Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i National Geographic Kids

1 It can take about 20 SECONDS for a CHAMELEON to change color. 2 Wearing BLUE-TINTED SUNGLASSES might make you LESS HUNGRY. 3 OSCAR THE GROUCH was originally ORANGE. 4 More than 6 BILLION GREEN MONOPOLY HOUSES have been manufactured since 1935. 5 In parts of ENGLAND, having a BLACK SHEEP in a flock was considered LUCKY. 6 BROWN is the most COMMON human eye COLOR. 7 Darker-colored FROZEN POPS usually MELT FASTER than lighter ones. 8 In ancient CHINA, only EMPERORS could wear YELLOW. For more fun facts, grab a parent to watch Things You Wanna Know! youtube.com/natgeokids…

This special tackle a big problem: single-use plastic pollution. You probably use items such as plastic water bottles and grocery bags every day.But unlike paper or food waste, plastic doesn’t decompose, or break down into pieces that can be reused by nature. Many plastic items end up in the ocean, where they can entangle animals or make them sick. Luckily humans are pitching in to save these creatures. The next 10 pages tell five inspiring stories about freshwater and ocean animals that have been rescued from life-threatening encounters with plastic. Plus you’ll get tons of tips on how you can reduce your plastic waste and keep habitats healthy for all animals. But first, take this fun personality quiz to see which of the rescued animals you’re most like. Then dive…

High-heeled shoes, footballs, plastic water bottles—Mr. Trash Wheel “eats” them all. This googly-eyed machine sits at the end of the 18-mile-long Jones Falls stream in Baltimore, Maryland. The water’s current turns the barge’s wheel so it scoops up litter and places it into a Dumpster. When the Dumpster is full, a boat tows it away and a new Dumpster replaces it. Later the trash is burned to power nearby homes. Other cities are considering trash wheels too, according to Adam Lindquist, who oversees the wheel as director of the Waterfront Partnership’s Healthy Harbor Initiative. But Lindquist hopes future versions won’t need to consume as much junk:“Our goal is to put Mr. Trash Wheel on a diet!”…

It would take six 10-year-olds to weigh as much as an average-size green sea turtle. A recent study found that over half of all sea turtles have eaten plastic in their lifetime. During one three-hour cleanup on a beach in Virginia, volunteers collected over 900 balloons. A young green sea turtle bobs along the surface of the water off the coast of Florida. Young turtles usually don’t hang out at the surface—that’s where predators can easily spot them, plus their food is deeper underwater. But something is keeping this foot-long turtle from diving. Luckily, rescuers spot the struggling turtle and take it back to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where they name it Chex. Staff place Chex in a shallow kiddie pool so that the turtle won’t waste energy trying to…

WATER WORLD Ask a friend to give you words to fill in the blanks in this story without showing it to him or her. Then read out loud for a laugh. My friends and I have the adjective ending in -est job verb ending in -ing gardens for Mrs. Johnson, the adjective lady who lives down the noun . One day, while friend’s name pulled noun, plural and another friend’s name past-tense verb the lawn, I watered the noun, plural . Then I had a(n) adjective idea. Wouldn’t it be more fun to water my friends instead? But just as I turned the hose on my pals, Mrs. Johnson past-tense verb into the path of the water spray—and got adjective . My friends and I froze. Then to our surprise,…

Send us your original drawings: Nat Geo Kids— Hero Art Zone P.O. Box 98002 Washington, DC 20090-8002 Include your name, address, phone number, date of birth, a title for your drawing, a statement that it is your own work, and the name of your parent or guardian. Your parent or guardian must sign a release for publication if your illustration is selected. Submissions become the property of National Geographic Partners, and all rights thereto are transferred to National Geographic Partners. Submissions cannot be acknowledged or returned. Selection will be at the discretion of Nat Geo Kids.…

Pilanesberg, South Africa Whenever Bob the meerkat got sleepy, he’d curl up in his favorite spot—between the paws of Zinzi the lion cub. “The animals would play in the morning and then cuddle together as they dozed,” says San-Maré Pretorius, co-manager of Predator World, where the animals lived. “They were inseparable.” The pair was introduced after their mothers abandoned them. Soon they were grooming each other, chasing one another, and snuggling when it was nap time. Zinzi liked to playfully leap at her meerkat buddy, then Bob would run away but return a few seconds later to try to pounce on Zinzi! The mischievous meerkat would also sometimes snatch the cub’s food or grasp onto her leg for a ride. Zinzi moved back to the zoo’s lion habitat when she…

