The Brocken specter or mountain spectre phenomenon, where the shadow of an observer is magnified and cast on a cloud opposite from the sun or bright light source, is observed on the Howgills, outside Sedbergh, Britain, on December 26, 2024. (Photo by Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)

A woman looks at cows on the Mare e Sol beach in Coti-Chiavari, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, on May 17, 2017. A herd of some thirty wild cattle take up their summer residence on stretch of beach each year. (Photo by Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP 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)

A Kashmiri villager shouts freedom slogans during the funeral procession of Asadullaha Kumar in Mandhaal village, some 70 Kilometers south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, December 3, 2016. Hundreds of angry villagers blocked the Srinagar-Jammu highway for hours alleging Kumar was tortured and then shot by Indian forces while he was performing his duty as a security guard at a government fishery. Police officers denied the allegation and said he was killed in cross-firing during an overnight counter-insurgency operation in south Kashmir. (Photo by Dar Yasin/AP Photo)

A goose attacks an Orthodox believer as he leaves the icy waters of a pond during the celebration of the Orthodox Epiphany holiday in Kiev on January 19, 2018. Thousands of Ukrainian Orthodox Church followers plunged into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark Epiphany, cleansing themselves with water deemed holy for the day. (Photo by Sergei Supinsky/AFP Photo)

The world-famous sprinter Usain Bolt, 30, took a break from the track to celebrate Carnival as revellers doused each other with paint in Trinidad and Tobago on February 26, 2017. (Photo by David Wears/Splash News and Pictures)

Tina Hitscherich surprises a police officer with a kiss during the NYC Pride Parade in New York, Sunday, June 26, 2016. With a moment of silence followed by the roar of motorcycles, New York City's gay pride parade kicked off Sunday, a celebration of barriers breached and a remembrance of the lives lost in the massacre at the gay nightclub in Orlando. (Photo by Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

World's Greatest Swimming Pools: Four Seasons, Serengeti Pool, Tanzania. A show of elephants, buffalo and baboons awaits thanks to an active watering hole below the free-form infinity pool at this plush hideaway inside Serengeti National Park. Bonus: Because of infrared technology at the hole, guests can be notified on their bedroom TV when animals are approaching. When you've got word of wildlife on the horizon, catch them from your private terrace – or head back to the pool. (From $1,650). (Photo by Four Seasons)