Participants adjust their make up backstage during a breast model contest in Hefei, Anhui province September 24, 2014. Over 100 models participated in this contest, which was held by a cosmetic company. The winner was awarded 680,000 yuan ($110,825) as cosmetic funds and 30,000 yuan ($4,890) in cash, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Juan Carlos Vilchez, 18-months-old, dressed to represent horror movie icon Chucky, looks into a storefront mall window, in Managua, Nicaragua, Friday, October 31, 2014. Juan Carlos is wearing a first place winner that he won earlier, for best Halloween costume in his age group. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP 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 girl performs martial arts during a function to mark International Women's Day at a school in Hyderabad, India, on March 7, 2014. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./Associated Press)

A sticker is seen at the Rocky Mountain Guns and Ammo store in Parker, Colorado July 24, 2012. The killing of 12 people at a midnight screening of the new Batman movie in the Denver suburb of Aurora may spark a fresh round of soul-searching on America's relationship with guns but few predict any real change in the law. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Zhao Qiang walks across a street in Shenyang, Liaoning province, April 14, 2014. Zhao, a community officer of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, was diagnosed with multiple when he was two, with the resulting tumour affecting the growth of his left leg, his grandmother told local media, citing a doctor's diagnosis. His uncle modified his shoes, fitting them with stools, to allow Zhao to stand and walk. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Rooftops of solar powered houses are pictured in Ota, 80 km northwest of Tokyo in this October 28, 2008 file photo. One by one, Japan is turning off the lights at the giant oil-fired power plants that propelled it to the ranks of the world's top industrialised nations. With nuclear power in the doldrums after the Fukushima disaster, it's solar energy that is becoming the alternative. Solar power is set to become profitable in Japan as early as this quarter, according to the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF), freeing it from the need for government subsidies and making it the last of the G7 economies where the technology has become economically viable. (Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)

A frog appears to have a big smile for the camera, Russia. Things are heating up at the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards as the shortlisted final 40 entries are revealed. This year's competition has featured over 2200 hilarious entries from around the world with photos including a fox face planting in the snow, a dancing brown bear and a pair of seemingly headless penguins – all beautifully photographed with perfect comedy timing and a strong conservation message. (Photo by Artyom Krivosheev/Barcroft Images/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2016)