“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)

Women in Kimono holding an umbrella walk on a street at Ginza shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, March 31, 2016. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

Samburu women of the Lorubai traditional dance group are seen wearing traditional beaded necklaces during a Peace Marathon for pastoralist communities at the Archers post in Isiolo, Kenya on April 26, 2018. The aim of the event is to bring the warring pastoralist communities of Samburu, Turkana, Borana and others together, and end the rivalry due to scarcity of pasture and water in the region. The peace marathon is organized by Kenya's Northern Rangeland Trust. (Photo by Simon Maina/AFP Photo)

A model falls over on the runway in a design by Victoria Bliss during the Project NextGen show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Resort 18 Collections at Carriageworks on May 16, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images)

A couple dance tango for tourists at Caminito, a touristic hotspot of La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 15, 2016. (Photo by Enrique Marcarian/Reuters)

Protesters march during a demonstration, Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in Marseille, southern France. France is in the grip of transport strikes and protests for salary raise on Tuesday that threaten to dovetail with days of wage strikes that have already hobbled fuel refineries and depots, sparking chronic gasoline shortages around the country. (Photo by Daniel Cole/AP Photo)

In this handout image provided by Ogilvy, a burger made from cultured beef, which has been developed by Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands (pictured) is shown to the media during a press conference on August 5, 2013 in London, England. The in-vitro burger, cultured from cattle stem cells, the first example of what its creator says could provide an answer to global food shortages and help combat climate change, was fried in a pan and tasted by two volunteers. The burger is the result of years of research by Dutch scientist Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht, who is working to show how meat grown in petri dishes might one day be a true alternative to meat from livestock.The meat in the burger has been made by knitting together around 20,000 strands of protein that has been cultured from cattle stem cells in Post's lab. (Photo by David Parry)

Models wait backstage prior to the Viktor&Rolf Spring-Summer 2022 Haute Couture fashion collection, in Paris, Wednesday, January 26, 2022. (Photo by Thibault Camus/AP Photo)