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Poster
Inside!

How
Be a
to
Panda
... and other
zoo baby
stories

E
FUTURD
WORL
DARE TO EXPLORE
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AUGUST 2017

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 In This Issue
Editor in Chief and Vice President,
Panda Patrol
Kids Magazines & Digital Zookeepers teach a giant
Rachel Buchholz panda cub new skills to
Vice President, Visual Identity help him grow up.
Eva Absher-Schantz
Design Director, Magazines Eileen O’Tousa-Crowson
Editorial Andrea Silen, Senior Editor / Digital Producer;
12
Kay Boatner, Senior Editor / Digital Producer;
Allyson Shaw, Associate Editor / Digital Producer
Art Kathryn Robbins, Senior Designer
Photo Shannon Hibberd, Senior Photo Editor
Production Sean Philpotts, Director
Digital Laura Goertzel, Director;
Natalie Jones, Director of Product;
Tirzah Weiskotten, Video Manager
Administration Michelle Tyler, Editorial Assistant

PUBLISHED BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS, LLC

Chief Executive Officer
Declan Moore
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Gary E. Knell
Executive Vice President, Consumer Products
Rosa Zeegers
Vice President, Kids Media, Content
Jennifer Emmett
20 Meet Your Shark Bestie
Advertising Offices Kim Connaghan, Vice President, Publisher
(212) 822-7431; Bob Amberg, National Brand Director You won’t believe the personalities
(212) 822-7437; Detroit Karen Sarris (248) 368-6304; of these predators.
West Coast Eric Josten (424) 292-5715
Strategy and Business Development
Nathan Moore, Vice President
International Magazine Publishing Yulia Petrossian Boyle,
Senior Vice President; Jennifer Jones, Business Manager; Future World: Food
Rossana Stella, Editorial Manager
Manufacturing Phillip L. Schlosser, Senior Vice President,
Check out what’s cooking at this
restaurant of the future.
24
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Finance Jeannette Swain, Senior Budget Manager;
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Consumer and Member Marketing John MacKethan, Vice
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Market Services Tracy Hamilton Stone, Research Manager orphaned baby gets a second chance.
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Parents, contact us online: kids@natgeo.com 30 Cool Things About Cities
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Take a trip around the world with
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COVER: DANITA DELIMONT / GETTY IMAGES (PANDA); JL KLEIN & ML HUBERT (MICE); MONDOLITHIC STUDIOS (ROBOT); BRIAN J. SKERRY / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
PRINTED ON 100% PEFC-CERTIFIED PAPER—PEFC/29-31-58— (SHARK). PAGE 3: SKIP BROWN (PANDA); BRIAN J. SKERRY / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE (SHARK); MONDOLITHIC STUDIOS (ROBOT); © RICHARD AUSTIN / SECRET
Please recycle. WORLD WILDLIFE RESCUE (BADGER); TUPUNGATO / DREAMSTIME (TUK TUK)
 BY MARILYN TERRELL

outrageous facts.
A BRITISH
The air
around a The average CANDY-
lightning dream lasts
about 20 MAKER
strike
is 5 times
hotter
minutes.
ONCE
CREATED A
than the sun.

A group NINE-
AND-A-HALF-
FOOT-TALL
of jellyfish BILLBOARD
MADE ENTIRELY OF
is called a CHOCOLATE.

BLUE
IF THE LONGEST

WHALE ND ON ITS
smack.
IL,
WOULD BE AS

ALL
AS A 10-STORY BUILDING.

Americans
THE LONGEST RAW EGG TOSS WAS 107
eat
7 billion YARDS—LONGER THAN A SOCCER FIELD. GET
hot dogs
between
MORE!
Memorial Day Book
and and
Labor Day. App
JONATHAN HALLING / NG STAFF (LIGH
HTNING, VOTE BUTTON, JELLYFISH,
4 AUGUST 2017 SOCCER FIELD AND EGG); MICHAEL ROSENFELD / GETTY IMAGES (CHOCOLATE)
 ONISHINGM
AST IES FRO F
STOR FILES O
THE Guinne ss
World Re c

Darius is no ordinary
bunny—he’s more
than four feet long!
This furry creature
holds the record for
the longest rabbit.
Darius is a Flemish
giant rabbit, a breed
ze.
known for its size
What does a giannt
rabbit eat? In adddi-
tion to his mealss,
which consist off
rabbit chow, thrree
apples, and a head
of cabbage, Dariius
snacks on—what
else?—carrots, up
to 12 a day.

SUPER TALL
Photographers may have needed a special lens when the woman
with the longest recorded legs met the onetime shortest-known
JOFFET EMMANUEL / SIPA (SQUBA). INFORMATION PROVIDED BY © 2017 GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED.

man who could walk, He Pingping. Four feet four inches of

ADAM HARNETT / CATERS NEWS AGENCY (DARIUS); JOHN STILLWELL / PA WIRE / AP PHOTO (PANKRATOVA);

Svetlana Pankratova’s six-foot-five-inch frame are just legs.

Unsurprisingly, Pankratova did what a lot of tall people do
in school: She played on the basketball team.

