Tourists scramble to see cassowary eggs
Three dark-green cassowary eggs, which glisten beautifully in the sunlight, have become a popular attraction at Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo.
The zoo's director Wing Commander Krawee Kreethaphon yesterday said the eggs, which weighed about 700 grams each, had been laid on April 16 and the male bird was now incubating them."We expect chicks from them on June 15," he said. Cassowaries are very large flightless birds native to the tropical forests of Australia and nearby islands. Standing about 1 metre high and weighing about 85 kilograms, the cassowary can run at up to 45 kilometres per hour. "They eat mainly fruit, but sometimes other plant matter and insects," Krawee said. He said that from its original pair the Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo had bred 13 cassowaries, of which three had died and two had been sent to a zoo in Israel under an animal-exchange programme. "We also gave two young ones to Khao Khiew Open Zoo, so we now have six young birds and the original pair," Krawee said. The Nation Nakhon Ratchasima
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