US Army Parachute Team Golden Knights perform a precision drop to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, above West Potomac Park in Washington, DC, USA, 11 May 2023. The performance is one of many activites being held on the National Mall over three days to honor Vietnam War veterans and their families and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of when the last US combat troops left South Vietnam in 1973. (Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA/EFE)

A picture taken with a drone shows a huge work of art created with various flowers and flowering plants in Jacobsdorf, Germany, 29 July 2024. Artist Michael Uy has transformed a piece of fallow land into an insect paradise for bees, bumblebees and butterflies. Using plants, the artist has planted and sown oversized images in the shape of a shell and a winding path of life on a large meadow in Jacobsdorf. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/EPA/EFE)

“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)

Water way to go. These incredible images show the moment two brave adventurers decided to body board down Europes longest glacier. Seen carving their way through the icy rivers of the Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland, the pair are seen risking their lives for an adrenalin rush of a whole new kind. Pictured mounted on their body boards as part of a sport known as hydrospeeding, the daredevils risked being carried away by strong currents and even drowning in hidden crevices to complete the winding seven mile journey. But if that wasnt dangerous enough, the duo also ran the risk of being overwhelmed by collapsing glacial lakes that could be released into the river at any moment. (Photo by David Carlier/Caters News)

A competitor in fancy dress emerges from muddy water during the Tough Guy Challenge endurance race on January 29, 2012 in Telford, England. Every year thousands of people run the 8 mile assault course which involves freezing temperatures, fire and ice. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Guillermo Rodriguez and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model Kate Upton arrive at Club SI Swimsuit hosted by the Pure Nightclub at Caesars Palace at the Pure Nightclub at Caesars Palace on February 16, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated)

It would seem to be something you'd see only in a cartoon or at a Phish concert, but according to park rangers in New South Wales, Australia, dozens of giant, fluorescent pink slugs have been popping up on a mountaintop there. The eight-inch creatures have been spotted only on Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak in the Nandewar Range in northern New South Wales. Scientists believe the eye-catching organisms are survivors from an era when Australia was home to rainforests. A series of volcanoes, millions of years of erosion and other geological changes “have carved a dramatic landscape at Mount Kaputar”, the park service wrote on its Facebook page, and unique arid conditions spared the slugs from extinction. (Photo by Michael Murphy/AFP Photo/NSW Environment Office)

“Serengeti National Park encompasses 5,700 square miles of grassy plains and woodlands near the northern border of Tanzania, and is home to more than 3,500 lions grouped into a couple dozen prides. Photographer Nick Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013, determined to break new visual ground in their coverage of the Serengeti Lions”. Photo: Cubs of the Simba East pride: too young to kill but old enough to crave meat. Adult females, and sometimes males, do the hunting. Zebras and wildebeests rank high as chosen prey in the rainy season. (Photo by Michael Nichols/National Geographic via The Atlantic)