Volunteers wait before taking part in the 66th National Day celebrations in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya, on August 31, 2023. The country commemorates the independence of the Federation of Malaya from British rule in 1957. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP Photo)

A young bull flees from a Brazilian vaqueiro, or cowboy, competing in the “Pega de Boi” (Ox Catch) tournament in Cabrobo, Pernambuco State, Brazil, on September 4, 2022. The riders compete in pairs to retrieve a cord from a bull which has been released and runs away from them and they are timed on how quickly they can return with the cord. The leather clothing provides them with protection from the dense savannah vegetation which contains a lot of large thorns. Riders have been known to die competing in the tournament (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

A dog owner feeds her dog during a dinner for dogs event ahead of the Lunar New Year at Kong Shan Yunnan Bistro restaurant in Shanghai, China, on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Reuters)

An Israeli soldier argues with a demonstrator wrapped in a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israeli settlements in Jordan Valley in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 6, 2022. (Photo by Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)

This hazel dormouse is being given a once-over by a disease risk team at ZSL London Zoo, UK in May 2025, as part of reintroduction programme. (Photo by David Levene/The Guardian)

“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)

Naki'o, a mixed-breed dog with four prosthetic devices, goes for a run in Colorado Springs April 12, 2013. Naki'o lost all four feet to frostbite when he was abandoned as a puppy in a foreclosed home. (Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters)

A boy takes his basset hound for a walk with a difference in Noosa, Australia on Saturday, March 9, 2024, during the annual Surf Dog Championships. (Photo by Roberta Holden/Solent News)