Smallest cassowary

The world's smallest living species of cassowary is Bennett's cassowary Casuarius bennetti, also known as the dwarf cassowary or mooruk. It is 99–150 cm long, and weighs 17.6–26 kg, with adult females being larger than males and bearing a longer bony casque upon their head. It occurs in mountainous forests on New Guinea, New Britain and Yapen Island, where it feeds upon insects, small vertebrates and fallen fruit.

Although only one species of Bennett's cassowary is recognized today, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, a confusing array of different ones were distinguished by some ornithologists, based upon differences in facial colouration and casque size now known not to be of taxonomic significance. These included the painted cassowary, Loria's cassowary, Goodfellow's cassowary, Keysser's cassowary, Edwards's cassowary, and Westermann's cassowary, but none is recognized as valid today.