American model and actress Taylor Hill attends the gala ceremony of the 77th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2020. (Photo by Manuel Silvestri/Reuters)

Mariana Sousa, student of the Ballet Paraisopolis, warms up during a rehearse in Paraisopolis favela, outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil on August 27, 2020, amid the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The 200 ballet students of Paraisopolis, the second largest favela in Sao Paulo, restarted rehearsals after five months with a coreography about a police operation that put their community in mourning last year. (Photo by Nelson Almeida/AFP Photo)

Japanese artist Sachi shows off her creation of a realistic 3D cat portrait, made by using felted wool, at her house in Sagamihara, Japan, January 21, 2022. (Photo by Akira Tomoshige/Reuters)

An Israeli soldier argues with a demonstrator wrapped in a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israeli settlements in Jordan Valley in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 6, 2022. (Photo by Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)

A young supporter of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dressed like Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives with his mother during a public meeting addressed by Modiin Hyderabad, India, Sunday, July 3, 2022. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

Apples are collected from an orchard in Somerset. UK for the cider company on August 20, 2025. Thatchers, marking its earliest harvest in more than 120 years thanks to a hot summer. (Photo by Brad Wakefield)

Netherlands' Joosje Burg, left, reacts after Argentina's Agustina Gorzelany's stick catches her on the face during the women's semifinal field hockey match between Argentina and Netherlands at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, August 7, 2024, in Colombes, France. (Photo by Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo)

“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)