“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)

Filipino children frolic next to ships taking shelter inside a seaport in Navotas city, north of Manila, Philippines, 27 August 2019. According to the latest advisory from Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Tropical Storm Podul intensified from a tropical depression into a tropical storm on August 27, while moving toward Central Luzon with a maximum winds of 65 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 80 km/h. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

In this Friday, February 6, 2015 photo, sandhill cranes begin to stir after resting for the night at a roosting location along their winter migration route in Cecilia, Ky. According to counts made by biologists with the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources, about 12,000 of the birds have stopped in Cecilia this week during their winter northward migration on their way to their nesting grounds in the Great Lakes region. (Photo by David Stephenson/AP Photo)

Personnel from Maharashtra Home Guards, a volunteer force practice yoga near the Gateway of India monument as they mark International Yoga Day in Mumbai, India, Friday, June 21, 2024. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

A farmer arranges vegetable at a greenhouse on January 29, 2021 in Hukou County, Jiangxi Province of China. (Photo by Zhang Yu/VCG via Getty Images)

Palestinian female Hamas security officers demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony in the northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, April 2, 2014. 1200 officers graduated from advanced training courses that lasted one year in Gaza police academy of Hamas. (Photo by Adel Hana/AP Photo)

A man holds tasbih, or prayer beads, as he sits with a plate of food before breaking fast during the fasting month of Ramadan, at a roadside in Karachi, Pakistan on March 28, 2023. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

A woman cuts her hair during a protest against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini and the government of Iran on October 02, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)