Just one thousand left. Julie Olsen gives the low down. Life on the ground used to have its benefits. It was all about finding a nice territory of you own, raising a chick or two and foraging for brightly-coloured fruits on the forest floor. Flightlessness just wasn’t an issue.

Thousands of years passed and during this time, many generations of seedlings sprouted from the fruits you and your kind had eaten and unwittingly spread throughout your range. Like so many other creatures around you, you became inextricably linked to the rainforest – and it to you.

These days, when scientists talk about the rapid decline of the Cassowary, Australia’s largest flightless bird, they’re also concerned about the unraveling of the ecological relationships that hold a rainforest together.

“We cannot afford to lose the Cassowary,” says biologist Tim Low. “Many rainforest trees in the Daintree depend upon this big bird to spread their seeds. The trees in question produce massive seeds full of starch to help their seedlings grow in the dim rainforest understorey where sunlight rarely falls.”

“The trees are doomed without the Cassowary because it is the only animal large enough to swallow the big fruits they produce and thereby spread their seeds,” Low says.

But despite grave warnings from scientists and conservationists, the Cassowary’s numbers continue to plummet. Already, experts fear that as few as one thousand are now left in the whole of Australia. That’s simply nowhere near enough. The lowland Daintree rainforests are one of the last bastions for this great bird but even here, threats from cars, dogs and land clearing are pushing the local population to the brink of collapse.

Originating in the rainforests of the supercontinent known as Gondwana, the Cassowary population later divided when its homelands broke apart to form what is now Northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and the eastern island groups of Indonesia. This separation triggered the creation of several new species and subspecies. In Australia, Casuarius casuarius johnsonii is better known as the southern cassowary or double-wattled cassowary.

Today, Australia is home to two geographically-separate populations; one inhabits the Wet Tropics from Mount Halifax and Paluma through to Cooktown, the other is scattered across Cape York Peninsula in the McIlwraith and Iron Ranges, Jardine River area and the Eastern Dunes.

The bird’s inability to fly makes the effects of land clearing and habitat fragmentation all the more devastating. Other Australian ground-dwelling birds, like Mallee Fowls and Ground Parrots, are in a similar boat. Scientists are beginning to argue that by meeting the needs of our more sensitive, ‘charismatic’ species – like the Cassowary – vegetation managers will also raise the survival prospects for so many other Australian animals.

Rainforest Rescue hase embraced the Cassowary as flagship for conservation. With the support or ordinary Australians and nature lovers from around the world, they are steadily buying rainforest that would otherwise be lost to housing. Cassowaries are currently living in these patches of rainforest – they have done so for thousands of years and for a species with so few representatives left, every square metre is going to count. Who knows? If enough habitat is saved, perhaps, one day, life on the ground won’t be so bad after all.

To help save the Cassowary you can make a tax-deductible donation to Rainforest Rescue. Your donation will assist with the purchase of freehold land in the Daintree currently at risk of development. So far nine properties have been purchased and placed in a declared Nature Refuge.

To make a donation or for more information visit www.rainforestrescue.org.au phone 1300 763 611 or write to Rainforest Rescue: PO Box 1511 Toowong, Queensland 4066.

Big bird facts

Did you know that Cassowaries …

• are Australia’s largest land-based animal and largest bird

• can weigh up to 90kg – red kangaroos weigh in at just 60kg

• are an endangered species

• eat the fruit of more than 100 rainforest plants, swallowing them whole

• digest only the soft flesh of fruits, dispersing seeds throughout the forest

• have reversed gender roles – males incubate the eggs & raise the chicks

• were far more common before Europeans settled & began clearing the rainforests

• are now a rare sight on the Atherton Tablelands

• are seriously threatened by habitat clearing & fragmentation, cars, dogs & hand feeding

• depend on the Daintree for their survival