Alicia Vargas, 23, a performer from the Urus Diablada group, tied the laces of her boots before a practice ahead of Carnival in Oruro, Bolivia February 5, 2016. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

A pelican investigates a fallen ketchup bottle outside a cafe in St James’s Park in London, England on October 9, 2025. The species has lived there for hundreds of years and remain a popular sight for visitors. Introduced in 1664 as a gift from the Russian ambassador, about 40 pelicans have since made the park their home. The bottle was safely retrieved from the pelican. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Alamy Live News)

In this February 1, 2017 photo, environmental activist Maruja Inquilla poses for a photo next to a Municipal waste treatment plant with water that flows into Lake Titicaca, in Juliaca, in the Puno region of Peru. “If the frogs could talk they would say, This is killing me”," said Inquilla, who recently showed up at the Puno governor's house carrying plastic bags filled with hundreds of dead frogs in protest. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

An Iraqi Muslim woman walks past Christmas decorations for sale in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on December 17, 2015. (Photo by Haidar Hamdani/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)

“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 ballet dancer practices in the sunshine at the Southbank skatepark in London on Monday, September 17, 2018, as Storm Helene is due to bring unseasonably warm weather in London and the south east, as the low pressure draws up warm air from the south. Forecasters have downgraded warnings that Helene could pose a risk to life when it hits this week – but warned coastal communities to stay vigilant. (Photo by Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire)

USA's Tara Davis-Woodhall reacts as she competes in the women's long jump final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 20, 2023.. (Photo by Marton Monus/Reuters)