A surfer braves a large wave at Queenscliff in Sydney, Monday, June 6, 2016. Storms have lashed Australia's easter coast for several days whipping up waves as high as 12 meters (40 feet), which caused serious beach erosion and forced hundreds of coastal residents to evacuate. (Photo by Rick Rycroft/AP Photo)

Fishermen are surrounded by green water as they use large nets to catch fish. The workers were pictured trying to find fish below the algae in Rajshahi, Bangladesh in the last decade of February 2024. (Photo by Bipul Ahmed/Solent News & Photo Agency)

“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)

At the 50th anniversary of the Hartford Automobile Club a 1914 Mercer with an economical wind screen, looking like a large magnifying glass, designed to offer minimum wind resistance. Brass is used instead of chrome for the “shiny” parts, circa 1955. (Photo by Three Lions)

A large Pacific sideband snail slowly crosses a rain wet road in rural Douglas County, Oregon near Elkton on Sunday, December 2, 2012. The moisture loving snail should be very content with the recent heavy rains in southwestern Oregon and northern California. (Photo by Robin Loznak)

Gunfire erupted at a Denver pot celebration Saturday, injuring two people and scattering a crowd of thousands who had gathered for the first 4/20 counterculture holiday since the state legalized marijuana... Photo: A woman smokes a large marijuana joint at the Vancouver Art Gallery during the annual 4/20 day, which promotes the use of marijuana, in Vancouver, British Columbia April 20, 2013. (Photo by Ben Nelms/Reuters)

A team from Woody's Ice Cream shop wrangle a large inflatable dinosaur down the street during the Independence Day Parade in Fairfax, Virginia July 4, 2015. Americans marched in star-spangled parades, ran relay races, gathered for fireworks shows and crowned a new world hot dog eating champion as they celebrated Independence Day in traditional style on Saturday. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Revellers use water guns as they participate in a water fight during Songkran Festival celebrations at Kowloon City district, known as Little Thailand as there is large number of restaurants and shops run by Thais, in Hong Kong April 12, 2015. The Songkran festival, also known as the water festival, marks the start of Thailand's traditional New Year and is believed to wash away bad luck. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)