Members of the Jordanian police women's team attend the 7th Annual Warrior Competition at the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center in Amman April 22, 2015. Thirty-eight teams from 18 countries are participating in the competition to test their military skills. (Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)

A king eider sea duck tackles a prickly dinner of sea urchin on a lake in Batsfjord, Norway in the last decade of August 2024. The drake’s breeding plumage consists of a distinctive powder-blue head and neck, orange frontal lobe and a red bill. (Photo by Mia Surakka/Solent News)

Well-wisher Nadine, holding her dog Connor wearing a knitted crown, waits for the arrival of Britain's Queen Camilla and King Charles III ahead of their visit of the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, in Limavady, Northern Ireland on March 20, 2025. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/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)

A Thai mahout and his elephant, both dressed as Santa Claus pass in font of a large photograph of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej following a Christmas event at a school in the world heritage city of Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, Thailand, 24 December 2015. The annual event is held to celebrate the Christmas season in the overwhelmingly Buddhist kingdom. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA)

Far from the fancy throngs who gather at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance every year, another collection of car enthusiasts strive to cough up the worst cars imaginable. The Concours d'Lemons gathers the Edsels, Yugos and Azteks of yesteryear to give the freaky and foul their day in the sun. Photo: The 1973 Electra-King three-wheeler, the dead evolutionary branch of today's electric cars. (Photo by Robert Kerian/Yahoo Autos)

Jordanian soldiers pose after the opening ceremony of eighth annual Warrior Competition at the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC) in Amman, Jordan, May 2, 2016. Twenty Seven Teams from Eleven countries are participating in a competition to test their military skills. (Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)

(L-R) American actress Joey King, English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson and American actor Brian Tyree Henry attend the “Bullet Train” Photocall at The Corinthia Hotel on July 20, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)