“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)

Chilean police officers march with the puppies of future police dogs during the annual military parade at the Bernardo O'Higgins park in Santiago, Chile, September 19, 2018. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

A spectator waits for the start of the Jeremy Scott show during Fashion Week in New York, Thursday, February 8, 2018. (Photo by Andres Kudacki/AP Photo)

A staff member demonstrates how she puts on the helmet of a mock space suit at the C-Space Project Mars simulation base in the Gobi Desert outside Jinchang, Gansu Province, China, April 17, 2019. The facility – comprising several interconnected modules including a greenhouse and a mock decompression chamber – opened its doors to the public. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Chileans watch the sky with special suits prior to a total solar eclipse on July 2, 2019 in Paiguano, Chile. Around 25,0000 tourists arrived to Paiguano, a small town of around 1,000 inhabitants in the Elqui Valley, 650 km away Santiago. This is the only Earth's total solar eclipse of 2019 and the first one since 2017. From this point, the sun will fully disappear for around two minutes. It is best visible from a stripe in the South Pacific, Chile and Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

Revellers at the Chin Chin music festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands on July 3, 2021. The festival season has started with a QR code, one can enter, corona proof or vaccination proof in the corona check app. (Photo by Robin Utrecht/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Egyptians members of the “Tanoura Dance Troupe” perform during the holy month of Ramadan, at the Ghouri complex, in Islamic Cairo, Egypt, 13 April 2022. (Photo by Khaled Elfiqi/EPA/EFE)

VIETNAM: A Vietnamese woman, wearing the traditional “ao dai” long dress, poses for photos along peach blossom flowers ahead of the Vietnamese “Tet” (Lunar New Year festival), in a field in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 2, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)