A damaged wooden garden house is seen amid a field of wheat following floods caused by heavy rainfalls, in Bad Bodendorf, Germany, July 18, 2021. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/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)

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi attends the inauguration ceremony of Jacob Zuma on May 9, 2009 in Pretoria, South Africa. Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is South Africa's fourth President since the end of apartheid. (Photo by Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

A worker loads palm fruit at a palm oil plantation in North Mamuju regency, West Sulawesi province, Indonesia March 10, 2016 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. (Photo by Sahrul Manda Tikupadang/Reuters/Antara Foto)

A Romanian female soldier adjusts her helmet before taking part in weapons training with US Marines female counterparts at the Capu Midia Surface to Air Firing Range, on the Black Sea coast in Romania, Monday, March 20, 2017. About 1,200 US and Romanian troops take part in the Spring Storm 17 exercise, meant to simulate defense of the Romanian Black Sea coastline and urban areas. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Leidi, a member of the 51st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), poses for a picture at a camp in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, August 16, 2016. A peace deal will end half a century of war and allow the rebels to reintegrate into Colombian society. (Photo by John Vizcaino/Reuters)

People walk during a polluted day in Shenyang, Liaoning province, March 31, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

An Iraqi military vehicle passes displaced Iraqi boys returning to their homes in West Mosul's Oreibi neighbourhood after government forces retook control of the area from the Islamic State (IS) group during the ongoing offensive against the jihadists on May 21, 2017. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)