• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic source(s)
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2018	Least Concern
2017	Least Concern
2016	Vulnerable	A2cde
2012	Vulnerable	A2cde
2008	Vulnerable	A2c,d,e; A3c,d,e; A4c,d,e
2004	Vulnerable
2000	Vulnerable
1996	Vulnerable
1994	Vulnerable
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type	shelf island Australia	Average mass	44,000 g

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	1,980,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	20000-49999 mature individuals	poor	suspected	2016
Population trend	decreasing	poor	suspected	1978-2008
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-10%	-	-	-
Generation length	12.5 years	-	-	-

Population justification:

Westcott et al. (2014) estimated the Australian population to number 4,000 individuals, with densities varying from 0.04-1.8 birds per km² in rainforest. Population densities are much higher in most of its New Guinea range away from the limited centres of population. In the one quantitative study of cassowary populations in New Guinea, there were 14 (9–21) of the allopatric Northern Cassowary C. unappendiculatus per km² in primary forest, 10 (5-17) in >30 year old secondary forest, 4 per km² (2-8.5) in recently logged (< 3 years) forest and 1.4 (0.4–5.6) birds per km² in forest gardens (Pangau-Adam et al. 2015). C. casuarius is widespread across its New Guinea range which is about 15 times the size of its range Australia. The total population is precautionarily placed in the band 20,000-49,000 mature individuals but is likely to be higher (G. Dutson in litt. 2016).

Trend justification: The species suffered a rapid decline in Australia until its habitat was largely protected by World Heritage listing in 1988 (Garnett et al. 2011). Numbers in Australia have been almost stable since 1988 (Garnett et al. 2011, Westcott et al. 2014). In New Guinea, it is widespread but less common in logged forest (I. Woxvold pers. comm. per G. Dutson in litt. 2016). In the one quantitative study of the allopatric Northern Cassowary C. unappendiculatus, there were 14 (9–21) per km² in primary forest, 10 (5-17) in >30 year old secondary forest and 4 per km² (2-8.5) in recently logged (< 3 years) forest (Pangau-Adam et al. 2015). In the species's core range of Gulf and Western Provinces, Papua New Guinea, 4% of rainforest was logged and 1.4% deforested between 2002-2014 (Bryan and Shearman 2015), suggesting a decline of 1-10% over three generations (37 years). There are low human populations in most logged areas and therefore logging roads facilitate only insignificant increases in hunting rates, at least in Papua New Guinea (I. Woxvold pers. comm. per G. Dutson in litt. 2016). A recent surge in hunting to sell as traditional bride price gifts in Papua New Guinea is a concern but probably only affects a small number of individuals. In Australia, cassowary mortality due to traffic strike was significantly increased after cyclonic events, however, this did not result in significant declines in the population when examined over a 20 year period (Dwyer et al. 2016).

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Australia	extant	native	yes
Indonesia	extant	native	yes
Papua New Guinea	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Australia	Coastal Wet Tropics
Australia	Daintree
Australia	Iron and McIlwraith Ranges
Australia	Paluma
Australia	Wooroonooran
Indonesia	Pulau Kobroor

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Swamp	suitable	resident
Savanna	Dry	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 1400 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Species mortality
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Persecution/control	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Species mortality
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Unintentional effects (species is not the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species disturbance, Ecosystem degradation
Climate change & severe weather	Storms & flooding	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Likely to Return		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Reduced reproductive success
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Canis familiaris	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Likely to Return		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Species mortality
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Problematic native species/diseases - Mycobacterium tuberculosis	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Species mortality
Natural system modifications	Fire & fire suppression - Trend Unknown/Unrecorded	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Likely to Return		Minority (<50%)		Rapid Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation
Residential & commercial development	Commercial & industrial areas	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Residential & commercial development	Tourism & recreation areas	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species disturbance, Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Transportation & service corridors	Roads & railroads	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Species mortality

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	subsistence, national
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuarius. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/southern-cassowary-casuarius-casuarius on 15/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 15/12/2024.