“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)

Supporters of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton react at her election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 8, 2016. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

A model presents a creation during a hair styling competition in Minsk, Belarus on November 9, 2017. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/AFP Photo)

An Indian girl smiles under a water splash at a water park as the temperatures reached 38 degree Celsius in Calcutta, eastern India, 12 June 2016. The summer or pre-monsoon season lasts from March to July in eastern India with the highest day temperatures ranging from 38 to 45 degrees Celsius. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA)

An injured woman is pictured near the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Ro state, Mexico where 5 people were killed, three of them foreigners, during a music festival on January 16, 2017. A shooting erupted at an electronic music festival in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen early Monday, leaving at least five people dead and sparking a stampede, the mayor said. Fifteen people were injured, some in the stampede, after at least one shooter opened fire before dawn at the Blue Parrot nightclub during the BPM festival. (Photo by Victor Vargas/AFP Photo)

A model falls over on the runway in a design by Victoria Bliss during the Project NextGen show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Resort 18 Collections at Carriageworks on May 16, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images)

An Indonesian man (C), one of two to be publicly caned for having s*x, is caned in Banda Aceh on May 23, 2017. .The pair, aged 20 and 23, were found guilty of having broken sharia rules in conservative Aceh province – the only part of Indonesia that implements Islamic law – and sentenced to 85 strokes of the cane each. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

People watch police destroy confiscated illegal firecrackers in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China, January 29, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)