A dachshunds is dressed in an outfit as it is shown off during the eighth annual Dachshunds Parade in Saint Petersburg, Russia on May 25, 2019. (Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP Photo)

An actor dressed as Tyrion Lannister, poses for photographers with fake severed head before the screening of final episode of “Game of Thrones” on 20-meter-high screen at RZD Arena in Moscow, Russia on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Pigeon fancier Yonisbel Santana poses for a photo at his rooftop in Havana, Cuba, May 18, 2021. Havana's pigeon keepers crane out of a window, intently watching the grey birds take flight. Mostly staying indoors due to the country's worst outbreak of COVID-19 since the coronavirus pandemic began in March last year, Cubans are increasingly breeding pigeons as a form of escape. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

A Muslim worshipper attends a mass prayer against COVID-19, the new coronavirus, in Dakar on March 4, 2020, after two cases were confirmed in Senegal in the previous days. Across the world, 3,155 people have died from the virus. More than 92,723 have been infected in 78 countries and territories, according to AFP's latest toll based on official sources at 1700 GMT on March 3, 2020. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

Models smoke during a break at Sevilla de Boda (Seville Wedding) fashion show in the Andalusian capital of Seville November 27, 2015. (Photo by Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters)

A zoo performer smiles as he puts his head between the jaws of a crocodile during a performance for tourists at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, in Chonburi province, east of Bangkok,Thailand, June 7, 2016. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

Fighting Infections (single image) | Fighting Pandemic by Sudipto Das. “It’s exhausting. A tram conductor in Kolkata, India, wears protective clothing from head to toe even in the heat of a summer afternoon. This was when restrictions were easing after India’s first Covid-19 lockdown – public transport was running, but staff were advised to suit up like this. We’ve all grown used to saluting the efforts of healthcare workers, but plenty of other people in public-facing jobs have performed gruelling duties too to keep people safe”. (Photo by Sudipto Das/Wellcome Photography Prize 2021)

“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)