AssetID: 54898623
Headline: UNCAPTIONED: World's Most Dangerous Bird Has Secret Inaudible Love Call
Caption: World's Most Dangerous Bird Has Secret Inaudible Love Call. Scientists have discovered that the world’s most dangerous bird can call to its mate at frequencies humans can’t hear. In their native Australia cassowaries have built up a fearsome reputation owing to the serious injuries they can inflict with their powerful kicks and dagger-like claws. Now keepers at Chester Zoo have discovered the dinosaur-like flightless birds can talk to each other in ways that are inaudible to the human ear. Team manager of parrots and penguins at the zoo, Zoë Sweetman explained noticed a female cassowary behaving unusually. Zoë and her colleagues wondered whether the cassowary’s poses might accompany a call that the keepers could not hear, so they installed sound recorders. Sure enough, the huge bird – whose ancestors have walked the earth for millions of years - was making a deep boom. For now, the recordings and data are being kept top secret as they will be the centre of a forthcoming scientific paper. These findings may improve our understanding of cassowary behaviour and aid their conservation. Existing cassowary subspecies, including the southern cassowaries living at Chester Zoo, face intense environmental pressures in Papua New Guinea, where land is being cleared for farming.
Keywords: Natural World,dangerous,bird,birds,secret,Inaudible,love call,scientists,mate,frequencies,Australia,cassowaries,fearsome,reputation,injuries,kicks,dagger-like,claws,Chester Zoo,parrots,penguins,sound recorder,habitat,cassowary,environment,Papua Nuova Guinea
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