Australian Animal Facts: Cassowary- The Dinosaur Bird

What is a Cassowary?

The Cassowary is a large flightless bird found in the rainforests of Australia and New Guinea.  The Australian cassowary is known as the Southern Cassowary or Double Wattled Cassowary. This is to distinguish it from other types found in Papua New Guinea.

A fully grown Cassowary can weigh as much as 60kgs (130lbs) and grown up to 2 meters in height ( 6.5 feet).

While usually shy, it will attack with a deadly kick if provoked.

This bird is endangered, with only about 1500 still remaining in the wild.

Related Article: What is a Cassowary? 

Waltzing Matilda Australia's Favorite Song

Waltzing Matilda

Australia's Favourite Song

Waltzing Matilda is Australia's favourite song.  It is quite likely that more Australians know the words to this song than the national anthem. There is probably no other song that is more easily recognised by people young or old, native born or a newly arrived immigrant.


We have updated our Waltzing Matilda page on Trishan's Oz. This page was originally written in 1997 by Trishan, an eleven year old Australian child and his dad. Over the ensuring years this page continued to rate in the top 10 sites in Google’s raking on the subject. We have now given the page a long overdue face-lift with new video clips (which didn't exist at the time the page was originally written) and lots of additional content. We have, however, decided to maintain some of the “look and feel “ of the original website. So you will still see Trishan’s artwork and explanation of the song as it appeared on the original website. We hope you find our site informative and fun.

We believe this page is now the most comprehensive , easy to understand page about Waltzing Matilda. It also contains the most extensive information about Christina Macpherson who history has overlooked as the person who wrote the music for this Australian icon. Come check it out for yourself. 

Are Black Swans Gay?

While researching our webpage on Black Swans we came across an interesting fact.

Up to one thirds of all black swans are homosexual and nearly a quarter of all black swan couples are same-sex couples.  Usually it is two males getting together. These males sometimes steal a nest from a heterosexual couple and raise the young as their own or one male copulates with a female and once she has laid her eggs they chase her away and raise the chicks themselves.

Scientists believe there is a biological advantage in this behaviour as it appear that there is a higher survival rate amongst cygnets (chicks) raised by male-male couples than by male-female pairs. This may be due to the fact that there is an additional male to protect them and that having chosen to be parents they are more caring than natural heterosexual pairs.

Note: Homosexual behaviour amongst animals has been observed in over 1500 species. Besides black swans, these include the giraffes, vultures, bears, dolphins, etc.

You can learn more about these interesting birds at Black Swans 


photo "Black Swan at Martin Mere" by © Francis C. Franklin 

How does A Kangaroo Hop?

What is a Kangaroo?

Do Red Bellied Black Snakes Attack Humans?

Red Belly Black Snake

The Red Bellied Black Snake a poisonous snake found in Australia. The average adult snake is about 1.5 - 2m long. It is s shy creature which would rather avoid humans than confront them. When threatened it will try to bluff its way out by puffing itself up to look bigger and hissing loudly. It still threatened, it will attack in self-defence. There is no record of any human dying from the bite of a Red Bellied Black Snake.

Relax you are more likely to die falling off a horse than be attacked by a Red Bellied Black Snake.

For more information about this interesting Australian snake, including ad video of a Red Bellied Black Snake attack  visit our Red Bellied Black Snake website.

Photo by Matt from Melbourne, Australia [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What is a Red Bellied Black Snake?

Red Belly Black Snake

The Red Bellied Black Snake is a poisonous snake found in Australia. It lives on warm moist environments predominantly along the eastern coast of Australia. It eats frogs, fish, lizards and other reptiles. 

While a poisonous snake, it rarely attacks humans. There has been no recorded death as a result of a bite from the Red Belly Black Snake. 

For more information about this interesting Australian snake visit our Red Bellied Black Snake website.

Photo by Matt from Melbourne, Australia [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons