First eggs in 34 years: Adelaide's cassowaries finally become parents-to-be

Southern cassowaries are magnificent, solitary and famously grumpy — which makes breeding them in captivity a keeper's nightmare. So when Adelaide Zoo's female laid two large, bright-green eggs — the first cassowary eggs at the zoo in 34 years — keepers had reason to celebrate. Nobody yet knows whether the eggs will hatch, but simply getting this shy, feisty flightless bird to breed is a major win. In the wild, cassowaries are the rainforest's gardeners, spreading the seeds of Queensland's Wet Tropics in their droppings — every chick matters.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program