Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i National Geographic Kids

A GROUP OF GIRAFFES IS CALLED A TOWER. HONEYBEES HAVE TWO STOMACHS. In Japan, you can buy doughnuts stuffed with ramen noodles. A HEXAGON-SHAPED HURRICANE HAS HOVERED OVER SATURN’S NORTH POLE FOR AT LEAST 30 YEARS. AN ATLANTIC PUFFIN CAN HOLD AS MANY AS A DOZEN SMALL FISH BILL IN ITS AT ONE TIME. The first baseball caps were made from straw. Most sharks would sink in freshwater. COLLECT BADGES! Go online to earn your Shark badge. natgeokids.com/badges…

Cliff Hotel AESCHER MOUNTAIN GUESTHOUSE WHERE Appenzell, Switzerland HOW MUCH $45 a night WHY IT’S COOL If you want your next vacation to be a real cliff-hanger, check out this spot. The 170-year-old inn and restaurant is built against a cliff face in the Swiss Alps almost 4,800 feet above sea level. Visitors can climb up the peak to get to the inn. Or, if an extreme mountain trek isn’t your thing, you can catch a cable car to the top instead. Once there, guests walk along a footpath that takes them through a prehistoric cave straight to the hotel’s doorstep. When visitors aren’t hanging out in the hotel’s rustic dorm rooms, they can hike around the lodge or dine at the restaurant perched on the edge of the bluff.…

CHOCOLATE DRESS WHAT Candy clothing WHERE Edinburgh, Scotland DETAILS How do you celebrate National Chocolate Week? By wearing an entire outfit made of the sweet stuff. A Scottish designer created this chocolate look for a fashion show celebrating the tasty treat. In addition to the 110-pound dress, the model wore a chocolate hat and fan. That’s one sweet-looking getup. TREE HOUSE TOWER WHAT Stacked tree houses WHERE Chongqing, China DETAILS In one Chinese city, tree houses really have branched out! Visitors to this attraction can climb to the top of nine separate tree houses stacked three stories high. The tricked-out tree house structure rises 40 feet aboveground. All it needs now is an elevator. T . REX SCORES GOAL WHAT Dinosaur disguise WHERE Carson, California…

ANIMAL AWARDS These animals might not make it to the podium at this month’s Summer Olympics in Brazil, but they’re all winners to us! Use the clue beneath each gold medal to match it to a champion creature below. ANSWERS ON PAGE 35 Sleepiest A Curled up in a eucalyptus tree, this animal sleeps between 18 and 20 hours a day. Slowest B This animal moves slow enough to allow algae to grow on its furry coat. Grossest C This member of the weasel family was once observed repelling an entire pride of lions with a squirt of smelly fluid from its, um, tail end. Oldest D This reptile will probably outlive you—individuals of this species often live well over a hundred years. Hairiest E This mammal is covered in…

OFFICER CAMEL Deputy Bert the camel may never be awarded a medal for bravery, but he does hold one honor: the record for the world’s highest-ranking camel. Bert doesn’t round up criminals, though. Sure, he wears an official badge from the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department in California while sporting a blanket with a hole for his hump. But his main “job” is to help represent the department at school safety programs and other community events. Sometimes, though, Bert does behave like a bad guy. He allows local horses to get close to him, then roars loudly. “He thinks scaring the horses is hilarious ” handler Nance Fite says. TWO-WHEEL DRIVING Talk about throwing your weight around. Michele Pilia holds the record for the longest distance traveled by an automobile…

1 VISITORS NOT WELCOME On their own, sea salps like this one are pretty harmless. But large numbers of them can wreak havoc. A power plant on California’s coast once had to be temporarily shut down after a mass of slimy salps clogged the screens used to keep out marine life. 2 TRANSPARENT SQUID You can find the balloon-shaped, big-eyed glass squid in the deep waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. The squid’s eyes and arms contain light-emitting organs known as photophores, which may attract mates. 3 FLAPPING MARVEL The transparent wings of glasswing butterflies barely reflect any light. And without light bouncing off the insects’ bodies, it’s much harder for enemies such as birds to spot them. This allows the butterflies to fly under the radar of most predators.…

Octopuses are outrageously cool, and not just for having eight arms. The world’s 300 or so octopus species have acrobatic moves, ink that acts like a protection spell, and much more. Check out eight splashy octopus powers. 1 VANISHING ACT Superheroes aren’t the only ones with powers of invisibility. Octopuses hide in plain sight from predators such as sharks by changing color and texture to blend in with their surroundings. For instance, the day octopus imitates seaweed by turning its brown flesh green and its smooth skin bumpy. 2 LIFE IN THE FAST LANE Octopuses know how to hustle. When they need to make a quick getaway, they suck in water and then rapidly push it out of a funnel-like opening near their heads. This creates a jet stream that…

Check out these photos and more at ngkidsmyshot.com . BONUS: Upload your best summertime photos and tag them with #summer to earn a badge! FAMOUS PHOTO! This My Shot pic was recently featured at the official residence of Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden. Go online to submit your own photo that could be displayed there too! ngkidsmyshot.com…

1 From Earth you always look at the same side of the moon. 2 A lightning storm on Saturn was nearly big enough to cover the entire United States. 3 Astronauts have grown potatoes on the space shuttle. 4 The Milky Way is made up of some 100 billion stars. 5 Chimpanzees, monkeys, dogs, mice, and a guinea pig have all traveled into space. 6 The north pole of Uranus doesn’t get sunlight for almost 42 years at a time. WIN THE BOOK! TRY ONLINE JULY 13-20. natgeokids.com/august…

Superpowers—who needs them? These real-life supervillains used their smarts to pull off some of the world’s greatest heists. They didn’t let little things like guards or video cameras or a three-ton steel door stop their bold schemes to swipe some of the world’s richest treasures. But small mistakes cost them big in the end. A DAZZLING CRIME WHERE Antwerp, Belgium DATE February 16, 2003 THE LOOT More than $100 million worth of jewels, gold, and money “We’re in.” Two floors under Antwerp’s Diamond Center, in a vault considered impenetrable, a thief nicknamed “Monster” bypasses the last of ten security systems. Another crook called “King of Keys” drills into safe-deposit boxes. The men—along with the three others in their crew—yank out gold bars, money, and hundreds of diamonds. They steal at…

AGILE WALLABY A Wallabies are kangaroos. TRUE. Wallabies are small to medium-size kangaroos. Agile wallabies are one of the largest kinds of wallaby. B Dinner with a wallaby is a mob scene. TRUE. Groups of wallabies, called mobs, often dine together. Agile wallabies are found throughout tropical Australia in forests and grasslands near rivers or streams. C Wallabies eat only the soft new shoots from grasses and shrubs. FALSE. Wallabies will eat every part of a plant. During the dry season, mobs even dig up plant roots for food. D Wallaby parents must watch out for dingoes. TRUE. The dingo, a kind of wild dog, preys on wallabies. So do pythons and eagles. E These wallabies are quite clumsy. FALSE. They are very agile and quick. DUGONG A A dugong…