Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024/January 2025 i National Geographic Kids

ANIMAL: PRAYING MANTIS LOCATION: SREDNA GORA MOUNTAINS, BULGARIA When this photographer sees an insect, he doesn’t freak out—he takes a photo of it! Georgi Georgiev explains how he got this cartoon-like shot of a very real praying mantis. “I found this praying mantis by accident. It was fall, and I was in the forest looking for mushrooms to photograph. The mantis was near some mushrooms. It was a challenge not to scare it away. “I was sneaking very slowly, crawling on the ground until I got close enough. I imagined how I wanted the picture to look, then I waited until the fairy-tale scene was just right. I used a special macro lens, which makes small insects look much bigger and brings out details like the mantis’s antennae and leg…

THE ANIMAL Florida panther, native to southwestern Florida THE LOCATION ZooTampa at Lowry Park in Tampa, Florida Rangers found Lucy the Florida panther 17 years ago when she was a kitten, alone and suffering from a head wound. Zoo staff raised her here, so she’s comfortable around people. But that means she can’t be released. For our photo shoot, staff set me up in a space that Lucy hangs out in. Like a domestic cat, she wants to be up high, where she can see everything that’s going on. So we wrapped a tall platform in white paper. I got in position behind a door with a small window. When Lucy walked in, she jumped onto her shelf and looked right at me, completely relaxed. Snap! I got the shot.…

SECRET PASSAGEWAYS Fox dens often have several holes that they use as both entrances and exits. PLAY PLACE Fox kits practice hunting skills in their den by chasing and play fighting with each other. DEN DECORATIONS Kits play with objects their parents have brought to the den from the outside. FOX FRIDGE Separate areas are for storing food and eating—including live prey that kits can “hunt.”…

SOLO COPTER This one-person electric vehicle feels like riding in a life-size drone. The Jetson ONE is seven times lighter than a regular helicopter and can fly for 20 minutes on one charge, traveling up to 60 miles an hour. The inventors think this ride will help people explore canyons, mountains, and forested areas where airplanes and helicopters can’t fit. REALLY COOL CUBE Play video games across all 24 screens of WOWCube, a twistable device that responds to the way you hold and turn it. In one of the cube’s dozens of games, you shift the blocks like a Rubik’s Cube to match patterns. In another, you rotate the device to move a ball through a maze. The tech is powered by eight tiny computers working together. Play ball—er, cube!…

A European red fox slinks along a hiking path, stalking its prey under nighttime cover. A human hiker would need a flashlight, but the fox’s night vision helps it spot a small rodent called a vole near the trail. The fox sneaks up on the tiny critter and pounces—it’s dinnertime. “These foxes are one of the most successful predators on the planet,” animal behaviorist Blake Morton says. Check out five things that make the European red fox a top hunter. 1. They hunt anything, anywhere. European red foxes live throughout much of western Europe, Asia, North Africa, and even in Australia, where Europeans brought them in the mid-1800s for sport hunting. So the canines evolved to hunt in a lot of different habitats—for a lot of different prey. “They can, and…

Wildlife photographer Milan Radisics watches a female fox slink along his property. He smiles as he recognizes the small cut on her left ear: It’s the fox he calls “Roxy,” a regular visitor to his cottage in Hungary, a country in central Europe. As cities and suburbs expand into fox habitat, these creatures are learning to thrive near people. But Radisics doesn’t shoo Roxy away. “My house is in the middle of her habitat,” he says. “Who am I to keep her out?” Instead, Radisics keeps his distance and takes photographs of Roxy using camera traps and a remote shutter release. Here, he gives Nat Geo Kids the scoop on some of his favorite photos. FOX PHOTOBOMB “One of Roxy’s favorite places is my barn, probably because of all the…

A MATSCHIE’S TREE KANGAROO hugs the side of a tree trunk. Suddenly, the fur ball pushes off the trunk with its powerful legs and bounds three feet up the tree. The roo hops until it reaches the branchy canopy a hundred feet high. You might think of kangaroos bouncing along the ground. But tree kangaroos spend most of their lives up in the trees, foraging for leaves, raising their young, and looking for snoozing spots. Read on to discover how the Matschie’s tree kangaroo’s arboreal lifestyle is way up there compared to the life of a red kangaroo. Sized Up RED ROO REALITY: Red kangaroos can be over five feet tall and weigh 200 pounds—as much as an adult human. MATSCHIE’S WEIRD WORLD: A heavy animal is bad news for…

SET IN ANCIENT OCEANIA, the new movie Moana 2 follows Polynesian wayfinder Moana and demigod—or part human, part god—Maui as the pair voyages to fictional islands inspired by real ones in the central and southern Pacific Ocean. Living some 2,000 years ago, real-life ancient people in this part of the world worshipped gods and goddesses and told tales of them having influence on everything from the weather to the outcome of wars. Check out the mythology some of these people believed in. 1 One Tahitian myth says the world was created out of a giant cosmic egg. 2 Just like the movie character, Maui the mythological figure had a magical fishhook in some legends. In one Hawaiian tale, the demigod fishes up islands using a fishhook called Mānaiakalani (mah-NEYE-ahkuh-lah-nee). 3 The god Makemake…

Mostly A’s Great Blue Hole Your kindness draws people to you—sort of like how the Great Blue Hole attracts tourists. Located off the coast of Belize in Central America, this roughly 400-foot-deep spot is a popular place for divers. Famous for its water that appears like a hole in the ocean, the Great Blue Hole is home to hawksbill sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, and lots of tropical fish. Mostly B’s Mount Everest You love to push yourself and never say no to a challenge, which makes Mount Everest your best personality match. Straddling China and Nepal in Asia’s Himalayan mountain range, 29,032-foot Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth. Despite the peak’s freezing temperatures and low oxygen levels, climbers from all over the world try to scale it every…

Match the marsupial joey to its mom. joeys moms Answers: 1. E, 2. D, 3. G, 4. H, 5. B, 6. C, 7. F, 8. A.…