Lovot companion robots by Groove X wander in front their booth at CES Unveiled during the 2020 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 5, 2020. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Reuters)

A boy holds a green sea turtle hatchling before releasing it at Pekan Bada beach on the outskirts of Banda Aceh on March 14, 2023. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/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)