“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)

Beachgoers watch the detonation of a 500 pound British bomb on the beach on May 19, 2014 in Wassenaar, Netherlands. The bomb was dropped by the British allied forces during the second world war over nearby Leiden where it was found on a building site. (Photo by Michel Porro/Getty Images)

In this Saturday, February 18, 2017 photo, revelers take part in the “Guanabara Pearl” carnival street party on Paqueta Island in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Merry makers ferried across Guanabara Bay to Paqueta Island for the parade. (Photo by Mauro Pimentel/AP Photo)

U.S. Corporal Stanley Suski, left, and Miss Tamako, a Geisha girl, whirl a bit of Jitterbug, in a bar, in Tokyo, Japan, on October 1, 1945. (Photo by AP Photo)

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall as they watch East German border guards demolish a section of the wall on November 11, 1989. (Photo by Gerard Malie/AFP Photo)

Horse riders perform with guns during the El-Jadida International Horse Show in El-Jadida, south of Casablanca, Morocco, October 15, 2016. (Photo by Youssef Boudlal/Reuters)

Elvis Presley tribute artist Stephen Fletcher puts on eye make-up in the mirror before competing in a singing contest at the 25th annual Parkes Elvis Festival in the rural Australian town of Parkes, west of Sydney, Australia January 13, 2017. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

Soviet Army soldiers sit on their tanks in front of the Czechoslovak Radio station building in central Prague during the first day of Soviet-led invasion to then Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. (Photo by Libor Hajsky/Reuters)