“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)

“The Independence day”. While on storm chasing expeditions in the Tornado Alley in USA I have encountered many photogenic supercell storms. This photograph was taken while we were approaching the storm near Julesburg, Colorado on My 28th, 2013. The storm was tornado warned for more than one hour, but stayed an LP storm through all its cycles and never produced a tornado, just occasional brief funnels, large hail and some rain. Photo location: Julesburg, Colorado, USA. (Photo and caption by Marko Korošec/National Geographic Photo Contest)

This 1972 VW Beetle was one of over 150 cars at the eighth annual historic U.S Route 40 Mini-Nationals car show held on Sunday at Tecumseh high school. (Photo by Marshall Gorby/AP Photo)

1st Place in Wildlife: A male orangutan peers from behind a tree while crossing a river in Borneo, Indonesia. (Photo by Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year contest 2017)

Revelers celebrate the Indian festival of Holi on the deck of the ship Peking at South Street Seaport in Manhattan March 19, 2011 in New York City. The Hindu festival of Holi , also known as the Festival of Colors, marks the arrival of spring where participants throw colored powder and water on one another. Many of the New York participants are Indian-American.

Visitors enjoy watching the Blue Nemophila flowers bloom during the Golden Week holidays, at Hitachinaka Kaihin Park on May 02, 2010 in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki, Japan. Millions of nemophilas blossom across the “Miharashi No Oka” hill at Hitachi Seaside Park for the annual “Nemophila Harmony” flower festival. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

In this composite image Actress Sophie Marceau has an embarrassing moment as her top falls down while she enters a screening of “Where the Truth Lies” at the Grand Theatre during the 58th International Cannes Film Festival May 13, 2005 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Tom Wilder, 17 from Kent, dives in the mud at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23, 2011 in Glastonbury, England. Music fans had to brave more rain today at the five-day festival which opened yesterday. This year the festival will feature headline acts U2, Coldplay and Beyonce. The festival, which started in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid 1 GBP to watch Marc Bolan, has grown into Europe's largest music festival attracting more than 175,000 people over five days. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)