Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 223 i National Geographic Kids (UK)

Hi, Kids! Winter is fast approaching, so this issue we’re learning about life in the cold! Find out how Scotland’s hardy mountain hares survive ice and snow, then join us on the world’s coldest continent as Antarctic explorer Ariel Waldman chats about the microscopic creatures that thrive there. Also this month, we witness a sparkling light show created by glowworms in New Zealand, check oat eight of the world’s most amazing caves and craters, and discover why playtime is a serious business for otters! Hope you enjoy our posters, puzzles and crafts, too. See you next month!…

1 Woodpeckers’ skulls have air pocket that protect their brains as they hammer into trees. 2 The barreleye fish has a head so clear you can see its brain. 3 The fleshy parts of your brain are called gyri. The wrinkles between them are called sulci. 4 Scientists are creating new mediines from substances in locust and cockroach brains. 5 Palaeontologists found a chunk of fossilised brain in the skull of a 133-million-year-old dinosaur. 6 The human brain has a texture a bit like jelly.…

1 DEEP BLUE Check out this amazing 20m-deep swimming hole in Utah, USA. The Homestead Crater is a natural hot spring, hidden inside a limestone rock. Visitors access the pool via a special tunnel and can swim or snorkel in the 33°C water, whatever the weather outside. 2 EYE TO THE SKY Named because birds nest in its walls, Mexico’s 500m-deep Cave of Swallows is a big hit with bird fans and underground explorers. But best wrap up, as the cave is so chilly that clouds actually form inside! 3 UNDERGROUND ADVENTURES Mamet Cave in Croatia is 200m deep - and roomy enough for a hot-air balloon to land in its depths! The cave is shaped like an upside-down funnel - it’s 60m across at the top and becomes wider…

What you’ll need • A4 coloured paper • Scissors • Pens • Stapler or tape Start here! 1 Cut some coloured paper lengthways into equal-sized strips. You’ll need 26-one for each day of the run-up to Christmas and one extra to decorate! 2 THE CREATIVE PART! On one side of each paper strip, write down a message for each day of the countdown. You could write down jokes, inspiring messages, fortunes, fun activities or acts of kindness (nice things to do for people). Here are some ideas… Q. What do if on call someone who’s scared of Santa? A. Claustrophobic! Call up someone in your distant family out of the blue and find out how they are! Today’s fortune: something magical will happen today if you observe nature! Sing a christmas song today!…

Snow leopard numbers leap! Good news from Bhutan! Conservationists say snow leopard numbers in the central Asian country have increased by almost 40% in the last six years. Whoop! The elusive cats were counted during Bhutan’s National Snow Leopard Survey. Rangers hid 310 motion-triggered cameras across the mountains and these snapped over 10,000 snow leopard pics! By looking at the unique rosette patterns on the vulnerable felines’ fur, the team worked out which cat was which. In total, the scientists counted 134 snow leopards in 9,000km2 of protected habitat. Some were even spotted in new areas! These positive results show that the country’s conservation efforts, which include restoring snow leopard habitat and combatting poaching, are working. Paw-some! Asteroid sample returns! A spacecraft carrying dust from an asteroid has returned to…

Carve for the climate Environmental artists Sand in Your Eye highlighted the climate crisis this October by carving a T. rex out of pumpkins! The sculptors created the dino during Hebden Bridge’s annual Pumpkin Trail in West Yorkshire, with the message: ‘Don’t be a dinosaur. We have a choice.’ Multi-coloured fun! How coo! is this bright building in Shenzhen, China? Dutch architects MVRDV have transformed the abandoned office block into a hotel, theatre and children’s centre. Visitors won’t have trouble finding it, that’s for sure! Trim-endous animals Nayan Shrimali and Venus Bird make tiny sculptures of rare wildlife out of paper. The artists, from Ahmedabad in India, take up to six hours to create each creature - they painstakingly cut out the fur or feathers in delicate layers before painting each…

A river flows through a dimly lit cave in New Zealand. It’s so dark that you can’t see the water from your boat - you can only hear it splash around you. As you glide around a corner, thousands of twinkling blue-green lights appear overhead. This is the Glowworm Grotto, part of the Waitomo Caves network on the North Island of New Zealand. The cave’s shimmering lights look otherworldly, but they’re actually created by a species of glowworm found only in New Zealand. Read on to find out how these insects put on such a cool light show… LIGHTS ON Waitomo’s limestone caves have existed for around 30 million years. But humans only discovered them about 400 years ago, when the Māori (say “MOW-ree”) - the first people to come…

The Last Firefox Lee Newbery Charlie Challinor is a scaredy cat. He’s scared of geese and a million other things. But he must put aside his fears and learn to be brave - he needs to protect a flammable fox that’s being hunted by a monster… This very funny book has lots of surprising twists and is one of my favourite reads. If you like foxes and don’t like terrifying monsters… it will probably be one of yours, too! Ivy Newt and the Storm Witch Derek Keilty and Magda Brol This magical mystery book is about a brave girl called Ivy who is trying to save her parents. It’s set in a magical castle, the place where Ivy’s parents disappeared from. Other characters are Tom Wolf, who transforms from a boy…

