How often would a giant and flightless bird walk into your living room? That's the problem that confronted Australian couple Sue and Peter Leach on April 11 when a curious cassowary, the world's most dangerous bird, entered their home.
A cassowary named Peanut has flabbergasted the Queensland family by entering into their home as they were preparing for dinner. At the sight of the dangerous bird, the couple was forced to hide behind the dinner table.
"We leave all the doors open when we're at home and I guess he was curious, but I hot-footed it out of the house and hid in the garage because although we know him he is still a wild animal," said Sue Leach.
Though the family has spotted the bird as it passes through their backyard each day to eat berries, on that day, it might have felt a little more adventurous and made a slight detour.
Peter Leach snapped some photos of the giant bird, which is estimated to be about 3 years old.
The family's anxiety lowered as Peanut's stay was only brief. It walked away after a few minutes and there was no damage done inside the house.
The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection has warned people to only admire cassowaries from a distance. These beautiful birds are considered engendered but can be very unpredictable and potentially dangerous.
This dinosaur bird of the Australian rainforests is the second largest bird in the world, next to ostrich. Though it's shy and solitary, it could attack with a swift karate kick with its powerful legs and dagger-like claws when threatened.
There are only about 1,200 of these birds left in the wild and they could face extinction.
The Guinness Book of Records awarded the title of world's most dangerous bird to cassowary, but this tile was based on the potential of the bird to induce fatal injuries. There had been no reports of anyone killed by the bird since 1921, when a certain Philip McLean, acquired a punctured throat caused by a cassowary.
Photo: Raphaël Quinet | Flickr
