“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)

Elephants spray tourists with water in celebration of the Songkran water festival in Thailand's Ayutthaya province, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok, April 9, 2014. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EFE)

People eat sushi off the body of a model at an opening event of a bar in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, August 22, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

After their wedding ceremony, groom and bride, Nathan Mauger, Connie Young with family and friends, toast to the solar eclipse from the Rose Garden in Manito Park, Monday, August 21, 2017, in Spokane, Wash. (Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review via AP Photo)

Doutzen Kroes and Candice Swanpoel arrive at the Mert Alas x Marcus Piggot book launch party at Public Hotelon September 7, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Pierre Suu/GC Images)

An officer of the Afghan border police throws an assault rifle to a policeman participating in a military exercise on the outskirts of Herat, Afghanistan, Monday, September 7, 2015. Twelve female and seventy male border police personnel participated in the military exercise near the border with Iran in Herat province. (Photo by Hoshang Hashimi/AP Photo)

People watch police destroy confiscated illegal firecrackers in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China, January 29, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A North Korean soldier kicks a pole along the bank of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, February 4, 2014. (Photo by Jacky Chen/Reuters)