Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i National Geographic Kids

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Your vehicle is flying over the Sea of Japan when you see your first stop below. Hundreds of green trees appear as you slowly descend into a boreal forest on a Japanese island called Hokkaido. Boreal forests like this one can be found from sea level up to mountainous elevations around 5,000 feet and are home to trees such as fir, spruce, and ash. A flash of fur whizzes from one tree to another. It’s a tiny creature called a Siberian flying squirrel, which grows to be about seven inches long. Despite their name, these squirrels don’t actually fly. “They don’t flap like a bird, but rather glide from a high place to a low place,” says Kei Suzuki, a researcher at Japan’s Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute.…

Your vehicle hovers above the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, where you can see long, green tree-like seaweed underneath the clear water. Called a kelp forest, the swaying stalks seem to wave back and forth at you while curious sea otters swim up to check out the scene. A type of seaweed(which are algae, not plants), kelp grows in dense thickets along coastal areas around the world, creating “forests” that can grow to be a hundred feet tall. The underwater jungle attracts all types of animals looking for food and shelter. “The biodiversity of these forests is through the roof!” marine ecologist Joshua Smith says. “Kelp forests would rival any tropical rainforest or coral reef in the number of species they support.” No wonder sea otters hang out in…

DINOMANIA You won’t catch these creatures in a museum! For our Design-a-Dino contest, Nat Geo Kids readers imagined cool new dinosaurs. Take a look at the winning entry and some of the runners-up from the Design-a-Dino contest! THE WINNER! Go online to read the winning description and see all the runners-up. natgeokids.com/dinomania. ALMANAC CHALLENGE: Me as a Tree Send us what you’d be like as a tree. Explore the arboreal world from roots to canopy to unearth the various features of different species, then imagine the kind of tree you’d want to be. Tell us about your creation by writing a mini autobiography and drawing a tree selfie. Your art could be featured in the Nat Geo Kids Almanac 2024. Grab a parent and go online for the official rules…

1 NO STRINGS ATTACHED A music-lover brought harmony to his home with the design for this violin-shaped pool in his backyard. At night, 5,600 fiberoptic cables light up multicolored “strings” timed to the music’s beat. A hot tub serves as the violin’s chin rest, and the bow is actually two narrow fish ponds. Bravo! 2 FLOAT YOUR BOAT Here’s one way to breathe new life into an old barge: Turn it into a pool! This popular spot floats on the Spree River in Berlin, Germany, with a wooden footbridge that allows easy access from the riverbank. 3 OVER THE EDGE The pool at the Joule Hotel in Dallas, Texas, really leaves it all hanging out there—eight feet out there, to be exact. One side of the special swimming spot juts out from…

Fernandina Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador Fernandina giant tortoises hadn’t been seen in over a hundred years. Tortoise species throughout the Galápagos Islands had been hunted by pirates, whalers, and traders, and volcanic eruptions on Fernandina Island caused that population to seemingly disappear. Scientists thought the Fernandina species was extinct—but then they found tortoise poop on the island. After two days of hiking across the volcanic island’s lava flows—eureka! A team of rangers discovered a long-lost Fernandina tortoise, which they named (what else?) Fernanda. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” says Washington Tapia, a conservation scientist who led the expedition. “It was one of the best moments of my life.” The team brought Fernanda to a care and breeding center on a nearby island to keep her healthy. Tapia and the team plan…

Your vehicle zooms through a forest in England filled with oak, maple, and beech trees. It’s spring, and the trees are just beginning to regrow their bright green leaves. Temperate forests are known for the changes they make during the spring, summer, winter, and fall seasons(unlike tropical forests, which grow all year long). A nimble little weasel scampers through the brush in search of a meal—and tries not to become one. “These weasels are tiny carnivores,” says Janne Sundell, a weasel researcher at the University of Helsinki. “They’ll visit every hole and cavity to hunt for mice and voles, but they have to be careful to stay undercover because they’re prey, too.” Little weasels prefer to rest underground in burrows they stole from mice and voles. “Their long, thin bodies…

For your last stop, your vehicle transports you somewhere really far away—approximately 145 million years ago in what’s now the African country of Tanzania. As you lower the vehicle toward a prehistoric forest, a massive head suddenly pokes through the treetops. The giant animal is using its mouth to yank leaves off trees. You’ve spotted a Giraffatitan (pronounced juh-RAF-uhteye-tin), a dinosaur named for its long neck and towering size that could grow to be 75 feet long and 40 feet tall. The dino isn’t alone. Three other Giraffatitan eat nearby; one is a baby, munching leaves its mom drops on the ground. These gigantic dinosaurs might look terrifying, but the only buffet the herbivores want is a treetop one. “Giraffatitan was likely warm-blooded,” paleontologist Paul Upchurch says. “They’d need to…

You feel the temperature and humidity rise as your vehicle whirs through the canopy of the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica. A type of forest that grows along Earth’s equator, this warm and rainy habitat supports more species than any other ecosystem. You quickly notice a splash of minty green on the rainforest floor—it’s a green-and-black poison frog. You might not expect such an eye-catching creature to be out during the day, but the frog’s bright color alerts potential predators that it isn’t good snacking: The frog has stored up poison in its skin from the ants and termites it eats. Many frogs lay their eggs in different watery spots. But the female black-and-green poison frog deposits up to 10 eggs right on the rainforest floor before hopping off. That…

About 80 percent of Earth’s land animals make a home among the trees. But these habitats are disappearing across the globe. In the last 10,000 years (when humans began farming), we’ve lost 30 percent of all trees that were once on Earth. That’s bad news for the animals that live in forests, as well as for people everywhere: Trees turn the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide into the oxygen we breathe. Plus, by absorbing heat-trapping CO2, trees help fight climate change. But lots of people are working hard to protect forests—and you can help, too. Follow these tips to help keep the planet’s forests standing tall. 1 ANIMAL AID Forest animals like scarlet macaws, sloths, and tigers deserve to live in the wild, not in people’s homes or at roadside attractions. Never purchase…