Marine One with US President Joe Biden onboard takes off from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2024. Biden is travelling to Scranton, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Angerer/AFP 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)

A marcher dressed as Marilyn Monroe during the annual Gay Pride march in London, July 1994. (Photo by Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The double compound eyes of a male St. Mark's fly (Bibio marci), submitted by Dr. David Maitland from Feltwell, UK. (Dr. David Maitland)

A wounded member of the Afghan police reaction force waits for treatment in Alingar, Laghman province, on April 30, 2012. A bomb exploded next to opium poppy fields during a poppy eradication campaign in, wounding two Afghan policemen, police officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Bride Yulia Tagil sits on the backseat of a bike as she arrives for her alternative wedding ceremony on a square in Tel Aviv July 25, 2010. The alternative wedding ceremony was intended to demonstrate against the current situation in Israel, where the only way for Jews to get married by law is through the Chief Rabbinate. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)

A child looks at window cleaners work while dressed in sheep (C) and monkey costumes, denoting animal signs of the Chinese zodiac calendar, during an event marking the upcoming end of the year at a hotel in Tokyo, Japan, December 21, 2015. According to the zodiac calendar, 2015 is the year of the sheep and 2016 is the year of the monkey. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Indonesian tourists take a selfie as Mount Bromo spews volcanic material and ash into the air during an eruption in Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia, 31 December 2015. Indonesia's Mount Bromo is on the second highest alert level as its activity has increased in the last two months. (Photo by Fully Handoko/EPA)