“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)

Men push a car stucking in the mud on a motorway in Nimba County, Liberia, 28 July 2019. Most highway roads in the rural parts of the country are unpaved. The government of President George Weah has promised to build roads to connect all big cites of Liberia. (Photo by Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA/EFE)

A lizard is seen hunting for fish during the daytime on May 04, 2017 in West Sumatra, Indonesia. (Photo by Riau Images/Barcroft Images)

Natalie Dormer attends the mtvU Fandom Awards at MTV Fan Fest at Comic-Con, July 24, 2014, in San Diego. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)

“Kids of Sapa”. Four little beautiful Hmong girls from Lao Chai Village, near Sapa, Vietnam. (Photo and caption by Felipe Hanower/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

A Munduruku Indian child is pictured at the Planalto Palace, where a meeting with Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil Gilberto Carvalho was being held with other Munduruku Indians, in Brasilia, June 4, 2013. President Dilma Rousseff's government sought on Tuesday to defuse mounting conflicts with indigenous groups over its decision to stop setting aside farm land for Indians and plans to build more hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. The government flew 144 Munduruku Indians to Brasilia for talks to end a week-long occupation of the controversial Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river, a huge project aimed at feeding Brazil's fast-growing demand for electricity. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

In this Sunday, August 5, 2018 photo, a dancer winces in pain as she is whipped by a fellow dancer in an adaptation of the Inca warrior dance known as “Kachampa”, during celebrations honoring Our Lady of Copacabana, in Cuzco, Peru. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)

Kyrgyz men on horseback compete during their traditional game of “Oodarysh” during the celebrations of the 90th anniversary formation of the Chui region in the village of Kuntu some 20 kms from Bishkek on May 27, 2016. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP Photo)