An Afghan woman carries bread on a tray, along a street in Kabul on January 3, 2023. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/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)

In this Wednesday, November 15, 2017 photo, a woman poses for a selfie with the carcass of a humpback whale on Ipanema beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Biologist Rafael Carvalho said the whale appears to have been dead for a few days. Authorities were urging beachgoers who had flocked to Ipanema on a national holiday to stay away from the animal. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

National Police members disinfect Venezuelan citizens returning to the country from Colombia, as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus –COVID19- at the Simon Boliviar International Bridge, in Cucuta, Colombia-Venezuela border, on April 4, 2020. Since the first case of COVID-19 was detected last March 6, Colombia has reported 1,406 people infected and 32 dead. (Photo by Schneyder Mendoza/AFP Photo)

An ethnic Kayan woman, also known as a long neck villager casts her vote for the general election in Mae Hong Son, Thailand, March 24, 2019. This is Thailand's first election since a military coup in 2014. Voters head to the polls to elect members of the lower house and Prime Minister. (Photo by Ann Wang/Reuters)

American model Kaia Gerber wears a creation as part of the Prada Fall/Winter 2022-2023 fashion collection, unveiled during the Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, Thursday, February 24, 2022. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

Wrestlers compete in the 63rd Historical Cali Oil Wrestling Tournament, held on June 29, 2025, in Bursa, Turkiye. The event, which featured over 800 wrestlers and served as the final rehearsal for the 664th Historical Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival, is on track to become a stage of the Oil Wrestling League, now in its third season. (Photo by Mustafa Yilmaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A female forest guard carries a tranquillizer gun in the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Sasan, in Gujarat December 2, 2014. The sanctuary, which is home to Asiatic lions in India, has an area of 1,412 sq km in which female guards were employed for the first time in India in 2007. The guards fetch a monthly salary of around $148 for working almost 12 hours a day, six days a week, said one of the female guards. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)