Aerial view of sunbeam shining through mountain cave at Yueyan National Forest Park on August 27, 2024 in Yongzhou, Hunan Province of China. (Photo by Jiang Keqing/VCG via Getty Images)

Water pools on top of a water lily leaf after rain at Benchakitti Forest Park in Bangkok, Thailand on September 27, 2023. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Aerial photo shows a colorful metasequoia forest at Hongze Lake wetland scenic spot in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu province, November 3, 2024. (Photo by CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

“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)

Celebrities attend The National Reality TV Awards 2016 at the Porchester Hall in London, United Kingdom on September 29, 2016. (Photo by FameFlynet UK)

Cloud inversion taken at Sunrise in Mam Tor, Derbyshire, UK on August 30, 2016. (Photo by David Zdanowicz/REX Shutterstock)

Someone struggles with an umbrella on Mudeford Quay seafront in Dorset, UK during storm Nelson on March 28, 2024. (Photo by Steve Hogan/Picture Exclusive)

Fog hangs over the east of the capital on a frosty Sunday morning on January 12, 2025 in London, UK. (Photo by David Levene/The Guardian)