emu, but this is unique.

00:23:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're holding a replica everyone who are not watching.

00:23:18
Speaker 4: Eventually all this is going to be on YouTube our YouTube channel by the way, But yeah, we have a replica.

00:23:22
Speaker 1: And can you describe this thing? What's on top of the head?

00:23:24
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, it's plastic. Nobody get worried. It's not real, I promise. So underneath this helmet or cask is a spongy material and then it's basically fingernail material over the top.

00:23:39
Speaker 4: Basically, if you're listening on touching nails oh yeah, let me do it here holding them out there, we go.

00:23:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, hollow, it's hollow, So that helps act to amplify those low booming noises. The other thing that this cast does which is really really helpful is when they're running and they can run up to thirty one miles an hour through the four Yeah, sure, in a dense rainfores, what they do is they stick their head down really low and then they push through the rainforest. It acts almost like a little makeshift machety for that.

00:24:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:24:10
Speaker 3: And so for those that aren't watching that are only listening a couple of times, it is kind of like a helmet, but it's more of a fin shape, almost like a dorsal fin.

00:24:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, like a dorsal fin. And the males is thin at the top, okay, and the females is really wide.

00:24:23
Speaker 3: We had mentioned that this is to help amplify the sound helps coming through the forest. Do they use it to defend themselves when fighting?

00:24:29
Speaker 4: Is it strictly the feet like you know, I've also read that there are studies of blood being circulated through this material, So actually you go help in thermal regulation a thermori.

00:24:36
Speaker 2: It's like the ears of an elephant.

00:24:38
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say the exact same thing.

00:24:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, so maybe on a colder day, the castlory will constrict the vessels up above, so we restrict the movement of the blood into the cast. They don't keep the blood nice and warm in the body, or conversely right and open up the capitillaries let the blood flow, kind of like if you guys have a dog at home and gets hot and pent it's their way of keeping cool.

00:24:54
Speaker 1: The blood cools by the panting process. So it's a cast. So a lot of cool things about this, and you know, it's great to get.

00:24:59
Speaker 4: One odd fact that read about this cast is that they usually always curve a little to the right.

00:25:03
Speaker 1: I don't know why that is, you.

00:25:04
Speaker 6: Know, I've no because there's a hemisphere. Oh yeah, my eyes rolled so back right now. But it was really funny. Oh you guys, you're killing it with these jokes.

00:25:15
Speaker 3: No.

00:25:16
Speaker 4: Oh, but that brings me one other point too. I don't think we talked about it. There are three different kinds of cassaaries right in it.

00:25:22
Speaker 5: Yes, there are. There's the southern castawary, which is the castery we have here at the Safari Park. There's a Northern Castawary and then there's the dwarfs, and the southern Castaway is the biggest of that.

00:25:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and amazing.

00:25:35
Speaker 4: And in the past we've had castwarries at the Zoo and also here at the Safari Park.

00:25:39
Speaker 1: Remember, and we're gonna, I know, we're going to aid ourselves. Way back in the day, there.

00:25:43
Speaker 4: Used to be an area called the Rainforest Habitat, which is where the practice line for a zip line is now.

00:25:49
Speaker 1: And there was a dwarf.

00:25:50
Speaker 5: Castword and she was the cutest, right, she's sweetest, as.

00:25:54
Speaker 4: Colorful but adorable. Higher mountain ranges of those areas of New.

00:25:58
Speaker 5: Guinea, the much smaller I think around her, like seventy five pounds.

00:26:04
Speaker 2: We're talking about birds, So seventy bird such a big bird. Oh yeah, totally Okay, So we have covered quite a bit, Yeah we did.

00:26:16
Speaker 3: Is there anything you wanted to share with our audience about Castworris that we haven't touched on yet.

00:26:20
Speaker 5: Well, I do want to say that World Castwery Days coming off September twenty six, and we're going to be out here all day on this dep with a bunch of bio facts to share with everybody. The ones we talked about exactly like the ones we talked about, and we're going to have people here giving talks. We're going to be giving them special treats that you can watch them eat. We're going to be filling up their wallows so you can watch them play in the little It's going to be a fun day.

00:26:48
Speaker 4: And all that information check off the website stz s at Fari Park dark org and they're called Wildlife Awareness Days, right so, and this one is going to be for World Castwory Day, so super stoked and again it's right here Castuary Deck.

00:27:00
Speaker 1: Talk about Australia is where you want to go?

00:27:02
Speaker 5: Right Anna, definitely thanks well.

00:27:04
Speaker 3: Before we go though, we always like to ask our guests a little special question and you can get as personal or as vague as you'd like. But we do understand that a lot of our audience are up and common conservationists and wildlifecare specialist and veterinarians of all ages, and we like to get the story of our guests how they got to where they are, so maybe our audience can start to focus on things to get them if they want to eventually be trained by you to take over like Marco trained you so how do you get your.

