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Northeast Queensland, Australia, Home of some of the Earth's weirdest but also the most wonderful creatures.
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Tree Kangaroos leap through the canopy, koalas munch on toxic eucalyptus leaves, and just offshore lurk wobbegong sharks that look more like shaggy rugs than apex predators.
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Getting peaks of the ocean here, that that's the Pacific Ocean out there, the Coral Sea, the Great Barrier reefs just off the coast here.
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So it's a beautiful spot where you've got World Heritage rainforest meeting World Heritage Great Barrier reefs.
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Within this rainforest stalks what's been called the world's most dangerous bird, the southern cassowary.
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Weird by name and weird by nature, the biggest bird in Australia, twice as heavy as the iconic emu, with monster feet like velociraptors, a bright blue head and neck, red dangly waddles and built in Bony crash helmets on their heads.
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On top of all that, they lay bright green eggs and unlike most birds, the males take charge of raising the chicks.
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With fewer than 5000 left, southern cassowaries are endangered in Australia.
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We're on our way to Mission Beach, one of the few places you can see one in the wild with veterinarian Doctor Graham Lauritsen.
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Graham, what is it about this area that makes the cassowaries come out to the beach?
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It is National Park, so they happily will, will live in the Bush and then come down to the beach for food, crabs, any little fish that might sort of wash ashore and that sort of thing.
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Cassowaries most common threats are car accidents and dog attacks.
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When one is injured, Graham and his team are called in, but it takes special gear to capture and care for such volatile patients.
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So guys, this is their response vehicle.
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The department uses it for both rescuing and and releasing birds.
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So yeah, it's temperature control, it's air conditioned.
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Graham, that is a very sturdy looking box.
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Well, it needs to be.
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Calories can sometimes get a bit agitated in there, so it needs to be solid.
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Injured cassowaries are brought to the nearby Garners Beach Cassowary Rehabilitation Facility, where recovering birds and orphan chicks left behind by vehicle strikes are given a second chance.
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Unlike the brightly colored adults, cassowary chicks have brown and tan camouflage to blend in with the forest floor.
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We've got 2 chicks in here today.
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This is a rehab centre where we've had lots of cassowaries over the years.
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The two in today, we're keeping literally until they're, they're big enough and old enough to be able to fend for themselves back in the rainforest, which will probably be in about 3 or 4 months time.
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They'll be, they'll go, go home.
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These are wild cassowaries.
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Yeah, they are wild, but they're young and they're relatively small.
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Cassowaries have a reputation for being dangerous.
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And it's real.
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It's true.
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We don't feed them by hand, we don't try to pat them, We don't do any interactions.
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We head in alongside A handler carrying a safety shield just in case one of the birds decides to charge these guys.
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As I said, they're quite, quite wild, but.
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But we don't really have anything to be concerned about.
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But we'll just keep our eye on them.
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They.
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Yeah.
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So you can see the two of them up there.
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They're they're a good size.
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Oh, yeah.
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It's so funny 'cause you said, oh, they're small.
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How old is this?
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So these guys are probably about 8 months old now.
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At what point will we see those bright red waddles and the black feathers?
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They're fully grown at full coloration at about 3 or 4 years of age.
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If you were to describe one to someone who's never seen it, how would you describe it and why Is it just like a velociraptor?
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The phrase is is it's the world's most dangerous bird.
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And there's some validity to that there.
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There has been fatalities.
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They have the weapons to do damage.
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The inside toe in a in a big adult bird will have a 15 to 20 centimeter dagger.
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It's sharp, it's pointed, and that is their weapon.
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But the cassowary's greatest power isn't its kick, it's the way it keeps the rainforest growing by swallowing fruits that no other creature can handle.
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Cassowaries are the only way the seeds of some of the rainforests biggest trees get dispersed.
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They called the Gardener of the Rainforest because they literally, yeah, keep things growing, keep things moving.
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For Graham and the team at Gardner's Beach, the work doesn't end when a bird is healed.
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They're fighting a constant battle of advocacy, education and science to ensure that the Gardener of the Rainforest has a forest left to garden in the last 15 to 20 years.
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Conservation is more important to everyone who lives in North Queensland.
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Everyone knows what a cassery is, how important it is.
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I think the public awareness is great.
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And because of that, this prehistoric, weird and wonderful bird will always have a place right here in Queensland.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Just a few miles from the rehabilitation facility, we spotted proof of Graham's success.
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A weird and wonderful wild cassowary strutted regally on the public beach.
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She's not too bothered by the fact there's a few people around watching her.
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She's moving pretty slowly, kind of cautiously.
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Looks like she's.
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Yeah.
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She'll get another shake there.
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Yeah.
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So that she's.
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I'm just feeling comfortable.
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Graham, would you imagine that before there were humans on beaches like this, that there were cassowaries roaming these spaces?
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Absolutely.
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Because their food is right there.
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Yeah.
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Their water's right there.
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So it's great.
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If they're getting chased by wild dogs, they'll go out there to get away from them.
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And, you know, forgive us for saying this, but we think they're kind of weird.
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But in the most wonderful way, absolutely.
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I think I agree.
