A Bengal tiger grabs a bag of food belonging to labourers at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur, India in the first decade of February 2024. The workers were cutting the grass to avoid forest fires in the area. The wild feline, watched on by its family, later dropped the bag without any harm caused. (Photo by Jignesh Patel/Solent news)

“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)

“Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately 1 metre (39 in) in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as an isolated patch of about 300 ha in Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “Abdul”, a baby Common Wombat, is one of the marsupials on show during the spring baby boom at Taronga Zoo September 1, 2005 in Sydney, Australia. “Abdul” was orphaned when his mother was killed by a car. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

A child rescued from Boko Haram in Sambisa forest is seen at the Internally Displaced People's camp in Yola, Nigeria May 3, 2015. Hundreds of traumatised Nigerian women and children rescued from Boko Haram Islamists have been released into the care of authorities at a refugee camp in the eastern town of Yola, an army spokesman said. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

Leaves and forest foliage claim abandoned motors at makeshift car graveyards. German photographer Dieter Klein travels the world to find vintage automobiles left to rust in leafy forests and fields. Here: Seemingly camouflaged cars are stacked on top of each other causing them to blend in with the landscape, in 2013, France. (Photo by Dieter Klein/Barcroft Media)

A leopard trapped in a well looks up to forest officials on the premises of the Kamakhya temple in Gauhati, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013. According to locals, the leopard fell into the well while scouring for food. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

Labourers walk near trucks loaded with logs, which are trapped on a muddy road, near an unreserved forest in the village of Igbatoro, southwest Nigeria, August 28, 2014. Wood, a form of biomass, is the sole source of energy for hundreds of millions of Africans who lack access to modern sources of power, and logging, both legal and illegal, remains a lucrative business that has contributed to the rapid shrinking of Africa's rainforests and woodlands. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

A person tries to extinguish flames as sparks fly during a wild forest fire in Valparaiso, Chile, Sunday April 13, 2014. Authorities say the fires have destroyed hundreds of homes, forced the evacuation of thousands and claimed the lives of at least seven people. (Photo by Luis Hidalgo/AP Photo)