A large Pacific sideband snail slowly crosses a rain wet road in rural Douglas County, Oregon near Elkton on Sunday, December 2, 2012. The moisture loving snail should be very content with the recent heavy rains in southwestern Oregon and northern California. (Photo by Robin Loznak)

A surfer rides a wave as bioluminescent plankton lights up the surf around him during the coronavirus outbreak, Thursday, April 30, 2020, in Newport Beach, Calif. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday temporarily closed Orange County's coastline after large crowds were seen there. (Photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo)

A woman reacts after performing Otonamaki, which translates as “adult wrapping”, a new form of therapy where people are wrapped in large swaddling cloth to alleviate posture problems and stiffness, at a session in Asaka, Saitama prefecture, Japan, February 4, 2017. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

A woman looks at head of bluefin tuna on display in front of a store at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Monday, February 19, 2018. The large bluefin are particularly valuable in Japan, where they are considered a premium sushi and sashimi fish. A single fish sold for more than $1.75 million at an auction in Japan in 2013. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)

Hannah Rice, 18, jumps from a stump after posing for a photograph next to a large bust of President Franklin D. Roosevelt while touring busts of U.S. presidents in Williamsburg, Va. on March 30, 2019. The statues were once part of an attraction called Presidents Park, which has since closed. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

A team from Woody's Ice Cream shop wrangle a large inflatable dinosaur down the street during the Independence Day Parade in Fairfax, Virginia July 4, 2015. Americans marched in star-spangled parades, ran relay races, gathered for fireworks shows and crowned a new world hot dog eating champion as they celebrated Independence Day in traditional style on Saturday. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

A man wearing a protective face mask walks past traditional large puppet figures called “Ondel-ondel”, also donning face masks and displayed along a sidewalk of a main road, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases surge in Jakarta, Indonesia, June 30, 2021. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/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)