Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 224 i National Geographic Kids (UK)

Hello, and a very merry festive season to you all! The whole NGK team are planning on having GREEN Christmases this year – that means recycled wrapping paper, home-made gifts, and planet-friendly decorations and food! Check out our website for loads of ideas, and write in to tell us about your own eco festivities! To keep you entertained over the hols, we've got tons of fun puzzles, including our Big Quiz of the Year – were YOU paying attention in 2023? Plus, read heartwarming tales about endangered animals that are making a comeback! Enjoy the mag and see you in 2024! Editor Tim and the Nat Geo Kids team…

A red wolf pads through a swampy corner of North Carolina, a state in eastern USA. As the animal searches for tasty rodents, experts track its movements using the orange GPS collar it's wearing around its neck. They need to know where it goes so they can better protect it – and this predator needs lots of protection: the red wolf is the most endangered wolf on Earth. But this isn't the only kind of wolf living in the USA that needs help. In the past, both grey wolves and Mexican wolves (a subspecies of grey wolf) almost went extinct in the country. But conservationists, scientists and lawmakers worked together to protect the animals, and today these wolves are returning to their homeland. “Humans and wolves can coexist,” says Giselle…

Scarlet macaws use their powerful bills to crush the nuts and seeds they eat, and their beaks can also help them climb trees! So these birds bag the Most Brilliant Beak award! Here are three other endangered animals in Central America that deserve their own trophy… LOUDEST HOWL The Yucatán black howler monkey, whose range extends into North America, is the planet's loudest land animal! Its howls can be as loud as an aeroplane taking off. Pass the ear plugs! FARTIEST SWIMMER Pygmy three-toed sloths (the smallest sloth species) are great swimmers – partly because they're so windy! Slow digestion means they have lots of gas in their system, which helps them float easily through their mangrove forest home. Now that's parp power! SNEAKIEST PUNCH These frogs get their spike-thumb…

EXPLORER OF THE MONTH! FACT FILE Name: Paula Kahumbu From: Kenya, East Africa Job: Elephant ecologist, conservationist, film maker and National Geographic Explorer Fun fact: People have started calling Paula Mama Ndovu, meaning 'Mother of Elephants' In a Kenyan grassland, ecologist Paula uses binoculars to watch a baby African savannah elephant stomp playfully through the legs of its watchful family. Already heavier than an adult human, this calf will grow up to be one of the world's largest land animals, weighing a whopping 7 tonnes. But Paula knows that bulk won't protect it from threats like poaching and habitat loss. After studying elephants for many years, she realised that science alone wouldn't keep them safe from extinction. That's why she took action… HANDS OFF OUR ELEPHANTS As boss of elephant charity…

ROUND 1: TECH NEWS 1 During the first three months of 2023, what green energy source generated more electricity than gas-fired power stations in the UK for the first time? a) Solar panels □  b) Wind turbines □ c) A new bicycle-powered energy plant □ 2 In March, the UK Government banned which social media site from all Government-owned electronic devices? a) TikTok □ b) Facebook □ c) Snapchat □ 3 Social media site Twitter changed its name in July. What's it called now? a) Musky □ b) X □ c) Zee □ 4 On 1 November, AI was announced as the Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year. But what does it stand for? a) Automated Imagination □  b) Alien Improvements □  c) Artificial Intelligence □ 5 Famous pop group The…

Animals often blend in with their environment to hide. Find the animals listed below in the pictures, then write the letter of the correct photo next to each animal's name. HINT: There are two to find! Answers on page 49…

SPECIAL ENDANGERED ANIMALS ISUUE COMEBACK CRITTER 1 For our endangered animals special, we travel the globe to meet four threatened species that are making a comeback – all thanks to caring humans and conservation laws! Read on to discover some of the amazing animals being saved… A 300kg, 3m-long tiger slinks silently through the forest. Its orange-and-black fur matches the pattern of sunlight filtering through the trees. “Tigers are much larger, more beautiful and more graceful than you'd expect,” says John Goodrich, chief scientist for conservation group Panthera, which works to protect tigers. They're the largest wild cats in the world – but they need our help. In the past 100 years, these animals have lost about 95% of their habitat. By 2010, the tiger population was at an all-time…

