A high temperature alerts were issued as a record-setting summer heat wave continued to bake most parts of south China. (Reuters)

“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)

Elephants spray tourists with water in celebration of the Songkran water festival in Thailand's Ayutthaya province, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok, April 9, 2014. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EFE)

A country music fan cools off in the wind on the second day of the Stagecoach country music festival in Indio, California April 26, 2014. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

In this photo illustration a plastic carrier bag is blown along the road by the wind on March 4, 2008 in Birmingham, England. (Photo illustration by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Cosplayer and super fan Sophia sits on the Iron Throne outside the Tower of London on Monday, August 8, 2022 to mark the launch of the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, airing on Sky and streaming service NOW from August 22. (Photo by David Parry/PA Wire Press Association)

Members of the University of Maryland women's lacrosse team react to something Trump said after posing for photographs during an event with NCAA championship teams at the White House on November 17, 2017. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

A policeman stands next to supporters of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta lying unconscious after being beaten by police when they tried to storm through gates to get in during Kenyatta's inauguration ceremony at Kasarani stadium in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, November 28, 2017. Kenyatta is being sworn in on Tuesday, ending a months-long election drama that saw the first vote nullified by the country's top court and the second boycotted by the opposition. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)