To further submerge Jonathan in the wilds of Far North Queensland, I took him to Harvey's Creek Wildlife Park. The park focuses mainly on crocodiles, it even has a crocodile farm on premises... which I guess keeps the unruly crocs in line. 
But the elderly yet chipper receptionist told us to go straight to the cassowary feeding, so we headed down a swampy boardwalk to the enclosure. Now three years ago Bob and I were unknowingly charged by one of these massive birds during a night hike in the rainforest - I know, it was a dumb idea. But the fact that the park let people feed these animals had me slightly concerned.
You see, the cassowary is a large bird about the size of an ostrich, but more solid and more deadly. They have very thick and powerful legs that conveniently contain three razor sharp claws. When threatened or protecting young, cassowaries have been known to jump in the air and gut people from neck to groin - not a fun way to end a day in the woods. On top of that, their bright blue heads are topped with a horny helmet and instead of normal wings they have creepy needle like fingers. They are a very visually intimidating bird, but in a strange way beautiful...like a freaky Picasso painting.
Unfortunately in the wild, cassowaries are very endangered, which is a shame. I am quite fond of them, because when I worked at the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, the resident cassowaries would follow me around (with a fence separating us of course).
Anyway, Jonathan and I got to the enclosure at feeding time where the keeper actually encouraged us to feed the birds. I thought this wasn't a wise idea, but as usual my twin egged me on and so I fed a female a piece of fruit, and somehow still have all my fingers.
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