Perfect for nature-loving 7-12 year olds, each issue of Nat Geo Kids is carefully curated to ignite curiosity and spark conversations about science and nature, empowering children to love and care for our beautiful planet.
Hi Kids! This issue, we check out the slowest mammals on Earth – turn to page 8 to read about our cover star, a three-toed sloth from Costa Rica! On page 10, we discover why red pandas are nicknamed forest acrobats, and on page 17 we meet an NG Explorer who’s restoring mangrove forests in the Philippines! Also this month, to celebrate Earth Day on 22 April, we learn about the ‘circular economy’ - a way to reduce waste and protect the planet! Talking of planets, have a go at our personality quiz on page 36 to find out which planet you should live on! Hope you love all the facts, puzzles and quizzes in this month’s mag. Enjoy the issue!…
Record-breaking cave lake! A vast, warm pool of water in Albania, Europe, has been declared the world’s largest underground thermal lake! The hidden 26°C lake was first discovered by a team of geologists from the Czech Republic in 2021, after they followed a column of steam rising from a deep mountain gorge into an unexplored cave system. They knew they’d found something extraordinary, but didn’t have the right gear to measure it. So last year, funded by the Neuron Foundation, the explorers returned with a hi-tech 3D scanner. Their findings were incredible! The pool, which they named Lake Neuron, is 138m long and holds over eight million litres of water – about the same as 3.5 Olympic swimming pools. Epic! Meet Australia’s Dog of the Year! Congratulations to Elle –…
Big air! This incredible picture shows the moment extreme kitesurfer Lasse Walker leapt over an aeroplane as it flew close to the sea in Cape Town, South Africa! Lasse and pilot Łukasz ‘Luke’ Czepiela spent two years planning the stunt on Dolphin Beach – wonder what the daring duo will do next?! Old-skool faces Have you got any old-fashioned tech gathering dust around the house? Well, London-based artist Nick Gentry uses vintage media to make portraits of people! Piecing together old computer disks, VHS tapes or photo negatives to form canvases, he then adds paint to complete the faces. Brilliant! Butterfly buildings! French street artist Youri Cansell is a BIG fan of butterflies. After spending hours studying them in the wild, he creates giant murals of the beautiful insects on…
With their clever camouflage and super-slow motion, sloths can be difficult to spot in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. But sloth expert Albert Vega Ruíz knows how to find them among the lush foliage of Costa Rica, where he works as a guide. “Look closely for a dark, round shape that has a different texture to the surrounding vegetation,” he says. “Sloths often snooze in the joins of tree branches and can be mistaken for birds’ nests at first glance.” Let’s take a closer look at these amazing animals… Sloths are arboreal, which means they’re perfectly adapted for life in the treetops. They eat, sleep, mate and give birth up in the canopy. In fact, these mammals only come down to have a poo once a week,…
A red panda totters along the branch of an evergreen tree, placing one paw in front of the other like a gymnast on a balance beam. But then… whoops! The panda loses its footing. A fall from this height – about 30m – could be deadly. But the panda quickly grips the branch with all four paws and its seriously sharp claws, steadies itself and keeps moving. “Red pandas spend about 90% of their time in the trees,” says red panda expert Mariel Lally. In fact, these animals have adapted so well to life in the trees that they’re famous for their incredible acrobatic skills. Check out six ways red pandas land a perfect score with their amazing aerial act! WILD NAMES European scientists were confused when they first heard…
FACT FILE Name: Camille Rivera-Roa From: Bukidnon in Mindanao, the Philippines, Southeast Asia Job: Marine biologist, conservationist and National Geographic Explorer Fun fact: As a child, Camille looked after three rescued pythons! Mangroves protect coasts from powerful tropical storms called typhoons. Around 20 typhoons hit the Philippines each year. Camille appears in the video game Minecraft! Players can meet her character in the game’s mangrove ecosystem. You can also spot her in the short film Minecraft Mangroves: Building a Better World online! Squelch! Mud splashes as marine biologist Camille Rivera-Roa picks her way through a mangrove forest in Mindanao, south Philippines. These coastal jungles are full of wildlife - during high tides, the trees are flooded by seawater, making a home for young fish, while birds, snakes and monkeys live in…
