“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)

A couple dance tango for tourists at Caminito, a touristic hotspot of La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 15, 2016. (Photo by Enrique Marcarian/Reuters)

Border guard officers, wearing masks against COVID-19 infection adjust their outfits before a distinguished service awards ceremony for employees of the interior ministry in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, July 16, 2020. Romania has registered on Thursday the highest number of COVID-19 infection cases since the pandemic reached the country in February, 777 in a 24 hours interval, as many fail to observe the mandatory protection measures, like the use of a face mask indoors or maintaining social distancing. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

A woman and a child walk past the remains of collapsed houses damaged during the April 2015 earthquake, in Bhaktapur, Nepal March 18, 2016. The two devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal last year killed almost 9,000 people across the country. Inside the Kathmandu Valley almost 2,000 died, and some of the area's most important cultural and heritage sites were completely destroyed. As Kathmandu inhabitants prepare to mark the one-year anniversary of the event, thousands are still displaced and millions are living in temporary shelters. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A Philippine Airlines A300 Airbus plane lies near the service road of a highway south of Manila after it overshot the runway, September 19, 1987 in Manila upon landing from Singapore. Nobody was injured among 135 passengers and crewmen on board. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

North Korean soldiers wave along the Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite to the Chinese border city of Dandong October 7, 2014. (Photo by Jacky Chen/Reuters)

In this photograph taken on January 19, 2012, Indonesian schoolchildren hold on to iron cables as they cross a nearly-collapsed suspension bridge at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Indonesia's Banten province to reach their school. (Photo by Kris Aria/AFP Photo)

Bullet the bulldog skateboards in a seafront area in the city of Vladivostok, on Russia's Pacific coast on August 9, 2021. The 6-year-old dog learnt how to skateboard two years ago thanks to his owner, Sergei Shukshuyev. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)