Male members of the Zeleziar folk dance group whip and water the local girls dressed in traditional clothing, during Easter in Bociar, Slovakia on April 1, 2024. Boys and younger men visit the houses of young girls, whip them with fresh-cut decorated wickers and sprinkle water on them. By tradition, the whipping should give the girls strength, health, and abundance throughout the whole year. (Photo by Robert Nemeti/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A girl applies henna patterns on her hands while waiting for customers, ahead of Eid al-Fitr celebrations, in Karachi, Pakistan on April 9, 2024. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Tattoo enthusiasts pose for a photo during the 14th Expotattoo Colombia Fair in Medellin, Colombia, on May 26, 2024. (Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga/AFP Photo)

Coral grows in a sculpture at the MUSZIF underwater museum in Isla Fuerte, Bolivar department, Colombia, on May 22, 2024. In the Colombian Caribbean an underwater museum protects coral reefs threatened by tourism and climate change. (Photo by Luis Acosta/AFP Photo)

Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner are seen filming at the “One Night Only” set in SoHo, Manhattan on November 07, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Colombia's Tatiana Renteria Renteria (red) wrestles Japan's Yuka Kagami (blue) in their women's freestyle 76kg wrestling semi-final match at the Champ-de-Mars Arena during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on August 10, 2024. (Photo by Punit Paranjpe/AFP Photo)

A visitor takes pictures among the cherry blossom trees on an early spring morning around University of Canterbury in Christchurch in New Zealand, on September 7, 2024. (Photo by Sanka Vidanagama/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)