A group of colourful dancers from the Kumari Shiksha Dance Institution light colourful clay lamps in preparation to celebrate Diwali during the two day Diwali (Festival of Lights) Hindu festival celebrations at the old Drive-Inn in Durban, on October 19, 2019. The two-day festival attracts over 100,000 visitors. The festival celebrations include, parading of floats, chariots, singing of devotional songs, dances, games, face painting, food stalls of vegetarian food, clothing, display of toys and jewellery. Young people also get the opportunity to showcase their cultural and spiritual talents. A billion Hindus worlwide will officially celebrate Diwali on 27 October 2019. (Photo by Rajesh Jantilal/AFP Photo)

A woman wears a mask while carrying a dog in the street on January 22, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. A new infectious coronavirus known as “2019-nCoV” was discovered in Wuhan as the number of cases rose to over 400 in mainland China. Health officials stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease which medicals experts confirmed can be passed from human to human. The death toll has reached 17 people as the Wuhan government issued regulations today that residents must wear masks in public places. Cases have been reported in other countries including the United States, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. (Photo by Getty Images/China Stringer Network)

A monarch butterfly rests on the ground at the Sierra Chincua butterfly sanctuary on a mountain in Angangeo, Michoacan November 24, 2016. Angangueo is a town and municipality located in far eastern Michoacán state in central Mexico noted for its history of mining and its location in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is a World Heritage Site containing most of the over-wintering sites of the eastern population of the monarch butterfly. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

A young woman jumps into the river Rhine to cool off during high temperatures, near Kaiserstuhl, Switzerland, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Photo by Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP Photo)

The Rossiya (Russia) brig sails along the Neva River during a dress rehearsal of the 2021 Scarlet Sails Festival for school leavers in St Petersburg, Russia on June 25, 2021. (Photo by Peter Kovalev/TASS)

British actress Millie Bobby Brown and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen break the sake barrel during the opening ceremony for Osaka Comic Con 2023 at the Intex Osaka on May 5, 2023 in Osaka, Japan. (Photo by Jun Sato/WireImage)

Elizabeth Nicolaou, a final year student with the Royal Academy of Dance, strikes a pose on April 28, 2022 near the Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich, London ahead of International Dance Day. First celebrated in 1982, International Dance Day has taken place every year since in anniversary celebration of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), considered the creator of modern ballet. (Photo by Guy Corbishley/Alamy Live 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)