“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 Harlequin Great Dane named H and a Chihuahua named Boo during a photo call for the launch of this year's Crufts, at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, United Kingdom on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. (Photo by Jacob King/PA Images via Getty Images)

Fans of US singer Taylor Swift, also known as a Swifties, queue to enter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the first of Swift's three shows in Melbourne on February 16, 2024. Swift is playing to 260,000 fans over three concerts in Melbourne starting February 16 as part of her Eras World Tour. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

Manchester City's Belgian midfielder #11 Jeremy Doku eyes the ball during the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second-leg football match between Manchester City and Real Madrid, at the Etihad Stadium, in Manchester, north-west England, on April 17, 2024. (Photo by Paul Ellis/AFP Photo)

«Sharon Wild (from the series The Valley)», 2001. Larry Sultan grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley, which was a source of inspiration for a number of his projects. His series The Valley (2004) addresses the use of ordinary homes as sets for pornographic films, and asks why the ideal of middle-class domesticity lends itself to this most curious form of cultural appropriation. (Photo by Larry Sultan)

Wedges of an orange generate enough current and electrical juice – 3.5 volts – to power an LED. The fruit’s citric acid helps electrons flow from galvanized nails to copper wire in this 14-hour exposure. This image was published in September’s Visions of Earth, a trio of photos that appear in each issue of National Geographic. (Photo by Caleb Charland/National Geographic)

An Army Sikorsky R-5 helicopter, undergoing record trials, demonstrates its lifting power by carrying 17 persons and pilot aloft as female onlookers wave in Bridgeport, Conn., January 10, 1946. During the tests records were claimed for altitude speed and both altitude and speed with payload. (Photo by Anthony Camerano/AP Photo)

A colorful drawing is seen on a wall in Baghdad, Iraq on October 24, 2021. A group of volunteer painters tries to give hope and joy to the Iraqi residents by painting colorful murals on the walls of the houses and streets of the city, tired of violance. Seve-member group named “Butterfly Effect” is busy in drawing paintings to depict life in Baghdad and its cultural heritage on the buildings (Photo by Murtadha Al-Sudani/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)