Save the Cassowary from Extinction in Australia

Rescuing and Protecting Cassowary Habitat Forever…and more 

This last year has been full of forward movement at RR and full of great conservation outcomes. Knowing that our efforts to rescue and restore habitat that Cassowaries depend on directly is a wonderful motivator. Knowing that this has farther reaching benefits makes it all the more special.

From a straight out wonderful outcome, we were able to secure Lot 46 as a Nature Refuge with a new name that was gifted by the First Nation Traditional Owners of the region - the Eastern Kuku Yalanji. They have renamed this 27 Hectare retored rainforest property Kurranji Bubu - Cassowary Land. And it is. You can see signs of cassowaries there easily from scat to scratchings...and sometimes sightings. We're not there very often but we will be camera trapping hopefully in the new year.

And then we rescued a lot of rainforest this year.

We told you about Lot 18 Cape Kimberley Rd and what a tremendous rescue that was – an intact rainforest primeval the likes of which one rarely sees outside of the National Park / World Heritage Area.

That was just shy of 9 hectares of intact Cassowary-supporting habitat.

And then we recently rescued Lot 36 Cape Tribulation Rd – adding another hectare of priceless habitat to the Cape Kimberley Wildlife Corridor – which just keeps on extending the effective protected footprint of the Daintree.

So that’s another hectare of priceless habitat that our mates the Cassowaries look to and depend upon.

And now we are about to rescue almost 7 hectares of Cassowary habitat at Lot 19 Forest Close. What makes this large parcel so wonderful – well, many things – but especially it’s connectivity to the National Park / World Heritage Area. This keystone property will connect the protected Daintree National Park to 5 previous rescues, effectively making that nature refuge a working nature corridor – with direct connectivity.

This is wonderful and I am confident that we’ll be successful in our appeal. I look forward to being able to include Lot 19 Forest Close to our list of protected forever Daintree properties.

Isn’t it amazing that the Daintree was ever subdivided in the first place? For the fact remains that when the Daintree National Park / World Heritage Area was declared in 1988, two-thirds of the lowland Daintree Rainforest was excluded from the listing.

Under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen Government, a developer bought a huge area of forest from local farmers and landholders. He subdivided it into 1,100 lots and put them on the market. Around the same time, the controversial road from Cape Tribulation was pushed through, despite the famous blockade.

Your partnership with Rainforest Rescue is directly addressing that terrible act of exceedingly poor judgement, putting profit over planet.

Together we’re making things right again.

Thank you for helping to protect this priceless habitat that the rare and threatened Southern Cassowary depends upon for its survival – and myriad other creatures! From the Spotted-tail Quoll to the Beautiful Nursery Frog – this is habitat that must be protected forever.

Respect and protect Nature.

Protect Rainforests Forever.

Links:

• Here's an overview of Lot 19 Forest Close - the next rescue

A SUCCESS STORY

This last fiscal year proved a great Rainforest Rescue success. Through the growing support of Rainforest Rescuers like you, we are continuing to increase the positive impact we’re having in the World Heritage Daintree Rainforest.

This is a Rainforest Rescue success story but without you; without your passionate concern for the environment, the belief you have in Rainforest Rescue to make a difference in the world and your support … none of this would be possible.

Through our buy-back efforts we:

• rescued Lot 24 Cape Tribulation Road in July2020 … a beautiful property, strategically located to increase an established wildlife corridor;
• partnered with Queensland Trust for Nature, which saw us rescue 929 acres in the Daintree and;
• were able to rescue and protect forever the magnificent Lot 18 Cape Kimberley Road.

And, through our restoration efforts we:

• had a special community tree planting in September 2020 at NightWings where 3,012 trees were planted( a huge achievement considering the global difficulties we’ve all had to face as a result of the pandemic);
• successfully organised a community tree planting in May 2021, with 120 Rainforest Rescuers coming from near and far to put 3,500 trees in the ground, and;
• after over a decade of dedicated restoration, Kurranji Bubu – the land formerly known as Lot 46 – achieved Nature Refuge status.

GROWING A RAINFOREST

The current Rainforest Rescue Nursery provides around 11,000 trees a year for planting. These trees go towards all our restoration efforts, and that restoration works. The nursery grows many different species that are food sources for the Cassowary, including:

• Syzygium graveolens
• Cananga odorata
• Ficus spp.
• Cryptocarya oblata
• Elaeocarpus grandis
• Nauclea orientalis
• Beilschmiedia tooram
• Endiandra compressa
• Prunus turneriana
• Neolitsea dealbata
• Syzygium tierneyanum
• Terminalia sericocarpa
• Litsea leefeana
• Syzygium cormiflorum
• Cerbera floribunda
• Chionanthus ramiflorus
• Cryptocarya triplinervis

The treatment of Cassowary plums at our nursery, for example, is to basically mimic what the cassowary’s enzymes do to the fruit in their own belly—cleaning the endocarp (woody part around the seed) from the fleshy part—our Nursery Manager, Marine Deliens, soaks the seeds for up to 2 weeks, to soften the flesh. After which she peels off the flesh. These are then propagated in large trays and, as soon as they germinate, are transplanted. They have a very big tap root, in order to avoid any damage to these roots they must be potted up quickly. Up to 3 seedlings can come up from only 1 seed … if this is the case, they are gently separated and potted individually. They usually take 3-5 months to germinate and are fast growing.

In Queensland’s rainforests, Southern Cassowaries are the only native animal capable of dispersing the seeds of large-fruited plants and trees over long distances (distributing close to 240 different species). Without Cassowaries, these plants and trees would only occur in concentrated pockets around parent trees or in places where dispersal by gravity can occur, such as gullies or the bottom of slopes.

Through restoration and the creation of Wildlife Corridors, we are helping the Cassowary in its own reforestation efforts, and encouraging the Cassowary to return, thus ensuring their survival and the survival of other threatened rainforest species such as the Musky Rat-kangaroos and Spectacled Fruit Bats.

Without your support, none of this would be possible. Thank You.