“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)

An aircraft flies past sculptures of dinosaurs at the “Valley of Animals” park in Chandigarh, India on November 9, 2019. (Photo by Vijay Mathur/AFP Photo)

Wefa, 13, a female Western lowland gorilla, looks inside a Christmas box that contained food as a gift, after a caretaker dressed up as Santa Claus placed it in the enclosure of the family of gorillas, at Bioparc Fuengirola, in Fuengirola, Spain, on December 21, 2024. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

“Sokolica”. Sokolica, Poland. (Photo and caption by Marcin Kęsek/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

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A man and a woman take a selfie on Russian Navy Day in St Petersburg, Russia on July 26, 2020. (Photo by Roman Pimenov/TASS)

American singer Katy Perry shows off her red hot outfit at Billboard Women In Music 2024 held at YouTube Theater on March 6, 2024 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by katyperry/Instagram)

Tourists watch roaring torrent carrying a large amount of yellow sediment at the Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River on August 15, 2024 in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Morgan Miller carries her one-year-old daughter Mia Jennings in one arm as she shovels the stairs to her Springfield home with the other Sunday, January 13, 2019. Miller said she's learned how to do a lot of things while holding a baby in the last year. (Photo by Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register via AP Photo)