Diet of the Dwarf Cassowary Casuarius bennetti picticollis at Wau, Papua New Guinea

TK Pratt

Abstract

This paper describes the diet of the Dwarf Cassowary in a lower montane forest at Wau in Papua New Guinea. The forty-three droppings examined contained mostly fruit, of at least thirty-four species. Dwarf Cassowaries eat relatively large fruit, a diet more similar to flying foxes than to other birds. Droppings contained an average of 3.6 species of fruits indicating that Dwarf Cassowaries exploit a variety of food trees at any one time.

Emu 82(5) 283 - 285 (1982) doi:10.1071/MU9820283s