Wolf pups love to leap, pounce, chase, wrestle and play hide-and-seek. So these cute canines win our award for Most Playful Pups! Here are three other endangered animals in the USA that deserve their own trophy… MOST IMPRESSIVE LEAP These blunt-nosed leopard lizards wait for insects to wander by before pouncing. They can leap up to 60cm to snatch prey – that's about five times the length of their whole body. Wow! BEST GROUP NAME These guys mean business – literally! That's because a group of black-footed ferrets is called a 'business'! Their slim bodies slip easily into prairie dog burrows – the ideal place to take a break during the 'work day'! STEALTHIEST SQUID HUNTER Hawaiian petrels like squid – a lot (it makes up a third of their…

Did you know that humans and birds aren't the only creatures that sing songs? Humpback whales do too – very strange and extremely loud ones! As the 15m-long mammals swim through the sea, they make a series of whoops, croaks, squeaks, groans, wails, purrs and barks to communicate – and males compose these mysterious sounds into songs. New research has found that whales in a single population share the same song and that their tune changes over time as they move across the ocean. But just 50 years ago, this underwater music began to fade, as humpback numbers declined to just a few thousand. Luckily, a chance recording of their beautiful songs became a global hit – and that gave them the chance to survive! HOW TO HELP HUMPBACK WHALES…

VOLCANOES ONCE ERUPTED ON THE MOON. WORMS that resemble TINY CHRISTMAS TREES are found on many CORAL REEFS. BEST. SHOES. EVER! A SNOWY OWL'S FEET ARE COVERED IN FEATHERS TO KEEP THEM WARM. The lungs of a West Indian manatee are two-thirds the length of its body.…

The Rescue of Ravenwood Natasha Farrant Bea, Rafey and their new friend Noa want to save their special home, Ravenwood, from being destroyed! My favourite character in this UK-set mystery is Bea because she is brave and kind. Even though the story made me feel quite scared and nervous about what was going to happen next, I would recommend this adventure book. Surprisingly Sarah Terri Libenson In this funny book, a girl called Sarah has a big choice to make. Should she ask her crush Ben to the school dance… or chicken out? The dance is coming up, and she must make up her mind! This is a silly, laughter-filled storybook, a mix of comic book and normal writing which I really enjoyed. The Wonder Brothers Frank Cottrell-Boyce Middy and Nathan…

These eye-boggling decorations look complex but are a doddle to make! What you'll need ● Squares of paper (We used doubled-sided origami paper but plain paper is fine) • Ruler ● Scissors ● Glue stick or sticky tape Start here! 1 Fold your square into a triangle. Then fold into a triangle again. ECO TIP When Christmas is over, carefully take down your decorations and save them for next year! 2 With the long unfolded edge at the top, and the single fold to your left, draw a line about 1.5cm from the edge of the right side. 3 Measure 1.5cm-wide stripes from the folded edge folded edge to the line, and cut along them. along them. 4 Carefully unfold out into a square again. Loop the two inside triangles…

Taylor is gourd! What do you think of this Taylor-made pumpkin?! Jeanette Paras, from Ohio, USA, turns the orange fruits into celebrities! For this year's Halloween, she transformed a 180kg gourd into pop star Taylor Swift, painting its skin and adding a wig for hair and sweet potatoes for ears. “I pumpkinise whoever is the hot topic,” she says. You know you're famous once you're a pumpkin head! Bright buildings Famous German monuments were given a striking new look this October during Berlin's Festival of Lights. Colourful patterns, images and video projections were beamed onto the city's landmarks during the four-night light display. How illuminating! Ex-straw-dinary creatures Students from Musashino Art University in Japan crafted these colossal sculptures out of straw for the 2023 Wara Art Festival in Niigata. Using…

No two tigers have the same exact stripes. So we think they should win an award for the Coolest Coat! Here are three other endangered animals in Southeast Asia that deserve their own trophy… MOST DEVOTED MUM Adult orangutans are mostly solitary – except for mums with youngsters. Young Sumatran orangutans stay with their mothers till nearly their 10th birthday. Their mums teach them how to survive in the wild – but give them plenty of playtime, too! CUTEST HORNS With fewer than 100 remaining, Javan rhinoceroses are the rarest rhinos on Earth. They also have the smallest horns of all rhinos, often measuring less than 20cm. That's teeny compared to some African species, which have huge horns measuring up to 152cm! BEST DRACULA LOOKALIKE You might think vampires are…

