Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i National Geographic Kids

1 PIG GETS WHEELS SUMTERVILLE, FLORIDA Chris P. Bacon just wanted to run and play. But he was born without the use of his back legs. Luckily the piglet was adopted by veterinarian Len Lucero, who built him a different pair of “legs.” He attached a wheeled cart behind Chris so the pig could pull himself along, sort of like a miniature pig-mobile. Lucero was so impressed with Chris’ spirit that the vet started bringing the pig to visit children in hospitals, hoping that he’d inspire them as well. This pig is really on a roll! 2 TORTOISE LIVES (ALMOST) FOREVER GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS, OFF THE COAST OF ECUADOR Up until 1971, scientists thought that Pinta Island tortoises were extinct. Then a scientist studying snails in the Galápagos Islands wandered upon…

Superheroes can swing from skyscrapers, leap crazy high, and zoom through the sky. But some animals can too. Check out how these three superheroes stack up to the real-life creatures they’re named after. SUPERHERO: SPIDER-MAN ANIMAL INSPIRATION: Spiders SHARED POWERS: Spider-Man and real arachnids both release spider silk strong enough to suspend them in the air. And both can shoot different types of webbing: Spider-Man uses one kind of silk to trap villains and another to swing from buildings; some real spiders can produce up to seven different types of webbing, including one for making egg sacs. BIG-SCREEN BOOST: Spider-Man uses his superhuman strength to lift a collapsed building. Most real spiders can’t carry objects bigger than they are. But scientists have noted one possible exception: Jumping spiders might be…

SUPER-FAST GOAT Looking like a white-and-black blur, Ninja the goat ran across the backs of 26 people in just 9.4 seconds to set the record for the fastest goat to climb over a human tunnel. Ninja’s not just speedy—he’s also flexible. The talented animal is trained in both yoga and acrobatics. Wonder what his backflip looks like. DANCING ROBOTS Robots are taking over—the dance floor, that is! In Rome, Italy, 1,372 robots waved their arms and stomped their feet to set the record for the most robots dancing at the same time. The 1.3-foot-tall bots were all controlled by a single smartphone that programmed their moves. The song that got them grooving? “Another Day of Sun” from the movie La La Land. LONGEST CAKE Talk about a berry delicious treat. Pastry chefs…

SAHARA STATS The Sahara, a desert in northern Africa, is one of the driest places on the planet. Slather on some sunscreen and grab a few cool facts about this hot spot. TEMPERATURE CAN RISE HIGHER THAN 122°F SIZE 3.47 MILLION SQUARE MILES COVERAGE 6% OF THE WORLD’S LAND AREA THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES WOULD FIT INSIDE THE SAHARA WITH ROOM TO SPARE. LOCATION COVERS MOST OF NORTH AFRICA, SPREADING ACROSS 11 AFRICAN COUNTRIES: LIBYA, ALGERIA, EGYPT, TUNISIA, CHAD, MOROCCO, ERITREA, NIGER, MAURITANIA, MALI, AND SUDAN RAINFALL LESS THAN 3 INCHES A YEAR HEIGHT SAND DUNES CAN RISE AS HIGH AS 600 FEET. CHECK OUT THE BOOK!…

How many times have you told someone, “I had the weirdest dream last night”? Probably a lot. In fact, you can have up to six dreams a night. Some of them are bound to be crazy. Dreams are created by the part of your brain that stores memories, emotions, and thoughts. At night your brain blends what’s stored in your mind with what you’ve been thinking about lately. The result can be wild but realistic dreams. Dreams hardly ever become reality, but they might contain hints about what’s going on in your life. “Dreams help us get in touch with our deeper feelings,” dream researcher Alan Siegel says. “They can tell us a lot about ourselves and could even help us figure out problems.” Scientists have discovered that many dreams…

Ring-Tailed Lemur LIVES IN: Southern Madagascar SCREEN NAME: TallTails » FRIENDS: START 6 a.m. TallTails Wakey-wakey! Who’s ready to take a #SunSalutationSelfie with me? ColorChange I don’t do lemur yoga. But I wouldn’t say no to lying around and warming up my cold-blooded body. HissHiss Leaf me out of that sunshine nonsense. My happy place is the dark forest floor. TopClaw Sunbathing lemurs? Sounds like a hot breakfast to me. 12 p.m. TallTails Ugh—I hate it when two male lemurs try to show off with a stink fight. They use their smell to win a date, but is that really winning? HissHiss That sounds gross even to me … and I live in rotten leaves. Try some music. Male cockroaches sing—er, hiss—to get my attention. TopClaw Fossas just yowl at…

The $20 bill is the most widely counterfeited note in the United States. In India, the slang term for the amount of 100,000 rupees is peti, or suitcase. You might need one to carry that much money! During Chinese New Year, many families make offerings to the Chinese god of wealth, Cai-Shen. King Tut appears on the Egyptian 1-pound coin. A collection in the Smithsonian Institution has 750,000 pieces of paper money. Canadian banknotes come with raised dot patterns for visually impaired people. Guatemala’s currency is named the quetzal, after the national bird. A janitor at a German library found and turned in a box of rare coins thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. MONEY TIP! ANY TIME YOU BUY SOMETHING ON SALE, PUT WHAT YOU SAVED…

Orca Steals Boat Vancouver Island, Canada As onlookers watched an unmanned sailboat glide around the harbor, they wondered if ghosts were steering the ship. But it wasn’t a supernatural force: It was a super-sneaky orca. The killer whale—known as TO73B to scientists—was pulling the boat by swimming with the anchor rope in its mouth. Orca researcher Josh McInnes says his team of scientists has often spotted T073B playing with crab traps and buoys, so they figured the whale was probably investigating the rope when he started pulling the sailboat. “Top predators like orcas are curious because they have to explore their environment in search of prey,” McInnes says. T073B played with the boat for about five minutes before releasing the rope and then leaping out of the water. Although the orca…

A sleeping puppy’s nose wiggles, its paws twitch, and it softly woofs—the pup must be dreaming, right? Scientists aren’t so sure. “It’s one of the greatest mysteries in biology,” sleep expert Marcos Frank says. To find out, researchers looked at the brain waves of animals while asleep and awake. In one experiment, birds called zebra finches seemed to show the same brain activity while sleeping that they had while they were awake and singing. In another study, the brain patterns of snoozing lab rats appeared to be running the maze that they’d moved through earlier that day—almost as if they were practicing in their sleep. “This strongly suggests that they’re dreaming about what they did while they were awake,” Frank says. But it’s hard to say if animals have fantastical…

1. Fill in the thought balloon. 2. Cut out the entire picture(or make a photocopy of it). 3. Mail it along with your name, address, phone number, and date of birth to Nat Geo Kids, Back Talk, P.O. Box 96000, Washington, DC 20090-6000. Selection for publication in a future issue will be at the discretion of Nat Geo Kids. FROM THE MAY 2018 ISSUE Cloudy with a chance of nose hair! Landon T., 11 Las Vegas, Nevada Back up! It’s still the gazelles’ turn! Paige F., 10 Anchorage, Alaska OK, next you guys wash me. Shivam S., 12 Katy, Texas Do you like my new shower setting? Wynne T., 11 Freehold, New Jersey You have entered the splash zone. Ava L., 11 Drums, Pennsylvania Seriously, guys, how long have you…