1. Be wary of getting this close to a cassowary!

2. It’s a beautiful bird…

3. It’s a beautiful bird…
…but its claws and beak can be ferocious!

4. Brush turkeys are pretty cool, too.

6. With a partner, discuss the meaning of the following quotation from “The Adventures of Mega Chicken.” (It’s from page 15 of your packet.)
“Only weeks earlier, I had abandoned my safe and secure existence to travel to the Southern Hemisphere and be among wild things. I wanted to pit myself against Nature, to see if a different person would emerge: a stalwart alter ego* that could never be born out of conference rooms and supermarkets and libraries.”
* alter ego: another version of one’s self—Clark Kent is Superman’s alter ego; a gruff businessman might have an alter ego as a loving, gentle father.

7. Once you have figured out what this quotation means, discuss whether or not the narrator succeeded in achieving her goal by the end of the story.
“Only weeks earlier, I had abandoned my safe and secure existence to travel to the Southern Hemisphere and be among wild things. I wanted to pit myself against Nature, to see if a different person would emerge: a stalwart alter ego* that could never be born out of conference rooms and supermarkets and libraries.”
* alter ego: another version of one’s self—Clark Kent is Superman’s alter ego; a gruff businessman might have an alter ego as a loving, gentle father.