This was part of series called “Raw Nature” made by Original Productions (USA). The trip was put together by Active TV based in Australia, for ultimately showing on the Discovery Channel. At the request of Original Productions I had put together a programme of different habitats and wildlife in North Queensland they could film over several weeks. They eventually chose to focus on Cassowaries. Their method was a small crew, finding and following wildlife, all with an adventurous aspect. There was Mat the host, as well as a main cameraman and sound man, and another camera to take film the action as the crew got themselves into various adventures.

The Raw Nature crew had been traveling around tropical Asia and Australia for a few months trying to film many different subjects over a large area. We only had a few days to find some cassowaries and film them in their native habitat, including some behaviours. The crew followed me as I headed out to track the resident cassowaries around Cassowary House, Kuranda. My aim was to get photographs of the cassowaries with chicks in a natural setting, for inclusion in a field guide to the Tropical Rainforest being published next year. Cassowary House is a specialized birding lodge, with very high success rates for cassowary spotting. I was planning to follow the cassowaries into the jungle around the property, and I suggested putting out flagging tape; this would enable us to find our way back, and also get an idea of their tracks and range over a few hours every day. Various individual cassowaries have been visiting the gardens for decades. Most exciting at the moment was a father and his three chicks. The chicks had been tiny when I first visited a month or so previous, and now they were about a foot and half tall, but still very much dependant on their dad. Our strategy was to sit and wait at the property until the cassowaries turned up around the gardens, and then follow them as they stalked through the jungle. The first day we lost them almost straight away. The second day they showed up before breakfast and I raced out, with a cameraman, to follow them. The tape I laid out enabled the rest of the crew to catch up. We had to rip through the thorn covered wait-a-while, trip over logs, crawl under tree roots, slip through mud, cross creeks, and with the approach of two cyclones, it was raining on and off constantly. Unfortunately, to maintain consistency for the programme, we all had to wear the same clothes we started in for the first day, for several days! On the second day, it only took an hour or so and the cassowary family were pretty relaxed with us. After a while, they plonked themselves down and I managed to get close and get photographs of father with chicks, while the crew took images of myself explaining to Mat (the host) aspects of the biology and ecology (and the danger… this is TV of course!). They got good close footage and from the flagging tape I laid out, I realized how much the animals stuck to their trails. They seemed to move through the jungle at a relatively slow pace, resting regularly, but along the roads and open tracks they moved a little quicker. While I found all this fascinating, this is a modern day documentary for a younger and impatient audience,  so the film-makers wanted some excitement. On the third day Mat wanted to get closer. I warned them they were very dangerous if approached, especially with chicks, so I backed out as the host Mat suited up in a home made suit of armour (a garbage bin and some sheet metal!) and he snuck up as close as he could. They injected a bit of comedy with some shenanigans with a dummy, but I stayed out of all that!  

Close up with a father cassowary and chicks in the jungle

I also took the crew frogging by night, getting even more wet (we were soaking and stinking already). We caught the local noxious pest, the Cane Toad, and spotted green eyed tree frog, graceful tree frog, striped marsh frog and stoney creek frog.

We went 'frogging' at night

Other critters spotted at the lodge were Victoria’s rifle bird, emerald dove, dusky honeyeater, brown honeyeater, Macleays honeyeater, helmeted friarbirds, sunbird, catbird and many others. The crew filmed a giant Hercules moth, golden orb web spiders and the primitive Musky Rat Kangaroos.

We also got close to the shy Musky Rat Kangaroo

We also headed to Possum Valley in the much higher altitude rainforest near Ravenshoe. We stayed there just for one night and a quick look for some nocturnal wildlife. It was still raining (in fact, it hadn’t really stopped), so walking around the jungle at night in the rain wasn’t great for the film equipment. However, lucky for us, at Possum Valley, the possums often come to you. So I placed food in the usual spots, turned all the lights on, and made enough noise to tell the possums we were at home, and they paid us a visit (they often don’t bother coming around when there are not people there, says Paul, the builder and owner of the Possum Valley property).

We fed the resident possums at Possum Valley to get them close to the camera