In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic we’re speaking to Dr Graham Lauridsen, who gets up close and extremely personal with the southern cassowary – a giant, flightless bird that’s endemic to the Australian tropical rainforest.

Known for being super aggressive and towering at 180cm tall, cassowaries are in the ratite family of birds – so they date back all the way to the Cretaceous period of 60 million years ago (yep, they’re pretty much living dinosaurs – and have the massive talons to match). But what’s it like to live alongside these dangerous but endearing birds – and to rescue them when they run into trouble? Dr Graham shares the stories of some of his most memorable rescues and introduces us to one of his wild favourites, a bald cassowary called Reggie.

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