00:27:30
Speaker 2: Start as a wildlfcare specialist for Castworris.

00:27:32
Speaker 5: I actually got my start. I do have a degree, and I started a couple of smaller jews that were under the AZA accreditation, and then I had a friend send me a job offer that was listed on AZA for here for doing the overnight condor shit racing, and so I applied for it. Of course, there was like one hundred and some odd people that apply for an overnight position, so I was not I would get it, but they only interviewed seven people and I was one of the ones who got it. So I did that for three years before I got hired on at the Bird Department part time. So I mean, it is a long road, and you know, you just have to gain experience as you go. Working in rescue situations with wildlife is a really good way to like learn and develop your skills so that when you get to the point where you know you're graduating college and you're looking for places, you are much more valuable and the things you already know that they're not going to have to teach us.

00:28:34
Speaker 4: That's really good advice and I love you mentioned the easy A website, The American Associations using aquarium. So a lot of people were interested. So I got that website. There's a lot of cool postings. Obviously we want you to come here. That's also the San Diego Zoo, the Falins. Paige just want to point out under careers. But to your point, you know, you never know what's going to happen. Hundreds of people interviewed seven and you.

00:28:55
Speaker 1: Got it in a banana.

00:28:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was very shocked, but I mean it was all overnight ships. You know, you've got to do the grunt work sometimes to get where you want to be.

00:29:03
Speaker 2: What a great story, Thank you, thank you.

00:29:06
Speaker 5: It was great talking to you.

00:29:08
Speaker 1: A great day you two friends.

00:29:12
Speaker 2: God, that was so much fun. Wreck guy, I love these birds. Can we have to amaze We kept it under two hours? I know.

00:29:19
Speaker 4: Admittedly I went back and I heard our thick built episode and I'm so excited. I was trying to like share the little limelight because these birds, I mean, they get me so amped up because they're so cool and just the fact, you know, we talked about all these different attributes that they have. You and I were earlier talking about just the vocal and itself. How you meat that is right, I mean in a forced habitat, and that kind of reminds me of our next episode.

00:29:39
Speaker 1: We're kind of diving into another jungle.

00:29:43
Speaker 3: Before we jump into the I wanted to go back and reflect a little bit on an interview we just had because we're talking about world cast worried and coming up when the events are happening here at the sorry part before that that'll be happening after this episode comes out, And I started thinking, well, why have a world castwordy day?

00:29:56
Speaker 2: Why is that important?

00:29:57
Speaker 3: And it brings awareness to this really awesome species. Obviously you well you're super excited about them.

00:30:01
Speaker 2: I think they're fascinating. This is I'll get out.

00:30:03
Speaker 3: But one thing Anna had mentioned too was that that seed dispersal, that relationship in the forest, that improvement of forest diversity in general for plants, which then affects insects, bugs, birds, mammals everybody else. It's a great reminder that even if you look at it as you walk by and go out, it's a fascinating animal. It's so cool a dinosaur moving on through. A reminder that every species we may or may not see it on the surface, has such an important role in our wildlife world in the world we rely on for fresh water and resources that it just hits home again how important conservation is in the work that this organization does.

00:30:36
Speaker 2: It we're blessed to work for. So I just want to bring that up.

00:30:38
Speaker 4: No, that's great, but literally you know, but also remind even an animal like a rattle siku. I've learned that this versus allfice. So we're all interconnected, right, so little and so we were focusing like you know, so we have different conservation of them hitting like the Australia forest aies. We talked about New Guinea, but we're gonna travel over to Africa, right.

00:30:59
Speaker 3: We're gonna try to Africa next. And by Africa, I mean probably the San Diego Zoo. When I said that, it's cool because this species also relies on a it's like a subsonic communication because of.

00:31:13
Speaker 2: The forests, like the like the castword, but it's not a bird this time. It's a lot of birds. We're gonna go check out.

00:31:19
Speaker 3: So I invite everybody to please subscribe if you haven't already, or follow us on social media whatever it might be, and be sure to tune in next time when we go talk to another Wildlifecare specialist about another species that's not a bird, that has a very awesome low sound that we can't even hear.

00:31:35
Speaker 2: In fact, the predators they live amongst can't even hear it either.

00:31:38
Speaker 1: I'm super Sike. I can't wait for it. Well, I'm Marcott and I'm Rich Schwartz.

00:31:45
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and for watching.

00:31:51
Speaker 3: For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to s d zw a dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producers are Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our sound designers are Sierra Spreen and Matt Russell. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.