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! We're having a double celebration this month… it's our festive special AND we're celebrating our 250th issue. Woo-hoo! To honour this great occasion, we have a bumper puzzle section for you to enjoy over the holidays. Our cover star this month is a gorgeous snow leopard – turn to page 10 to see some 'selfies' that these mysterious big cats have snapped! Also this issue, we learn about an active volcano in Antarctica, get up close to 15 creatures that are new to science and read about some valuable gems accidentally flushed down the drain by Ancient Romans. Oops! Enjoy the mag, and have a fantastic Christmas and New Year – see you in 2026!…
Birds of the Year! Forget the Oscars or Grammys – results are in for the awards from abroad that really matter: the New Zealand and Australia ‘Bird of the Year’ contests! This year, New Zealanders voted for the kārearea, aka New Zealand falcon, as their bird of the year, in a hotlycontested race organised by the Forest & Bird charity. The country’s only falcon, this high-speed aerial hunter can dive at speeds of over 200kmph to catch prey. Whoa! Meanwhile, Aussies gave top spot to the superbly strange tawny frogmouth. This wide-mouthed bird is perfectly camouflaged on tree branches, where it perches all day before waking at night to pounce on bugs, reptiles and smaller birds. It’s been a runner-up three times in the past – but this year it…
Huge pumpkin Did you buy a pumpkin for Halloween? Bet it wasn’t this big! Brandon Dawson, from Santa Rosa in the USA, won first prize at the 2025 World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off with this homegrown whopper, which was large enough to sit his kids on! Brandon’s gigantic gourd weighed 1,064kg – as heavy as a small car. Whoa! Wild lines! Check out these designs for animal-shaped electricity pylons! Called the Austrian Power Giants, the stag and stork-shaped structures have been designed to make powerlines and electrical infrastructure more interesting. Would you like to see a deer-shaped pylon in real life?! Eye on the sky! Street artist Abraham Osorio, aka Abraham.O, has painted this eye-opening masterpiece – which can only be seen from above! The vast artwork, called Looking at the Sky, took…
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Calling all future astronauts! This year’s famous Christmas Lectures take viewers on a thrilling voyage to the furthest known reaches of the cosmos! Join pioneering space scientist Dr. Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock to check out the latest space discoveries and investigate the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. Plus, there are loads of special guests, from astronauts to astronomers. And, as it’s the Lectures’ 200th anniversary, Dame Maggie will look back at some of the first ever astronomy lectures. Epic! ● On BBC 4 over the Christmas period. Catch up on iPlayer. Zootropolis 2 The gleaming city of Zootropolis is a bustling place where animals from every environment live side by side in harmony (well, most of the time). Nine years after the first film, expectations are high for…
Crystal city! What do you see in this striking image? With its dazzling colours and sharp points, we think it looks a bit like an eerie sci-ficity or an elaborate cathedral. But the pic actually shows a zoomed-in view of something you might find in your kitchen cupboards – dried-up soy sauce! What are those geometric shapes? Well, this tasty Chinese condiment is usually a smooth, brown liquid – but if it’s left exposed to the air or kept too cold, it can develop tiny, diamond-like solids on its surface. These are salt crystals, forced out of the mixture by the change in conditions. And when those crystals are put under a microscope, they look like this! Polish photographer Marek Miś took the awesome image by magnifying the crystals to…
All of the images in this story were taken using camera traps. When the cats move past motion detectors, the cameras take a snap - so all these photos are selfies! LOCATION: Spiti Valley, India “Hee hee! I love my big nose. You would, too, if you needed large nostrils to take in more oxygen up in the mountains, where there’s less of it. Check out my curious sibling sniffing around behind me. We’re following our mum’s scent as we leave our den!” Here’s a clever way to study snow leopards: let them take selfies! Scientists have a hard time researching wild snow leopards. That’s because the shy creatures live in remote mountain regions, and as few as 4,000 of the cats may remain in the wild. So starting in 2009, the Snow Leopard Trust placed 40 cameras in…
