Fireworks go off while the beetle goes up in flames after being set on fire during the 11th annual Burning Beetle event on Saturday, January 20, 2024, at Pageant Park in Custer, S.D. The event was created in response to the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation a few years ago and continues to bring awareness to the impact of the beetles. (Photo by Matt Gade/Rapid City Journal via AP Photo)

Xabi Zurutuza of Spain for Red Bull KTM Ajo crashes during Moto3 Free Practice Three as part of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Phillip Island, Australia, 19 October 2024. (Photo by Joel Carrett/EPA)

“Light From Heaven”. Taken around Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia in the morning. Photo location: East Java, Indonesia. (Photo and caption by Pimpin Nagawan/National Geographic Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

Israeli security forces arrest an Ultra Orthodox Jewish man as they close a synagogue in the Mea Shearim Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem, on March 30, 2020, amid efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)

Muslim pilgrims pray on top of the rocky hill known as Mountain of Mercy on the Plain of Arafat during the annual hajj pilgrimage near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, July 30, 2020. Only about 1,000 pilgrims will be allowed to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage this year due to the virus pandemic. (Photo by Saudi Ministry of Media via AP Photo)

People cool off in a fountain outside the Southbank Centre on June 30, 2015 in London, England. The UK is currently experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures of 35 degree celsius forecast tomorrow in some parts of the country. The extreme heat has already seen train cancellations and a health warning has been issued. (Photo by Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

A cosplayer dressed as Domino attends 2019 Comic-Con International on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Quinn P. Smith/Getty Images)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)