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    <title>The Canopy News</title>
    <link>http://www.tablelandsinfo.com//tablelands-accommodation/Holiday Houses/858/news</link>
    <description>Latest tourism news for Tablelands and surrounding areas direct from the industry.</description>
    <copyright>Copyright 2008 Travstar.com Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.</copyright>    
    <item>
        <title>Baby Cassowary Saved!</title>
        <link>http://www.tablelandsinfo.com//tablelands-accommodation/Holiday Houses/858/news#2973</link>
        <description><![CDATA[
        One of our cassowary chicks who arrived in June has had a rough start to life! &amp;nbsp;We came across it one morning in the forest, trying to walk on a broken leg - an injury that would normally prove fatal.&amp;nbsp;But with the help of our local vet, neighbours and the community, its leg and life were saved...As you know this year Tui came back with 2 chicks however after a few weeks he was only seen with one and we assumed he had lost one as can happen. About a week later the missing chick was spotted near one of our Treehouses with an severe compound fracture to its leg. Basically the foot was hanging loose and the poor chick was limping around on the bone in extreme pain as you can imagine.We managed to capture the chick, (somehow keeping his very distressed and agitated dad at bay during the procedure), and it was immediately taken to the local wildlife vet Wendy. Wendy put in an amazing effort, (a 6 hour operation initially with subsequent back-up operations), including some very advanced orthopaedic surgery to try and save the leg and also donated dozens of hours of her time, her surgery, and all the extremely expensive surgical pins and equipment at no charge. EPA were informed, and gave their consent for this to take place; (caring and dealing with endangered native species is a very sensitive and highly regulated issue, however no beaurocracy at all for this one just cooperation), and were kept up to speed at all times.At this stage the chick is doing very well and it is expected to be taken to the cassowary rehab unit at Mission Beach once it is fully recovered in preparation for release back into the wild.In summary this was a very well organised and successful effort by a number of people and govt agencies to save a very distressed young bird and an outstanding example of cooperation and commitment by all concerned to save one of our endangered animals.
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        <pubDate>Monday, October 05 2009</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title>Baby Cassowaries</title>
        <link>http://www.tablelandsinfo.com//tablelands-accommodation/Holiday Houses/858/news#2563</link>
        <description><![CDATA[
        Baby cassowaries at The Canopy Tui returns with two new chicks!&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Tui the cassowary has returned to The Canopy with two baby chicks. Tui calls our rainforest home, and his annual return is always a very special occasion for us.&amp;nbsp;The two new chicks help make up a population of less than 1,500 cassowaries believed to exist in the wild. &amp;nbsp;The cassowary is a very special bird essential to the biodiversity of the Wet Tropics rainforest, so we are very proud of Tui's efforts to maintain their population. Tui has been a regular visitor at The Canopy since February 1991. He wandered in as a sub-adult, (probably about 18 months old and brown in colour) and has made this rainforest his primary home ever since. Although he goes walk-about for a few months during the mating season from May to December, he always returns here to bring up his chicks.Male Cassowaries raise the young with the female leaving as soon as the eggs are laid. The males will sit on the eggs for 50 days and will then care for the chicks for around 10 months.It is believed Tui heads to the Wooroonoonan National Park region to find his mate and nest, and will walk the newly hatched chicks back to our rainforest as soon as they are strong enough.Cassowaries have a reputation of being very dangerous and aggressive. Their principle weapon is their large clawed feet that they use in a sideways kicking motion, (it is widely rumoured that Steven Spielberg modelled the Raptors claws in Jurassic Park on Cassowary feet), however Cassowaries very rarely attack unprovoked. Tui has never attacked anyone here.Cassowaries eat fruit, reptiles and small mammals - in fact anything they can find, except red coloured fruit which is often poisonous. They are flightless ground dwellers with males averaging 50 kilos and females 60 kilos. (One female in a wildlife park weighed 80 kilos!). Cassowaries are a keystone species of forests because they eat fallen fruit whole and distribute seeds across the jungle floor via their droppings with a number of rainforest trees dependant on Cassowaries for propagation.

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        ]]></description>
        <pubDate>Tuesday, June 16 2009</pubDate>
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