Scientist Jiri Sindelar checks a ring of a Boreal owl chick outside the “Smart Nest Box”, which allows the study of birds by using mounted cameras, in a forest near the village of Mikulov, Czech Republic, June 18, 2016. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

A kangaroo and joey are seen in a burnt forest on Kangaroo Island, south west of Adelaide on January 16, 2020. Australia’s continuing bushfire crisis has taken an enormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and other species killed. (Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur/Weanimals)

Hundreds of flamingos take flight in the Rift Valley in East Africa early September 2024. The birds gather in the region’s saline lakes to eat the blue-green algae that grows in abundance. The red-orange pigment in the algae is what gives them their distinctive pink plumage. They also use the site to breed. (Photo by Alexandre and Chloe Bes/Naturagency/Solent News)

Tropical acrobatics by Adrià López Baucells in Manaus, Brazil. An unidentified South American marsupial, although the characteristic black markings on its face indicate it may be a mouse opossum. These small creatures are nocturnal and feed on bugs, fruit and bird eggs. (Photo by Adrià López Baucells/2019 Royal Society of Biology Photography Competition)

Volunteers use flour to clean birds following an oil spill caused by an incident involving two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, in the village of Vityazevo near the Black Sea resort of Anapa, Russia on December 20, 2024. (Photo by Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters)

“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)

Storks that were saved by Bulgarian farmer Safet Ismail are pictured in the village of Zaritsa, Bulgaria, March 21, 2018. Dozens of people from villages in north-eastern Bulgaria took storks to their houses as a lot of the birds got injured due to freezing temperatures and snowfalls in the area over the last few days. (Photo by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)

An alligator and his reflection seen in the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida on May 2, 2024. The wetlands attract nature lovers and wildlife photographers and are home to more than 140 bird species and a variety of other wildlife. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)