A saddle-billed stork stands in the grassland at the Nairobi National Park near Nairobi, Kenya January 23, 2017. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/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)

Colombian activists perform during a protest against violence towards women, on a street in Medellin, Colombia, on March 6, 2020. (Photo by Joaquín Sarmiento/AFP Photo)

A boy looks inside the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex replica at the Egidio Feruglio Museum in Trelew, Argentina, in this May 18, 2014 file photograph. Scientists on July 28, 2015 unveiled a comprehensive analysis of the teeth of the group of carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods, which include the Tyrannosaurus Rex, detailing a unique serrated structure that let them chomp efficiently through the flesh and bones of large prey. (Photo by Maxi Jonas/Reuters)

Kyle Larson (42) flips as he makes contact with Jeffrey Earnhardt (81) on the back stretch during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Talladega, Ala. (Photo by Greg McWilliams/AP Photo)

Revellers partied the night away in Leeds, UK on September 5, 2020. Leeds has been added to Public Health England's coronavirus "watchlist" and could be hit with lockdown measures after a rise in coronavirus cases in the city. (Photo by NB Press LTD/The Sun)

Juventus' Italian forward Cristiana Girelli celebrates after scoring an equalizer during the UEFA Women's Champions League Group A football match between Juventus and Wolfsburg on November 09, 2021 at the Juventus stadium in Turin. (Photo by Marco Bertorello/AFP Photo)

A Hercules beetle, one of the largest species of its kind, in seen at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, on May 23, 2023. In the Monteverde cloud forest, dense fog among the lush vegetation is increasingly rare and temperatures are increasing each year due to climate change. (Photo by Ezequiel Becerra/AFP Photo)