Bottlenose dolphins shed their outermost layer of skin every two hours. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to have about 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in it. Experts think 8.8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year. A dozen reef manta rays swim in a group in the open ocean near Hawaii, scooping up plankton in their mouths. Divers direct their lights toward the scene, watching the rays. Amid the action, a male bottlenose dolphin swims slowly through the group. The dolphin catches the divers’ attention. He’s alone, which is unusual since most dolphins travel in small pods, plus he doesn’t seem to be afraid of the noises that the divers are making. The dolphin passes back and forth in front of the divers a few times,…

Experts think just one fishing net can entangle up to 40 animals. Harbor seals can’t rotate their hind flippers forward to walk on land—they can only scoot forward on their bellies. In the northeast United States, about 880 seals were accidentally caught in fishing nets over a seven-year period. A harbor seal pup floats in the water off the coast of Maine. The young seal has recently left its mother’s care—and it’s already in trouble. The little seal has a massive tangle of fishing nets wrapped around its body. Without help, the pup will not escape. Luckily a fishing boat passes by, and the people on board prepare to rescue the helpless animal. POLAR PROBLEMS Harbor seals live in coastal waters in the Northern Hemisphere, which includes polar habitats in…

COLOR CONFUSION If you think that the center tiles of each box are green, yellow, blue, and pink, think again. Each center tile is actually gray —just like the gray box below. To check, poke a small hole in a piece of scrap paper and place it over the page so you can see the center tiles without the surrounding colors. BEHIND THE BRAIN You know how an apple looks red whether it’s in a park or a cupboard? That’s because your brain can adjust to see the same color no matter how much natural light is shining on the apple. But sometimes brains get confused. In the four boxes above, your brain thinks that colored light is shining on each box’s tiles. The result? Your brain doesn’t see some…

SAILBOAT ON LAND Racing 126.1 miles an hour across a Nevada desert, this cool wind-powered contraption became the fastest land yacht ever. Called the Ecotricity Greenbird, it seems to sail like a boat on water. But if the driver doesn’t catch the 30-mile-an-hour wind just right, the land yacht might bite the dust! —Molly Marcot SO MANY YO-YOS! “Around the World” is probably a super-easy trick for this yo-yo master. Ben McPhee can spin 16 yo-yos simultaneously, the most on record. He starts by spinning 10 yo-yos and hanging them on hooks. The others? Two hang from each hand, two from each ear, and two are clenched between his teeth. Let’s hope he doesn’t get tied up in all that string. —Angela Modany DOGS GET MARRIED Wearing a $6,000 dress,…

Doggy Day Care Stansted Mountfitchet, England Fred the Labrador retriever took a quack at fatherhood when he adopted nine ducklings. After the ducklings were found wandering the grounds of Mountfitchet Castle (Fred’s home), the castle’s owners were worried the youngsters would struggle to survive without their mother. Good thing 10-year-old Fred was ready to be a parent! “Fred instantly took to the ducklings,” castle owner Jeremy Goldsmith says. The ducklings napped in a dog bed with Fred and often climbed on his back, the same way they’d sit on top of their duck mom. Ducklings that lose their mother sometimes become attached to the first moving thing they see, animal behavior expert Mary Burch says.“I would say the ducklings adopted Fred,” she says. The ducks are grown now, but they…

About 90 percent of seabirds eat plastic trash. More than 40 percent of all plastic trash is single-use plastic, meaning it’s used only once before it’s thrown away. When white-faced whistling ducks are alarmed, they stand up straight and freeze. A white-faced whistling duck walks backward with its head between its feet. It shakes its beak, stops to rest, and shakes again. The duck’s odd movements catch the attention of Glenda Maguire, who’s been watching the visiting animal from her patio in South Africa. Using her camera to zoom in for a closer look, she sees a ring of white plastic—likely from a milk bottle—wrapped around the duck’s mouth and neck.“It was painful to watch,” Maguire says. She wants to help, but she knows if she tries to catch it,…

Whale sharks aren’t whales—but they are the world’s largest fish. A minke whale was found off the coast of France with over 1,700 pounds of plastic bags in its stomach in 2017. More than 705,000 tons of fishing nets enter the ocean every year. A young whale shark swims slowly through a coral reef off the coast of the Philippines in Southeast Asia. At first, divers are thrilled to spot the nearly 13-foot-long fish. But as it moves closer, they see that the shark has a rope and a plastic net wrapped around its midsection, blocking its gills and cutting into its fins and back.“It looked like a ghost floating through the coral reef,” diver Pierlo Pablo says. If they’re not removed, the netting and rope will become tighter as…