UNDERWATER CAR
Soon you may not need to haul your boat to the lake. Your
car might be your boat—and more! The Rinspeed sQuba holds
the record for the first fully submersible car. Drive it into the
water and it floats until you open the door to let in water.
Put on your breathing apparatus before the sQuba sinks, then
steer it to a depth of 33 feet. The best part? sQuba is battery
powered, so you get a zero-emission ride.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 5

 Bet you BY ERIN WHITMER

didn’t 5 earthshaking
know facts
our
about
world
1 The word “volcano” 2
airtrapped
The
comes from the
inside an iceberg
name of the Roman can be thousands
fire god, Vulcan. of years old.
3 4
It would take
a stack of more
Cheetah
ancestors roamed
than 100,000 North America
giraffes four
about
to reach the
outermost million
years ago.
Earth’s
layer of
atmosphere.
5
7,000
Nearly
BIG WINNER!
Congratulations to the 2017 National Geographic Bee

different
champion, Pranay Varada, 14, from Carrollton, Texas. He
won a $50,000 college scholarship, a trip to the Galápagos
Islands, and a lifetime membership to the National Geographic

languages are Society. Go online to learn more about the Nat Geo Bee.
natgeokids.com/geobee
Ask your teacher to register your school for the 2018 Bee

spoken worldwide.
by January 2018.

6 AUGUST 2017 M-SAT LTD / SCIENCE SOURCE (MAIN); REBECCA HALE / NG STUDIOS (VARADA)
 BY C.M. TOMLIN

FLOATING
ISLAND
You’d want to be stranded on this island. Modeled
after a large species of lilypad that drifts down
the Amazon River, the Lilypad floating ecopolis is
designed to float along the ocean. This man-made
habitat would feature homes and shops structured
around a lagoon that could collect rain for
drinking water. Fueled in part by wind and
solar power, the island concept could provide
up to 50,000 residents with an eco-friendly
home—and the ultimate oceanfront view.

PART OF
THE ISLAND
HABITAT DIPS
UNDERWATER.

GLOVES GIVE
CONCERT
ROBOT
BEFORE

These gloves hit the right notes. Sensors inside the

FOLDS
VINCENT CALLEBAUT ARCHITECTURES, PARIS (LILYPAD, BOTH); HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER

fingertips detect when you press on a hard surface

and send a signal to a speaker to produce the same

LAUNDRY
musical notes created by hitting piano keys. Tap out
(GLOVES); TASSEL78 / SHUTTERSTOCK (NOTES); FOLDIMATE (ROBOT, BOTH)

a tune with your hands side by side. Then move your

mitts away from each other and drum your fingers
again. The sensors can tell that your digits have
moved, and they signal the speaker to play different
notes—same as if you moved your hands in differ-
ent directions on an actual piano. That rocks!
TAP YOUR
FINGERS!
Doing laundry is no longer such a AFTER
chore with FoldiMate, a robot that
folds clean clothes. Clip garments
to hangers on the machine’s exte-
rior. Attached to a conveyor belt, the
hangers rotate downward, pulling articles of
clothing one at a time into a slot in the middle.
Inside the robot, an electronic arm plucks each
garment from its hanger and lays it on a plat-
form. Here, more arms fold and dispense the
item. Soon your laundry’s done—case clothed.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 7

 T EME
WEIRDNESS
ird-o meter
we
GIRL CAN’T SINK
WHAT
Waterwalkerz Ball
WHERE
Moscow, Russia
DETAILS No need for
superpowers to walk,
spin, or flip on water.
At Ostanskinsky Pond,
a visitor rented a
Waterwalkerz Ball,
a gigantic plastic globe
that floats on the
water’s surface. While
inside, she romped
around—no swimsuit
required.
TRANSFORMER INVADES CITY
8 MARCO SECCHI / GETTY IMAGES (TRANSFORMER); LASZLO BALOGH / REUTERS (PILLOW FIGHT)
from
AROUND BY AMANDA SANDLIN
WORLD
we
ird-o-meter
NOW
THIS IS A
FASHION
STATEMENT.
WOMAN TURNS INTO SODA MACHINE
WHAT Human
Vending Machine
WHERE Tokyo, Japan
DETAILS How do you
hide if a monster is
chasing you down
the street? Disguise
yourself as a vending
machine, of course!
Fashion designer Aya
Tsukioka created a
layered skirt that
doubles as a hiding
place. When you lift
the top layer in front
A HUMAN- of your head, it looks
SIZE HAMSTER like a soda machine
BALL. ON WATER. to hide behind. Let’s
WILD.
just hope the mon-
ird-o-meter
we ster doesn’t crave a
bubbly beverage.
ird-o-meter
we
WHAT Transformer
Statue
WHERE London,
ATTACK OF THE FEATHERS
England WHAT International
Pillow Fight Day
DETAILS To promote
the DVD release of WHERE Budapest,
Transformers: Revenge Hungary
of the Fallen, a movie
studio transformed DETAILS Feathers
the city’s iconic were flying as a mas-
“bendy buses” into, sive crowd bopped
well, a Transformer. each other with
(A bendy bus is pillows. More than a
basically two buses hundred cities par-
attached so they can ticipated in the event,
bend in the middle.) held to encourage
Towering 13 feet tall, people to get off their
the Transformer was rumps and play.
constructed out of
real bus parts.
WHO’S
ON CLEANUP
DUTY?
HOW’S THE
WEATHER
UP THERE?
SERGEI KARPUKHIN / REUTERS (BALL); TORU HANAI / REUTERS (VENDING MACHINE);
 sports uh-oh!
BY KELLEY MILLER

funnie Eek!
A rat!