DIRT IS GOOD (page 18-19) JAGUAR ESCAPE! WORD FILLER! MATCH‘EM! 1-C; 2-B; 3-A. 1-FISHING TRAWLERS; 2-OCEAN PLASTIC; 3-GERMS. CROSSWORD (page 50) BIRD SEARCH (page 51) BRAIN BOOSTERS (page 52-53) FRUITY FINDS! 2 and 12 are only shown once. ODD ONE OUT 1 - Rabbit (the rest are reptiles); 2-Elephant (the others have shells); 3-Dog (the others are birds); 4-Monkey (it’s not an insect); 5-Tiger (it’s not a pet). CITY SEARCH MEGA SUDOKU DINO SAFARI T. REX is hidden 15 times. FOLDING FUN A-DOLPHIN; B-MANATEE; C-SEA LION; D-BLUE WHALE; E-PORPOISE; F-WALRUS. ANAGRAM ACTION DANGER becomes GARDEN. MIXED-UP PETS 1-PERSIAN; 2-SIAMESE; 3-TABBY; 4-BENGAL; 5-BURMESE. PICTURE PUZZLER SCORPION. SPOT THE DIFFERENCE (page 54) HIDDEN HORSES! (page 57) Turn the page upside down to see the answers!…

1 Mountains are created over millions of years as huge slabs of rock in the Earth’s crust, called tectonic plates, push against each other. Any hill above 300m (that’s the height of the Eiffel tower) can be called a mountain. 2 Often covered in forests, mountains are home to more than 85% of the world’s mammal, bird and amphibian species including creatures that only live in this habitat, such as red pandas, snow leopards and mountain gorillas. 3 The summits of mountains are often blanketed in snow and ice, which store fresh water, slowly releasing it into streams and rivers. Over half of the world’s people depend on mountain water to drink, grow crops and generate electricity.…

EXPLORE OF THE MONTH! Four species of pangolin live in Africa and four other types are found in Asia. All eight species eat ants and termites, which they slurp up using their long, sticky tongues! FACT FILE Name: Charles Emogor From: Nigeria, West Africa Job: Tropical ecotoqist, conservationist and National Geographic Explorer Hobbies: When he’s not looking for pangolins, Charles is listening and dancing to Afrobeat! As night falls in Cross River National Park, Nigeria, tropical ecologist Charles uses his headtorch to search through the undergrowth. Suddenly, the light startles a scaly creature the size of a large pet cat, which curls into a ball with a rustle. It’s a white-bellied pangolin! “I danced when I first saw a pangolin,” Charles remembers. “It was a magical experience. But it was also sad to…

INVISIBLE LIFE (These animals are too small to see with the naked eye! So to find them, Ariel collected samples of soils, ocean water and microbial mats* in Antarctica. Then she studied the samples under her microscope to snap these cool pics! *Microbial mats are large, slimy structures that grow on damp surfaces. They’re created when lots of microscopic organisms like bacteria grow together. TARDIGRADES aka WATER BEARS Tardigrades are my absolute favourites - they’re super cute and it’s easy to yet a fee for their ‘personalities’. can watch them walk around for hours! There are around 1,000 species which live all over Earth, from Antarctica to your garden or mossy cracks in pavements. WATER BEARS Tardigrades are also known as water bears, and with their paw-like feet, ambling manner and cute faces, we can see why. Another name for them is moss piglets! TEENY…

This year’s theme was urban trees! THE WINNER Congrats to Wrexham for voting their tree as the winner! This sweet chestnut is a true survivor, having dodged destruction multiple times during its near 500 years of existence! Many of its neighbouring trees were plundered for firewood after World War II, and dozens of storms (including one in 2021) have damaged and toppled other park residents. But Wrexham’s iconic sweet chestnut stands strong! Species: Sweet chestnut Location: Acton Park, Wrexham, Wales Approximate age: 484 years Girth*: 6.05 metres * A tree’s girth is the measurement (circumference) around its trunk. THE QUEEN’S PICNIC TREE Known today as the Crouch Oak, this giant tree is also called the Queen Elizabeth I Picnic Tree because the monarch is said to have lunched beneath its…

Check out these outrageous facts… COFFEE DRINKING was illegal in some countries during the 17th centuryit was even punishable by DEATH. The noises TASMANIAN DEVILS make while eating can be heard OVER 1.5KM AWAY. A HEDGEHOG HAS ABOUT 6,000 QUILLS. In 1887,a Man CLAIMED HE FOUND A SNOWFLAKE THAT WOULD’VE BEEN BIGGER THAN A DINNER PLATE. The world’s largest GOB STOPPER measured 30.1cm in diameter. In Canada, MOOSE are also called RUBBER-NOSED swamp donkeys. CHECK OUT THE BOOK!…

The Swift parrot was named Australia’s Bird of the Year in October! • ARCTIC TERN • BARN OWL • BLACKBIRD • BUDGERIGAR • BULLFINCH • CASSOWARY • CORMORANT • EMPEROR PENGUIN • EMU • GOLDEN EAGLE • GOSHAWK • GREAT CRESTED GREBE • GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER • JAY • KINGFISHER • KIWI • KOOKABURRA • MAGPIE • MALLARD • OSTRICH • PARAKEET • ROBIN • SANDPIPER • SHELDUCK • SWIFT PARROT Answers on page 57 Nicknamed ‘phantoms of the forest’, goshawks can fly silently through woodland at up to 40kmph! Great crested grebes perform fancy courtship displays. They face each other and shake their heads, bobbing up and down at the same time!…