“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)

A Colombian flower grower selects a rose for a bouquet ahead of Valentine's Day in Subachoque, February 2, 2015. Colombia is the world's second-largest flower exporter behind the Netherlands. The Andean country exports around 500 million flowers to the U.S. for Valentine's Day, according to the Colombia Flower Growers Association. (Photo by John Vizcaino/Reuters)

Models pose backstage ahead of the Review of Australian Fashion Week show as part of Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival Sydney 2011 at Sydney Town Hall on August 24, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

A soldier poses with a Hythe Mk III Gun Camera during training activities at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas in April of 1918. The Mk III, built to match the size, handling, and weight of a Lewis Gun, was used to train aerial gunners, recording a photograph when the trigger was pulled, for later review, when an instructor could coach trainees on better aiming strategies. (Photo by Harry Kidd/WWI Army Signal Corps Photograph Collection via The Atlantic)

Members of the Indian Army display aerobatic Taekwondo skills during the 11th Reunion and 262nd Anniversary of Army Service Crops in Bangalore, India, 09 December 2022. The 11th ASC Reunion & 262nd Corps Day will be held at Army Service Corps (ASC) Centre & College on 8th and 9th of December 2022, to showcase the military capabilities. Indian Army Service Corps, established in 1760, is an arm of the Indian Army handling logistic support. (Photo by Jagadeesh N.V./EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

US President Joe Biden departs the White House for California, where he will review damage from recent flooding, in Washington, DC, USA, 19 January 2023. (Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/EFE)

Gas-masked men of the British Machine Gun Corps with a Vickers machine gun during the first battle of the Somme, 1916. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Pittsburgh police officers stand near a Port Authority bus that had fallen into a sinkhole along 10th Street and Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh on Monday, October 28, 2019. The bus and a car fell in the sinkhole shortly before 8 a.m. One person was taken to the hospital for a minor injury. (Photo by Kristina Serafini/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP Photo)