1
2

if my
skills don’t
scare the other
team, at least
this mask will
distract
them.

The Netherlands’s
Eva de Goede watches
from behind the goal From left, Baltimore Orioles outfielders Félix Pie, Nick Markakis, and Adam
during a women’s field hockey Jones celebrate after winning a 2011 baseball game in New York.
match at the 2012 Summer
Olympics in London, England.

Arf!
your
arf! arf!
dribbling is
throw me a
ok, but wait
chew toy!
till you see my
3 unicycle dunk
Australia’s Jaryd Harris shot.
dribbles past Japan’s
Saki Tshikoshi at 4
a 2010 unicycle
basketball game
in Wellington,
New Zealand.
MUNOZ / EPA / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK (3); MARTY MELVILLE / GETTY IMAGES (4)
SUZANNE PLUNKETT / REUTERS (1); RAY STUBBLEBINE / REUTERS (2); JULIO

Sevilla’s midfielder Lautaro Acosta reacts after scoring a goal

during a 2009 soccer match in Sevilla, Spain.
9
 all
aboard!

TRAIN
TRACK

CAT
WORKS
AT
TRAIN
STATIO
Huddersfield, England
When Andrew McClements inspects the Huddersfield Railway Station, he’s BIRD
accompanied by an unusual co-worker—a fluffy cat named Felix. The black- WILLIAMSPORT,
PENNSYLVANIA
and-white feline has served as the train station’s Senior Pest Controller
since 2011, keeping the site clear of pigeons and mice.
“The staff considers Felix a member of the team,” McClements says.“She CAT
HUDDERSFIELD,
even has a little uniform and a badge.” Felix has her own nook in the office and a ENGLAND
cat-flap she can enter and exit through. What’s more, she has a kitty bed FROG
there—but she prefers napping on shelves, desks, and on top of printers. AND
MOUSE
Felix isn’t usually asleep on the job though. McClements says he’s never LUCKNOW,
INDIA
once spotted a mouse on the Huddersfield platform.“So Felix must be doing
something right!” —Sara Schwartz

10 AUGUST 2017
 there’s
a new
sheriff in
town.

BIRD NABS BURGLAR!

Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Who needs a guard dog when you have Sunshine the macaw? He helped
catch a thief!
Sunshine’s owner, J.W. Erb, had returned home to a ransacked apart-
ment. “I wasn’t worried about my stuff,” Erb says. “But when I saw feathers
everywhere, total fear set in.” Luckily Erb found an unharmed Sunshine
hiding in the bedroom. “The thief probably thought he’d steal Sunshine
too, but I know my bird,” Erb says. “He wasn’t going for it, and I knew the
guy lost the fight.”
Erb told police to be on the lookout for someone who looked as if he had
been attacked by a wild animal. “After the police arrested the suspect,
they told me he looked as if he’d been in a fight with barbed wire,” Erb says.
That’s all police needed to connect the thief with Sunshine—and the
break-in. Seems this macaw turned a cat burglar into
SUNSHINE, a jailbird. —Ruth A. Muusgrave i hop
SHOWN AT e he
FAR RIGHT doesn’t
WITH OWNER think i’m
J.W. ERB
a fly.

FROG RESCUES MOUSE

Lucknow, India
TRANSPENNINE EXPRESS (FELIX, MAIN); ZCHD / FIRST TRANSPENNINE EXPRESS (SUPPLIED

AIGNER / NG STAFF (SUNSHINE, BOTH); PAWAN KUMAR / © REUTERS (FROG AND MOUSE)

What’s a mouse to do when it’s floating up a street

BY WENN) / NEWSCOM (FELIX AT TRACKS); RICHARD TADMAN / ALAMY (TRAIN); KARINE

without a paddle? Hitch a ride on a frog!

Swept up in a flooded street during the summer
monsoon season—when heavy rainfalls can cause
flooding—the mouse might have been a goner had
this frog not swum by. “Frogs are at home in the
water, so they easily weather these storms,” biology
professor Jim Ryan says. “Mice aren’t strong swim-
mers. They’ll use anything as a life preserver or raft.”
Is the frog a hero? It’s doubtful. “The mouse proba- Frogs
bly grabbed onto the first thing that went by,” Ryan were the
says. “It was probably just a very tolerant frog—and first land
a very lucky mouse!” —Ruth A. Musgrave animals with
vocal cords.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 11

 Bei Bei
(pronounced
BAY BAY) means
“precious
treasure” in
Chinese.

ZOOKEEPERS TEACH A GIANT PANDA

NEW SKILLS TO HELP HIM GROW UP.

B
BY JAMIE KIFFEL-ALCHEH
ei Bei the giant panda watches as his keeper waves around a
tennis ball. Curious, the six-month-old bear nudges the ball with
his nose. The caretaker responds by feeding the panda a yummy
1
chunk of cooked sweet potato. Realizing he’ll receive a treat for
Keepers use a tennis ball to teach Bei Bei
jabbing the ball, the animal shoves it again with his schnoz. Sure movements he’ll use during checkups.
enough, his keeper rewards him with another potato slice.
The panda is having fun, but the caretaker is working on something more
serious. Keepers are putting Bei Bei through basic training to teach
him important skills, and this is one of his exercises. The things
Bei Bei learns will help keepers care for the young panda
as he grows from small fuzz ball to full-size adult.

BIG BABY
Bei Bei was born at the Smithsonian’s 2
National Zoo in Washington, D.C., in the
summer of 2015. Hairless and about For instance
instance, they feed Bei Bei treats if he
the size of a stick of butter, the touches the ball with his nose.
newborn spent most of his time
nursing and snuggling with
his mom, Mei Xiang(may
SHONG). Keepers monitored
the pair using cameras
that live-streamed video
from their indoor
enclosure. They’d also
occasionally distract
3
Mei Xiang with a Keepers later replace the ball with a hand
snack and sneak the signal during checkups—and he still gets
THE THREE-WEEK-OLD
PANDA IS GIVEN AN baby away for a treats!
EXAMINATION. medical checkup.
SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL ZOO (BEI BEI OVER FIRST “P” IN TITLE, THREE WEEKS OLD); THE WASHINGTON POST / CONTRIBUTOR / GETTY
IMAGES (BEI BEI OVER “N” IN TITLE); SKIP BROWN / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE (BEI BEI OVER “A” IN TITLE); REBECCA
12 AUGUST 2017 HALE / NG STAFF (BEI BEI OVER “PA” IN TITLE, BEI BEI NEXT TO “R” IN TITLE, 1, 2, 3); SKIP BROWN (SITTING IN GRASS)
 A giant panda
mom is 900
times bigger
than her baby.

About 99
percent of an
adult panda’s
diet consists of
bamboo.

BEI BEI MUNCHES

ON LEAVES IN THE
OUTDOOR SECTION
OF HIS ENCLOSURE.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 13

KEEPER NICOLE MacCORKLE HOLDS
BEI BEI AS VET DON NEIFFER
CHECKS THE CUB’S HEART RATE.
By six months of age, the 30-pound Bei
Bei had grown a fluffy fur coat and was
eating solid foods such as bamboo. That’s
when keepers began basic training, giving
the bear practice sessions each morning.
The panda’s training would teach him to
follow simple instructions that would make
it easier for vets to give him checkups and
keep the animal in shape.
BUTTER BABY
Bei Bei was about the size of a stick of
butter at birth! Check out pics of the
baby panda soon after he was born.
5-INCH-TALL
STICK OF BUTTER
ONE AND A HALF WEEKS OLD
BEI BEI
TWO WEEKS OLD
ONE MONTH OLD
14 AUGUST 2017
BEING NOSEY
First, staff introduced Bei Bei to a tennis
ball on a stick. “Pandas investigate with
their noses,” says Laurie Thompson, the
National Zoo’s assistant curator of giant
pandas. Every time Bei Bei touched his
nose to the ball, he’d get a small piece of
sweet potato. Teaching an animal to touch
an object is called target training. Soon
Bei Bei knew to nudge his target—the
ball—once keepers held it in front of him.
A few weeks later, a trainer began hold-
ing the ball above the animal’s head. To get
to his target, the panda stood on his hind
feet and clasped the wire mesh of his
enclosure wall with his front claws to stay
upright. Keepers repeated the action, add-
ing a hand signal to the routine. Eventually,
Bei Bei stood whenever he saw the signal.
Why teach Bei Bei to stand? It can make
it easier for vets to measure his body to
make sure he’s growing properly. “It’s also
good exercise!” Thompson says.
COPY-BEAR
In order for Bei Bei to learn his next
skill—to lie down on command—the bear
became a copycat. Pandas are good at
mimicking their mom’s behavior and
movements. Keepers knew Bei Bei might
try to copy them too. “So I started laying
down in front of him,” Thompson says.
At first Bei Bei seemed confused. But
his natural impulse to mimic took over, and
he eventually lay beside her. With practice
and rewards, Bei Bei began to sprawl out
when keepers gave him a hand signal to do
so. That’s useful during vet visits because
it keeps the panda in one place as his doc-
tors give him checkups. The movement
also exposes his belly so keepers can per-
form ultrasounds.
Now 18 months old, Bei Bei continues to
take lessons every morning. And he’s learn-
ing more tricks by mimicking his keepers,
such as opening his mouth
when they give him a
hand signal. This will
allow vets to check his
teeth. The panda will
even learn to put his
arm in a sleeve, which
will hold the limb in
place so doctors can do
blood tests.
But the panda’s
training isn’t just for
serious reasons. “We
add other behaviors to
keep him interested in
doing new things,”
Thompson says.
FI
C
Where
giant pandas AN
live
C H I N
NE BHUTAN
PA
L
INDIA
MYANMAR VIETNAM
BANGLADESH LAOS
For instance keepers might teach Bei Bei
to present his ear to them because pandas
like to have their ears scratched.
When Bei Bei’s not in basic training he’s
playing on a rock structure in his enclo-
sure, romping around outdoors with his
mom, or munching on bamboo stalks given
to him by his keepers. The animal will keep
up his routine of lessons and leisure for
now. In a couple years though, he’ll take his
skills on the road.
BIG MOVES
By the time Bei Bei is four years old, he’ll be
flown to a breeding center located in his
natural habitat: a bamboo forest in China.
By age seven or eight, he’ll be introduced to
ENCLOSURE CAMERA, ALL); SKIP BROWN / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE (PEEKING FROM TREE); REBECCA HALE / NG STAFF (LYING ON FLOOR, PEEKING THROUGH DOORWAY,
a mate and hopefully have cubs of his own.
That’s essential because pandas are vulner-
able, with only about 1,800 left in the wild.
The training Bei Bei received as a cub will
continue to come in handy in his new home.
Caretakers will use his skills to make check-
CLIMBING ON MOM, MOUTH OPEN); ANDREW HARNIK / AP PHOTOS (HELD BY KEEPER); SKIP BROWN (LOUNGING ON ROCK); MARTIN WALZ (MAP)
BRENDAN MCCABE (CHECKUP); VINCENT NOEL / SHUTTERSTOCK (BUTTER); SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL ZOO (BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGES FROM
ups go smoothly. They might also have the
panda stand up and sit down repeatedly for
exercise. These “workouts” will keep him
strong. And by remaining healthy, Bei Bei
will increase his chances of breeding suc-
cessfully. Now BEI BEI ROMPS AROUND AFTER
that’s panda A TRAINING SESSION WITH
SHELLIE PICK. THE PLAYFUL
power! BEAR’S LESSONS ARE KEPT
S
SHORT BECAUSE OF HIS
LIMITED ATTENTION SPAN.
Pandas
like to do
somersaults.
 she’s not

Naughty Bei Bei! looking.

time to steal
the sweet
potatoes!
don t reallyy know what Bei Bei was
e don’t
thinking in these photos, which were
taken in his indoor and outdoor enclo-
sures at the zoo. But the cub sure looks like he’s up
to something! Check out the mischievous pics.

BEI BEI EYES

TRAINER
LAURIE
THOMPSON.

MOM
can’t make
me clean my
room if she
can’t find
me!

NOPE_
not done
wrestling
yet.
Let ME
Go! i see
snacks!

i’m so
stuffed i
can’t even ...
oh hey,
pass the
bamboo.

The giant who’s

the
panda’s scientific cutest?
name literally
means “catfoot,
black and white.”
NOW
SHOWING!
BEI BEI
VIDEO!
na
atg
tgeo
eoki
ki s com
/august

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 15

Baby KENICKIE IS FED
FOOD WITH TONGS.

Boom
B
ei Bei the giant panda cub learned skills from his keepers to
help vets examine him. Other zookeepers have different kinds
of wild techniques when it comes to caring for baby animals.
Check out some of the wacky ways caretakers nurture youngsters in
zooss around the world
world.
FOOD ON THE MOVE
North Carolina Zoo, North Carolina
Kenickie the arctic fox would’ve gone
aanywhere for a good meal. Before THE FOX
receiving a snack, the fox had to follow FOLLOWS THE
BALL FOR
a Ping-Pong ball on a stick that his MORE GRUB.
keeper moved around. Then the human
used tongs to feed the fox puppy chow.
Caretakers wanted to get Kenickie comfortable with pursuing
tthe ball so they could use it to guide Kenickie into a crate when
he needed to be taken for checkups. Kenickie quickly caught on,
ffollowing the Ping-Pong for a reward. That’s being on the ball!

TESTING
THE WATERS
Zoo Miami, Florida
Before moving from his nurs-
ery to an outdoor enclosure,
Satu the Sumatran tiger cub
had to pass a swim test. The
cat’s enclosure is surrounded
by a moat, and keepers needed
to make sure he could stay
afloat if he accidentally fell
in. So they dropped him into
a small pool and stood at the
edge, ready to dive in if they
saw the feline struggling. A KEEPER DROPS
But the animal didn’t need a THE CUB INTO THE
POOL FOR HIS TEST.
lifeguard. He quickly surfaced
and swam to the pool’s
edge, acing
SATU
the test. PROVES HE
CAN SWIM.

16 AUGUST 2017
 GLADYS GETS A PIGGY-
BACK RIDE FROM A KEEPER
DRESSED AS A GORILLA.

GET
MORE
ZOO idsFU N!
.com
natgeok
/august

GORILLA
DISGUISE
Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio
When keepers realized
that Gladys the newborn west-
ern lowland gorilla wasn’t being
cared for by her mom, they
donned vests with gorilla-like
fur and acted as temporary
parents. The caretakers looked
after the baby 24/7, letting her
cling to the fake fur on their
backs just as she would’ve done
with her mom. To teach her PUPPET TIME
gorilla behavior, they made Mulhouse Zoo, France
gorilla noises and walked on This king vulture chick got a
their knuckles. Meanwhile, the regular puppet show at meal-
keepers prepared an adult times. Keepers used a lifelike
female gorilla to “adopt” Gladys. hand puppet that looked like a
After a few months the infant vulture to feed the orphan
was placed with her new mom, meat! They did this to prevent
and the two gorillas quickly the hatchling from learning to
bonded. Now the little ape’s in associate human hands with
great shape! food. Eventually the vulture
was big enough to feed himself.
And he never knew his keepers
ISSELÉE / LIFE ON WHITE (VULTURE); PAUL FAHY / TARONGA ZOO (MAIYA, BOTH). JL KLEIN & ML HUBERT (MICE, PAGES 18–19)

had given him a hand.

RON MAGILL / ZOO MIAMI (SATU, ALL); NORTH CAROLINA ZOO (KENICKIE, BOTH); © CINCINNATI ZOO (GLADYS, BOTH); ERIC

MAIYA CUDDLES
HER TOY DURING
A FEEDING.

PLUSH PAL
Taronga Zoo, Australia
After Maiya the red panda was injured, she got
a ton of TLC—and a stuffed animal! Maiya’s
mom had accidentally wounded her while car-
rying the cub by her neck, which is how red
pandas transport babies. Keepers took Maiya
from her mother to monitor her recovery and
got her a stuffed red panda so she wouldn’t
get lonely. Maiya loved her plush toy, cuddling
against it during feedings and naps. Keepers
used the stuffed animal to comfort Maiya until
the healed panda was returned to her mom.

17
The harvest mouse is the smallest rodent in Europe. Their long tails help the mice grab grass or twigs to climb in search
of food. Young mice often link their tails together, like BFFs. These mice build a round nest that resembles a bird’s.
 You won’t believe these
predator personalities.
BY ALLYSON SHAW PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN SKERRY

Hovering in warm waters off the Bahama Islands, National Geographic

photographer Brian Skerry noticed a dark shadow closing in on him.
Soon the shadow took the form of a torpedo with a fin on top—it was
an oceanic whitetip shark! Skerry’s heart raced. He was alone, and
this shark species has a fierce reputation. The nine-foot-long female
swam closer, gaining speed until … bonk! The shark gently bumped her
snout against Skerry’s camera.
The shark’s mouth was closed, so Skerry knew she wasn’t trying to
bite him. She merely examined Skerry’s photographic equipment,
then moved in big, lazy circles around him.“She was just exploring,”
Skerry says.“She seemed to have an extremely curious personality.”
Skerry has encountered hundreds of sharks during his career and
found that individual sharks can have very different personalities.
“Certain sharks seem polite—they’re well behaved and make eye
contact,” Skerry says.“Other individuals appear grumpy or sneaky.”
Humans often fear sharks. But Skerry’s experiences have shown
him even individuals belonging to a species that’s thought to be
aggressive can have a major sweet side.

20 AUGUST 2017
 THIS PHOTO, TAKEN BY
BRIAN SKERRY, SHOWS
A DIVER INTERACTING
WITH A TIGER SHARK OFF
THE BAHAMA ISLANDS.

AN OCEANIC
WHITETIP SHARK
GLIDES THROUGH
THE WATER.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 21

PERSONALITY LEMON SHARK
POWER PUPS SWIM
THROUGH A
Hiking in the Bahamas through a steamy MANGROVE
FOREST.
mangrove forest—a group of shrubs or
trees that grow in coastal waters—Skerry
arrived at a wild nursery for lemon shark pups.
The photographer, who was standing in a foot of
water, put on his snorkel gear and scrambled onto
his stomach to snap pics of the fish.
Peering into the water, Skerry watched as three
shark pups swam into view. They were wary of him, but
eventually one swished closer to investigate. Only after
the first shark got comfortable did the other two
approach. “Certain sharks display more confidence, and
they’re quicker to explore new things in their environment,”
Skerry says. Some sharks are also super social, while others within More than
the same species prefer their me time. 450 species of
Each personality type has benefits. For instance, social lemon sharks sharks exist, but
might do better when food is plentiful because they’ll share the grub
at least 26 of them
are endangered and
with each other. But when food is scarce, lemon sharks that like to be at least 48 are
alone might thrive, since they don’t divide their meals. That means vulnerable.
different sharks within the same species thrive in different situations.

SUPERSIZE SHARK
Humans might have a hard time determining a shark’s temperament
at first. As Skerry knows, these animals will often surprise you!
Once, Skerry was diving with a group in the Atlantic Ocean when he
caught sight of a 14-foot-long tiger shark with ginormous jaws. The
hugeness of the creature made Skerry nervous—plus he knew that
this species tends to be very aggressive. “Next to her, you realize how
small and vulnerable you are,” he says.
But the shark gracefully glided over and paused by each of the divers
as if to greet them. Then she turned toward Skerry and allowed him to
touch her. It turned out that the others had already met the friendly ani-
mal and given her a name: Emma.
The tiger shark visited the dive site almost every day during Skerry’s stay.
“Once I got over my initial reaction, I realized that Emma was just a gentle
giant,” he says. So basically, you can’t judge a shark by its jaws.
Skerry still sees Emma when he visits the area, and he’ll continue to
“meet” new sharks during his underwater photo shoots. The photographer
hopes that by showing the different personalities of sharks, people won’t
see them as a bunch of dangerous animals. Instead, they’ll see them as
individuals that deserve our care and protection.
Even if they do have a lot of teeth!

A TIGER SHARK OFF THE

BAHAMA ISLANDS GLIDES
OVER A CORAL REEF.

22 AUGUST 2017
 Some
sharks grow WHICH SHARK ARE
over 30,000
teeth in their
YOU MOST LIKE?
Pick the sentence that
lifetimes. best describes you, then read
SKERRY TOOK THIS PHOTO OF A about your inner fish!
LEMON SHARK PUP FROM THE
WATERY FLOOR OF A MANGROVE “I like to make a splash!”
FOREST.
You’re like a blacktip shark,
which performs a showy
display by leaping from the
sea, rotating several times,
and splashing down.

“I’m very observant.”

Meet your match, the
hammerhead shark! The
fish’s wide-set eyes give it a
broad range of vision, which
helps it find prey.

“I can seem intimidating,

but I’m really a big softie.”
Reaching 40 feet long, the
whale shark is the world’s
largest fish. But this shark
is usually gentle and calm.

“I like to lounge around.”

You resemble the Caribbean
reef shark, nicknamed the
“sleeping shark” for lying
motionless on the seafloor
when it’s not hunting.

