Indian paramilitary forces march during the annual Republic Day parade on Rajpath in New Delh, January 26, 2013. Republic Day commemorates the 1950 adoption of India's constitution. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Associated Press)

A homeless girl asks for alms outside a coffee shop in Mumbai, India, June 24, 2016. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

A Thai visitor appears to be frightened by a life-size Velociraptor model also known as Raptor at the Dinosaur Planet theme park in Bangkok, Thailand, 25 March 2016. The 500 million baht (14 million US dollars or 12 million euro) theme park opening in the Thai capital aimed to attract more than 15,000 visitors a day featuring a chance to experience more than 200 dinosaurs from various species that are brought back to life. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA)

In this photo taken Sunday, October 5, 2014, a library official shows a 13th-century German prayer book containing the earliest evidence of the Yiddish language, at Israel's National Library in Jerusalem. This week, Israel's National Library gave The Associated Press a rare peek at a selection of rare historical manuscripts in its collection. (Photo by Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo)

Fr Pierre Pepper (C) warms up before his amateur boxing match in the town of Banagher in County Offaly March 15, 2015. Fr Pepper has spent the last two months training for an amateur boxing match to raise proceeds for charity. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

A rider holds on as a bull tries to throw him during the Bull Ride Spectacular on the first day of the 2014 Deni Ute Muster at the Play on the Plains Festival grounds on October 3, 2014 in Deniliquin, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

In this April 4, 2014 file photo, a community policeman kicks a man who they alledge participated in an ambush against them near the town of La Concepcion, Mexico. The vigilante force was set-up by affected communities opposed to the construction of the La Parota hydroelectric dam. Two vigilantes were injured and one died. (Photo by Bernandino Hernandez/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)