National Geographic Kids magazine - the perfect balance between learning and fun! A must-have for children ages 6 and up. Each issue is packed with colorful photos, games, puzzles, fun features and facts about animals, science, technology, and more.
Click, click, click, click! I hear a rapid burst of camera clicks, and I see strobe lights flashing in the water. Behind me, my photography partner and husband, David, is furiously trying to get my attention. And by pressing his camera shutter button, he also captures this photo! I turn around to observe this magnificent croc before it calmly swims away. We’re diving through a marine park off the coast of Cuba called the Gardens of the Queen. Thanks to conservation efforts, this special place remains totally wild. We’ve seen American crocodiles here almost every day, as well as mangroves, coral, sharks, and other aquatic life that live here. But a croc has never come so close to us before! American crocodiles in this marine sanctuary are used to humans…
Snooze Cruise School bus–size sperm whales look sort of eerie when they nap vertically in the water. But scientists think these whales sleep like this so they can easily swim up to take a breath when they need to. (Their blowholes are at the top and front of their heads.) So their sleeping style is actually smart, not spooky! Sleep Champ Koalas, found only in Australia, are Earth’s sleepiest animals. These marsupials catch z’s up to 22 hours a day, likely because their eucalyptus meals take so much energy to digest. Sweet dreams, koalas! Catnap Domestic cats like cat trees … and so do leopards! These big cats, found throughout much of Africa and Asia, often bring their prey up into trees to prevent other predators like lions and hyenas…
This landscape looks like a patchwork quilt—but it’s actually a canyon filled with pools of salt! Found in the Sacred Valley region of Peru, which was once the heart of the Inca Empire, this site is still in use today. The area’s famous flavorful pink salt has been harvested here for hundreds of years. The salt comes from salty water that streams from a hot spring above the canyon and trickles into the human-made ponds below. Over time, the water evaporates, leaving behind a layer of salt crystals that can be scraped out and sold in local markets. About 5,000 ponds are scattered throughout the area. Each one belongs to a local family—bigger families have larger pools. CHECK OUT THE BOOK!…
1 Axolotls live in only one place on Earth—central Mexico’s Xochimilco (SO-chee-MILL-koh) canal network. 2 The branches that grow on an axolotl’s head are gills, which help the animal breathe underwater. They keep these branches their whole lives. 3 Almost all wild axolotls are brown, except for some that are born with a genetic condition that makes them pinkish white. 4 Axolotls can regrow a leg in about a month. (Thanks to NGK reader Isabella A. for sharing this fact!) 5 By studying axolotls, scientists may someday learn if it’s possible to regrow human limbs too. 6 According to one myth, the Aztec god of lightning, Xolotl, could escape his enemies by turning into this water creature. (Axolotls are named after him!) 7 If another axolotl gets too close, the disturbed…
1 The African elephant has 2,000 genes dedicated to smelling—more than any other mammal. 2 In the summer of 1858, the smell of sewage in London, England, was so bad it became known as the Great Stink. 3 Perspiration is odorless. It’s the bacteria on our skin that causes the smell. 4 Everything smells horrible to people with a condition called cacosmia. Even flowers can smell like rotting fish. 5 The durian fruit is so smelly that it’s banned on Singapore’s public transportation. 6 The dung beetle pollinates a flower that smells like poop. 7 The human nose can distinguish about one trillion different odors. 8 Skunks produce such a powerful odor that people can smell it up to one mile away. 9 Humans are able to smell before they are born. CHECK OUT THE…
The Himalaya mountains of central Nepal are home to Apis dorsata laboriosa, the largest honeybee in the world. Its honey is prized as a tea ingredient in Japan, China, and Korea and can sell for up to $80 a pound. But collecting the sweet nectar is dangerous business. Local people scale the sheer cliffs where the bees make their nests, climbing as high as a 30-story building—with only homemade rope ladders to hold them! While scaling their shaky rope ladders and waving away angry bees, the honey hunters carry two 24-foot-long bamboo poles. They use one to pry the nests off the rocks, and the other to hold a basket against the cliff facetocatch the falling honeycombs. When they’re done collecting, they hoist about 40 pounds of honey for the…