“I’m always on the go.”

Great white sharks have
lots of energy, like you! With
its torpedo-shaped body
and strong tail, the fish can
swim 25 miles an hour.
SKERRY READIES HIS CAMERA
TO TAKE PHOTOS OF A SCHOOL
OF CARIBBEAN REEF SHARKS. “Not much gets me down.”
You and the sand tiger
shark are alike. The shark
surfaces to gulp air, which
ends up in its belly, making
this fish more buoyant.

GUARDIANS
OF THE SEA
Want to keep our oceans in good
condition? Call in the sharks! They eat
critters whose populations are too high,
balancing the number of animals in our seas.
Sharks that live around coral reefs also eat
animals that prey on herbivorous(or plant-

SHARKS
eating) fish. Without sharks, more herbivo-
rous fish would vanish. Since these fish eat
harmful algae that grow on the reefs,
may be swimming to a museum near you!
Brian Skerry’s amazing images will be at the National Geographic Museum
their disappearance would
in Washington, D.C., through October 15, then traveling around the country. be bad news for coral.
To find out more, go online. ngmuseum.org
MARK D. CONLIN / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE (SKERRY WITH SHARKS)
23
BY KAREN DE SEVE
ART BY MONDOLITHIC STUDIOS
D
W
hat will restaurants
be like decades
from now? “You
can expect a lot
of changes in terms of using
technology to grow and order
our meals,” says Paul Takhistov,
a food scientist at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick,
New Jersey. “We’ll also be able
to personalize our food more.”
Check out what’s cooking at
this restaurant of the future.

HUNGRY? PRESS PRINT

A quick finger scan at your
table shows that you’re low on
certain nutrients. Just press a
button, and a 3-D printer uses T
pureed food cartridges to
“print” lasagna that’s packed
with specific vitamins that
your body needs. “Healthy food
isn’t one size fits all,” Takhistov
says. “We have different bodies,
so we need different nutri-
ents.” These printers will also
increase efficiency, allowing
chefs to quickly print personal- T
ized food for large crowds.

FOOD-IN-A-BOX
Some of the lettuce in this
kitchen is sad. Or rather, one of
the lettuce emojis on the giant
computer screens is frowning.
That’s because the chef didn’t
use the right recipe of sun-
light, water, and nutrients to
get the real-life leafy plant
inside a box behind the screen WASTE N
Researche OT
to grow. So she taps the touch currently rs are
screen to make the tempera- to conver working on ways
th
ture cooler, and the lettuce’s frown turns upside down on the fridge-shaped “box farm.” Without nutrients. uman waste into
planting seeds in soil, this restaurant can grow all the fruits and vegetables it needs. “Anybody can eating on Whether you’re
be a farmer,” says Hildreth England, assistant director of the Open Agriculture Initiative at the space vac Earth or during a
atio
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If you live in Iceland, you can grow strawberries that taste some of yon, in the future
u
as if they’re from Mexico.” likely have r food will
rec
ingredien ycled
ts.
24 AUGUST 2017
D: Food

T
GROW UP
What will happen to farms in
the future? Some will be much
taller. Cities will continue to
expand as the human popula-
tion climbs to nine billion peo-
ple, leaving less land to farm.
Agriculture will likely be
housed in towering vertical
skyscrapers situated in these
cities. Luckily, indoor farms
typically use less water, and
plants seem to grow faster in
these environments.

HUNTING FOR HOLOGRAMS

Let’s go fishing … in the kitchen? The catch of the day is a 3-D hologram
that the chef hooks in mid-air. One day people will stock their kitchens
by gathering ingredients in a virtual world. Simply pick a berry from a
digital bush or choose a cut of beef from the virtual farm. After you’re
done foraging, the hologram setup sends details to a local market that
delivers your order. Scientists working on this program hope to connect
people to their food sources and make shopping more fun.
GET SMART
At your favorite restaurant, you tap the table to open a
digital menu and choose from freshly grown salads and
3-D printed creations. An alarm lets you know when your
food is waiting in the cubby at one side of the table—just
lift the door and take your meal. Forgot something? A
robot server will stop by to see if you need anything else.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 25

 ADG
n orphaned ba
gets a second chance.

D
BY SCOTT ELDER
uring a torrential rainstorm in
England, a farmer goes outside
to check on his sheep. The flock in good
is safe, but he stumbles across hands
another animal in serious
trouble. Lying motionless on
the ground is a tiny, almost furless badger
cub. The farmer notices a flicker of life, so
he tucks the tiny creature into his pocket
and drives to an animal rescue center.

