Elected representatives in government are in charge of the policy and funding that can make or break saving threatened species. Their decisions and actions matter.

Herbert has or used to have 26 threatened animals within its boundaries. One of them is me, the Southern Cassowary.

We took care to attach appropriate images that are as close to representative of each species as our resources and the availability of images allowed. However, we could not ensure perfect accuracy in every case. Some images show species that share the same genus but not at the species or subspecies level.

Southern Cassowary

Casuarius casuarius johnsonii

Status: Endangered

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) lists threatened species under six categories:
Extinct, Extinct in the wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Conservation dependent. Read more about these categories

Casuarius casuarius johnsonii is found across 3 electorates.

The southern cassowary is a flightless bird and the largest native animal in Australian rainforests. Adults have a tall helmet on their head which may help them to sense low vibrating sounds made by other cassowaries and also acts like a bike helmet to protect their head when they are running through the jungle. Cassowaries are very territorial and mostly solitary. Cassowaries eat fleshy fruits of over 200 species of plants, dispersing seeds long distances in the process. This makes them a keystone species in the World Heritage listed rainforests of tropical Queensland.¹

Explore more about this species on the Atlas of Living Australia

Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation