“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 cosplayer dressed as Domino attends 2019 Comic-Con International on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Quinn P. Smith/Getty Images)

Presenter Sofia Vergara arrives at the 88th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 28, 2016. (Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Yuri Gagarin does not always show up in full-scale astronautics. In this picture he smiles during his summer vacation in Sochi, Russia in 1961 with sunglasses and sunhat in the camera. (Photo by Imago/Eastnews)

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Children in a Hong Kong refugee resettlement area watch as former Vice President Richard Nixon shows them his badminton service. Nixon visited Hong Kong, April 4, 1964, during his tour of countries in the Far East. (Photo by AP Photo)

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Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh practicing his bicycle polo technique, Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, 1964. (Photo by Norman Potter/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)