Surfers and others spend a day at Rockaway Beach as impact from Hurricane Lee delvers large surf and rip tides to much of the Northeast on September 14, 2023 in New York City. Hurricane Lee is predicted to make landfall from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and also parts Maine this weekend. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A three minute time exposure shows the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 40, Thursday, January 7, 2021 in Port Canaveral, Fla. The rocket is carrying the Turksat 5A satellite for Turkey. (Photo by Malcolm Denenark/Florida Today via AP Photo)

“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)

American actress Alison Brie is seen exiting “Watch What Happens Live” studio on February 08, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by MediaPunch/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

A British Museum representative poses for photographs next to Andy Warhol's “Mao”, left, and Jim Dine's “Drag: Johnson and Mao” which feature in “The American Dream: pop to the present” exhibition during a media photocall at the British Museum in London, Monday, March 6, 2017. The exhibition, which opens to the public from March 9 and runs until June 18, charts modern and contemporary print making. (Photo by Matt Dunham/AP Photo)

Michelle Rodriguez attends the European Premiere of “Widows” and opening night gala of the 62nd BFI London Film Festival on October 10, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by James Gourley/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

British rapper Lady Leshurr poses as she arrives for the Brit Awards at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, February 18, 2020. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, right, watches as his wife Jill Biden, center, blocks a protester from arriving on stage during an primary night rally in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. The biggest day of the presidential primary calendar will define the nomination fight for Bernie Sanders and Biden and determine whether Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren have a rationale for carrying on their campaigns. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)