In this Monday, October 5, 2015 photo, a thick blanket of early morning fog partially shrouds the skyscrapers of the Marina and Jumeirah Lake Towers districts of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai's rapid transformation from a desert outpost into one of the world's most architecturally stunning cities is mapped out in the Marina. Where just 15 years ago there was empty, flat land, today a bustling neighborhood thrives centered around a canal and an impressive skyline that pierces through the clouds. (Photo by Kamran Jebreili/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)

Tourists walk behind a faded sign warning of tsunami hazard in Khao Lak, Phang Nga province December 15, 2014. Ahead of the anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, experts and officials say key weaknesses remain across the region in the system designed to warn people of the next disaster, and get them to safety. Thailand prepares to mark the tenth anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, the deadliest on the record, that killed at least 226,000 people in 13 Asian and African countries. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A young woman wearing no trousers hits the ski slopes at a ski resort in Xuzhou, in east China's Jiangsu province on January 13, 2015 in a promotional effort to equal “No Pants Subway Ride”, which was marked on January 11 this year. The promotional “No Pants Subway Ride” stunt on January 11 was held as commuters in some 60 cities around the world braved public transportation in their undies, which has gone global since its first staging by US group Improv Everywhere in New York in 2002. (Photo by AFP Photo)

Mud Madness at the annual Jaffa Cakes charity three-mile run at Foymore Lodge near Portadown this afternoon, on April 13, 2014. A total of a thousand competitors and fun-runners took part in the two races held over the mudstrewn endurance course. (Photo by Alan Lewis/Photopress Belfast)

Members of the Russian Red Army Choir perform at Water Front Theatre in Beirut September 13, 2014. (Photo by Jamal Saidi/Reuters)

This incredible panoramic photographs are distorted to create miniature worlds and terrifying tunnels. (Photo by Caters News)

A visitor feeds a food pellet to a giraffe in the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi, Kenya January 15, 2017. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)