“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 mahout splashes water on his elephant in the river Sabarmati on a hot summer day in Ahmedabad, India, May 20, 2015. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Wayne McMahon from “The Wolfhound Experience” walking alongside four Irish Wolfhounds: Connell, Mac, Brendan, and Barra, accompanied by an Irish Terrier Lady MacBeth, at St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, Ireland, on May 16, 2024. The Wolfhound Experience offers a one-hour walking tour in Dublin's St. Stephens' Green, where visitors can meet and learn about Irish Wolfhounds, the gentle giants of the canine world. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Smoke and steam billow from Belchatow Power Station, Europe's largest coal-fired power plant powered by lignite, operated by Polish utility PGE, in Rogowiec, Poland on November 22, 2023. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

A male stag beetle walks on a branch in an oak forest near the Spree River in Kersdorf, Brandenburg, Germany, on June 8, 2025. (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, attends the Macworld Conference and Expo July 18, 2001 in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

A dog sits in the shade of a mangrove tree as a woman uses a fork to dig for shellfish on the reef-mud flats of a lagoon located at South Tarawa in the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati May 23, 2013. Kiribati consists of a chain of 33 atolls and islands that stand just metres above sea level, spread over a huge expanse of otherwise empty ocean. With surrounding sea levels rising, Kiribati President Anote Tong has predicted his country will likely become uninhabitable in 30-60 years because of inundation and contamination of its freshwater supplies. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

Indian Hindu devotees wait to take part in an event to mark Pongal in Mumbai on January 15, 2016. Pongal, which coincides with the Hindu festival Makara Sankranthi, is a thanksgiving and harvest celebrated throughout India and specifically by those from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. (Photo by Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Photo)