“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)

Girls, who are part of Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children (MMCC), participate in a juggling competition in Kabul, Afghanistan August 12, 2015. The MMCC, founded by David Mason from Denmark, teaches cooperation and creativity to children scarred by years of war in Afghanistan. Despite the dangers, the project has grown so popular that it now runs centres in ten provinces and has hundreds of regular students. The circus makes visits to internally displaced persons' camps, schools, orphanages, and holds annual festivals. The children are taught the skills of juggling clubs, walking on stilts and acrobatics. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

Afghan artists perform a re-enactment of the lynching of Farkhunda, a 27-year old woman, to protest against her killing in Kabul, April 27, 2015. Farkhunda, who was killed by an angry mob in front of police in the Afghan capital in March for allegedly burning a copy of Islam's holy book was wrongly accused, Afghanistan's top criminal investigator said on March 22. The killing has fuelled anger about the weak rule of law and corruption that is crippling the country's instutitions. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Afghan girl athletes perform Wushu on the top of a hill in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, January 18, 2017. In the conservative Afghan society where people especially in the countryside deeply believe in the old traditions and don't allow their girls and female members of the family to go out of home, exercising sport in open is extremely risky, but a group of girls are broken the taboo and exercising Wushu on a hilltop where the temperature is minus 2 Celsius degrees. (Photo by Rahmat Alizadah/Xinhua/Barcroft Images)

In this Wednesday, March, 5, 2014 photo, Afghan female boxers practice at the Kabul Stadium boxing club, Afghanistan. The women, who are 18 and older, don't have much more than determination, and a trainer who runs them through their paces, watches as they spar, corrects their technique, tells them when to jab, how to protect themselves, when to power through with a left and then a right. (Photo by Massoud Hossaini/AP Photo)

A man distributes bread to Burka-wearing Afghan women outside a bakery in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, December 2, 2021. According to U.N. figures from early November, almost 24 million people in Afghanistan, around 60% percent of the population, suffer from acute hunger, including 8.7 million living in near famine. Increasing numbers of malnourished children have filled hospital wards. (Photo by Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo)

The President of the sushi restaurant chain Sushi Zanmai, Kiyoshi Kimura, cuts a blue fin tuna outside his main restaurant at the outer Tsukiji market in Tokyo January 5, 2015. The 180 kg blue fin tuna traded at a price of 4.5 million yen (37,500 USD) and was the most expensive fish at this year's New Year auction at the Tsukiji market, local media reported. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A pod of white pelicans, one of the largest birds in Canada and the US, are seen on the shore of the Chapala lagoon in Cojumatlan de Regules, Mexico, on January 28, 2022. White pelicans travel thousands of kilometers migrating from the cold temperatures of North America. (Photo by Ulises Ruiz/AFP Photo)