By Owen Xu Li
A 75-year-old man named Marvin Hajos was taken to the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital after his pet Cassowary attacked and wounded him gravely. Marvin Hajos lived in the north of Gainesville, a rural part of Alachua County, where he kept his own Cassowary in an enclosure.
Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor told the Gainesville Sun that Marvin fell into the Cassowary’s enclosure, and then the attack came. The CNN reported that surprisingly, the first emergency call was made by Marvin himself and the second one was made by another person on the property.
Cassowaries are large flightless birds that are native to tropical rainforests of Australia, New Guinea and several archipelago islands on Indonesia. They are very solitary animals. Therefore, they do not do well when kept in captivity as their aggressiveness makes it hard to socialize with other animals.
Cassowaries are very good athletes as they can swim very well, run as fast as a horse and jump over 7 feet. They depend much on their feet, especially for self-defense. Each foot is extremely powerful and comes with a claw that can measure over 5 inches long, making it very easy to tear off the flesh of their opponent.
Although Cassowaries are extremely dangerous birds, humans are a greater danger to these birds than these birds are to people. Cassowaries are classified as endangered, with only 1000 individuals still living in the wild.
One of Marvin’s partners stated that “he died doing what he loved.” The Cassowary that was responsible for Marvin’s death remains on the property, said the police.
A 75-year-old man named Marvin Hajos was taken to the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital after his pet Cassowary attacked and wounded him gravely. Marvin Hajos lived in the north of Gainesville, a rural part of Alachua County, where he kept his own Cassowary in an enclosure.
Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor told the Gainesville Sun that Marvin fell to the Cassowary’s enclosure, and then the attack came. The CNN reported that the first emergency call was made surprisingly by Marvin and the second one was made by another person on the property.
Cassowaries are large flightless birds that are native to tropical rainforests of Australia, New Guinea and several archipelago islands on Indonesia. They are very solitary animals. Therefore, they do not do well when kept in captivity as their aggressiveness makes it hard to socialize with other animals.
Cassowaries are very good athletes as they can swim very well, run as fast as a horse and jump over 7 feet. They depend much on their feet, especially for self-defense. Each foot is extremely powerful and comes with a claw that can measure over 5 inches long, making it very easy to tear off the flesh of their opponent.
Although Cassowaries are extremely dangerous birds, humans are a greater danger to these birds than these birds are to people. Cassowaries are classified as endangered, with only 1000 individuals still living in the wild.
One of Marvin’s partners stated that “he died doing what he loved.” The Cassowary was responsible for Marvin’s death remains on the property, said the police.
Sources:
Photo of a Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius). Via Pixabay (https://pixabay.com)
