A photographer could bear-ly believe his eyes when a bear started waving at him. The friendly animal wandered to the front of his enclosure before sitting back in full view of zoo guests. He then lifts his powerful paw and excitedly waves in an almost human-like way at his new audience. The hilarious encounter was captured by keen photographer Andrey Slepnev, 31, while on a trip to Madrid Zoo, Spain on March 24, 2016. (Photo by Andrey Slepnev/Caters News)

2016 Rio Olympics, Handball, Preliminary, Women's Preliminary Group B Netherlands vs France, Future Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 6, 2016. Lois Abbingh (NED) of Netherlands celebrates a goal. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Cosplayer and super fan Sophia sits on the Iron Throne outside the Tower of London on Monday, August 8, 2022 to mark the launch of the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, airing on Sky and streaming service NOW from August 22. (Photo by David Parry/PA Wire Press Association)

Netherland's Kitty van Male is hit in the face by Argentina's Agustina Habif during the women's quarterfinal field hockey game, August 15, 2016. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

An Argentina soccer fan watches the team lose to Saudi Arabia at a World Cup Group C soccer match, played on a large screen in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos, Aires, Argentina, early Tuesday, November 22, 2022. (Photo by Gustavo Garello/AP Photo)

People spray water in the street ahead of “Songkran”, the annual Thai New Year water-throwing festival, in Kowloon City, Hong Kong, China, 09 April 2017. The pouring of water is a key element in the festival as it represents purification and the washing away of one's sins and bad luck for the year. The event also includes a “Miss Songkran” pageant where contestants are clothed in traditional Thai dress, and a winner is crowned. This year's “Songkran” will begin in Thailand on 13 April 2017. (Photo by Alex Hofford/EPA)

A propaganda troupe perform a flag- waving routine outside the central railway station in Pyongyang, North Korea on September 27, 2017. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP 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)