A brightly coloured scarlet macaw soars over 1,000-year-old ruins in Honduras, a country in Central America. After flying over an ancient pyramid, the bird lands on a carved stone sculpture of… itself! Scarlet macaws were sacred to the Maya, people who thrived in this region between AD 300 and 900. This site, called the Copán ruins, has more macaw imagery, such as statues and carvings, than any other Maya spot. But by the early 2000s, real scarlet macaws were in danger of disappearing from the region. POACHING PROBLEMS With their curious nature, colourful feathers and ability to mimic human speech, many people around the world wanted scarlet macaws as pets throughout the 1900s. So local people would climb trees in Central American forests to steal their chicks. One bird could be…

Humpback whale songs can be heard underwater up to an amazing 30km away. So we're awarding these 'musical' sea mammals the Biggest Singing Sensation! Here are three other endangered ocean animals that deserve their own trophy… BEST POCKETS These adorable marine mammals store rocks in a patch of loose skin under their arms – a bit like a pocket. They use the rocks as tools to open tasty clams in the kelp forests where the sea otters live. They'll often use the same rock over and over. TOUGHEST TUMMY Hawksbill sea turtles have an unusual diet – sponges! Their hawklike beaks pluck the sea sponges (mosslike animals) from coral. The sponges are toxic to most animals, but these tough turtles gobble 544kg a year! NEATEST NOGGIN Great hammerhead sharks sweep…

VERY IMPORTANT BEAR Meet Juno the polar bear – an officer in the Canadian Army and the world's highestranking bear! After being born on Remembrance Day 2015, Juno was adopted by Canada's Armed Forces and now holds the unofficial rank of Master Corporal. She's also an environmental ambassador, raising climate change awareness for visitors at the Toronto Zoo, Canada, where she lives. Juno, we salute you! HUGE DECORATION You might have a hard time hanging this festive ornament on your tree! Dangling from the ceiling of a shopping centre in Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates, the world's largest Christmas bauble weighs 1,100kg and is about 4.5m in diameter. That's about as heavy as two cows and longer than a car! It took 15 people two nights to put the bauble together,…

DOWN 1 On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a ___ (9, 2, 1, 4, 4) 3 I'm dreaming of a ___ Christmas (5) 4 ___ roasting on an open fire (9) 5 Deck the halls with boughs of ___ (5) 6 It's the most ___ time of the year (9) 7 ___ it snow! Let ___ snow! Let it ___! (3, 2, 4) 10 Ding ___! Merrily on high (4) 11 It's ___ to look a lot like Christmas (9) 12 Rudolf the red-nosed ___ (8) 14 Oh little town of ___ (9) 16 Frosty the ___ was a jolly happy soul (7) 20 So here it is, Merry Christmas, everybody's having ___ (3) 22 Last Chr istmas, I gave you my ___ (5) 23 Well I wish it could be Christmas every day, when the…

MUSEUM MISCHIEF (page 38–39) THE BIG QUIZ OF THE YEAR (page 40-41) ROUND 1: TECH NEWS 1-b; 2-a; 3-b; 4-c; 5-b. ROUND 2: FAMOUS FACES 1-C; 2-E; 3-D; 4-B; 5-A. ROUND 3: MISSING WORDS! 1-E; 2-D; 3-A; 4-B; 5-C. ROUND 4: RECORD BREAKERS & MAKERS 1-c; 2-a; 3-b; 4-a; 5-c. ROUND 5: ODD ONE OUT 1-d; 2-a; 3-a (The Wallabies are Australia's men's rugby team); 4-b; 5-c. Bonus: Spain (The Red Fury) won the women's FIFA World Cup. BRAIN GAMES (page 42–43) CHRISTMAS COOKIES 6 and 9 are only shown once. SECRET SANTA SANTA CLAUS COMES FROM 'SINTERKLAAS', WHICH MEANS 'SAINT NICHOLAS' IN DUTCH. FESTIVE FIT SEASONAL SCENE MORE WORDS Here are some of the words containing five or more letters that can be made from the letters in 'CHRISTMAS…