This is the world’s deadliest bird that looks “like an intimidating cross between a velociraptor, an emu, and a giant turkey”

Northeast Australia and New Guinea are home to a curious and formidable creature that looks like it stepped straight out of Jurassic Park, the cassowary. Beverley McWilliams, who wrote a children’s book about the birds, ‘Cassowary Dad’, describe them to National Geographic this way: “These birds look like an intimidating cross between a velociraptor, an emu, and a giant turkey.”

These giant birds can trace their ancestry back to the theropod, or “beast-footed”, dinosaurs, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex. Like those extinct species, the three species of cassowary walk on two feet and are flightless.

However, they are not carnivores but instead frugivores, feeding mostly on fruit, and are a key-stone species of the rainforests that they roam. But that hasn’t stopped the cassowary from earning the title of the world’s deadliest bird.

The “murder turkey”

The ominous designation is a bit of a misnomer as cassowaries have only been recorded as killing two people since 1926. That said, there have been at least 150 attacks by southern cassowaries on humans in Queensland, Australia. Of those, three quarters involved people feeding them, while the others involved the birds protecting chicks and eggs.

Part of the reason these birds are so feared is their size. Southern cassowaries can weigh around 175 pounds, making them Australia’s heaviest bird, and they can grow to over six-and-a-half feet tall. They also have powerful legs which allow them to reach speeds of over 31 mph and jump over five feet into the air.

While their beak and the bony crest on top of their head may be intimidating, what makes them truly dangerous are their claws. The inner of the three can measure nearly five inches and is shaped like a curved knife.

As Dr. Ann Jones, an Australian environmental journalist and self-described “nature nerd”, explains, when they attack, “they have the capacity to jump and actually kick downwards and tear with both feet at once... that could be fatal.”

In the case of humans, the claws of the “murder turkey” could easily eviscerate the abdomen or severe an arm.

Dr. Jones said about cassowaries: “I can’t help but be impressed by these formidable birds, but also you would be excused if you crapped your decks if you came across one in the forest.”

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