SOUND OFF
By the time the cub arrives at the center,
Secret World, it’s wriggling and making a
badger’s distinctive chirping sound. The
staff is pleased to see that the female cub
has no wounds or parasites. “She’s so per-
fect,” says Pauline Kidner, founder of
Secret World. “But she’s very young.” Less
than 48 hours old, the animal is vulnerable
to many health problems.
JUST WARMING UP
The tiny baby badger’s mother would
not have willingly abandoned her cub.
Badgers live underground in family bur-
rows called setts. Kidner believes the cub’s
home flooded and the mother lost the
newborn while moving other cubs to a dry,
backup sett.
The biggest concern for Gale—named
after the windy storm she was found in—
is her low body temperature. The staff
place the orphan in a warm incubator and
give Gale a hot water bottle wrapped in a
towel and a stuffed animal to snuggle up
to. Once the baby badger has warmed up,
Kidner starts feeding her milk. Newborn
badgers eat very little, very often—about
once an hour, 24/7. Kidner sleeps on a chair
with Gale on her lap so she can feed her
with a syringe throughout the night.
BACK TO THE WILD
When Gale is six weeks old she opens her
eyes for the first time. At 10 weeks she
begins to crawl around on her shaky legs.
Once the little badger starts chowing
down solid foods, she’s moved into a small
pen where human contact is minimized.
“Otherwise they grow up thinking they’re
human beings,” Kidner says. Two weeks
later, Gale joins a group of other badgers.
During four months of preparation for
release, the badgers live in an artificial
sett, learn survival skills, and get their first
taste of wild badger food: earthworms. getting weighed
When Gale is eight months old, she and
five other badgers are transported to the
countryside. Here, a temporary sett has
been built and sectioned off with a circular that she’s a little sad to see Gale go. Still,
fence. A month later, after the badgers “It’s fantastic because you’ve been work-
have learned to forage and dig their own ing to get that animal back into the wild,”
sett, the fence is removed. Kidner admits she says.

26 AUGUST 2017 © RICHARD AUSTIN / SECRET WORLD WILDLIFE RESCUE (ALL)

 i really
dig this
place!

Badgers can
eat several
hundred
CHECK OUT
GALE (RIGHT) BONDS WITH
earthworms THIS BOOK!
ANOTHER BADGER BEFORE each night.
THEY’RE RELEASED.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 27

1 2 3
THE MARBLE LIONS
GUARDING RHESUS
the New York
City Public MACAQUES
Library are IN NEW DELHI,
named Patience INDIA, OFTEN
and Fortitude. SNATCH EYEGLASSES
AND PURSES FROM SOME POLICE OFFICERS IN
PEDESTRIANS. CAIRO, EGYPT, patrol the
pyramids and other tourist
spots ON CAMELBACK.

4 5 6
5 Surrounded by Italy, VATICAN CITY THE BUS
is both a city and THE WORLD’S STATION
SMALLEST COUNTRY. It’s about the same IN LA PAZ,
size as A GOLF COURSE. BOLIVIA, WAS
WELLINGTON, DESIGNED BY
NEW ZEALAND, GUSTAV
is the largest EIFFEL,
capital city the same architect
to first greet who built the Eiffel
each new day Tower and the

COOL
and year. Statue of Liberty.

THINGS
ABOUT
8 9
A mall in the Every night in Austin, Texas, more
7 desert city of than 1.5
MILLION BATS fly out
Dubai, United from under a bridge to eat insects.
IN CANBERRA, Arab Emirates,
AUSTRALIA, MAKES SNOW
THOUSANDS FOR AN
OF EASTERN INDOOR
SKI RESORT. 12 14
GRAY
KANGAROOS Moscow, the capital
OFTEN of Russia, is home
INVADE BATH, ENGLAND, to the Moscow Cat
11 REALLY DID GET ITS
THE CITY Theatre, which
TO DRINK NAME FROM features DOZENS OF
WATER BATHS—HEATED
POOLS BUILT BY THE TRICK-PERFORMING
AND MUNCH ROMANS SOME HOUSE CATS.
GRASS.
2,000
YEARS AGO.
10
IN REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND, FLIGHTS AT THE AIRPORT 13
HEAT FOR HOMES AND kets cost
BUSINESSES COMES
in Manila, Philippines, Movie tic TOKYO,
have been canceled on t $ 2 5 in
ENTIRELY FROM abou e of the
New Year’s Eve because of JAPAN, on most
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY smoke from the MILLIONS world’s
CREATED BY UNDERGROUND cities.
OF FIREWORKS AND FIRE- expensive
VOLCANIC SOURCES. CRACKERS people shoot off.
ALEXANDRE FAGUNDES DE FAGUNDES / DREAMSTIME (1); BLICKWINKEL / ALAMY (2); JACK SULLIVAN / ALAMY (3); © LUMINITA LUPU / DREAMSTIME (4);
© GEORGE-HOPKINS / DREAMSTIME (5); ARCO IMAGES GMBH / ALAMY (7); EXACTOSTOCK / SUPERSTOCK (8); TALKE PHOTOGRAPHY / GETTY IMAGES (9);
28 AUGUST 2017 © IGORKOV / DREAMSTIME (11); CUBOIMAGES SRL / ALAMY (12); TAL REVIVO / ALAMY (13); JENNIFER MITCHELL / SPLASH NEWS / NEWSCOM (14);
15 16 17
People have lived in Beirut, IN AMSTERDAM, THE CAPITAL
Lebanon, for nearly 5,000 OF THE NETHERLANDS, NEARLY
years. HALF OF ALL WORKERS
BIKE TO WORK.

San Francisco’s City Hall in California sits on

18 19 530 washing-machine-size shock absorbers that help protect
More than half of the PANAMA CITY, PANAMA, the building during earthquakes.
5.1 million people living is the only capital with a
in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are tropical rain forest in the
KIDS OR TEENS. city limits. 20 A cannon called 22
THE NOON GUN is fired
every day at, uh, noon in
Cape Town, South Africa. MEXICO
CITY,
MEXICO,
21 Twenty miles of streets, has more
shops, restaurants, and than 150
hotels lie underneath MUSEUMS.

CITIES
Montreal, Canada.

23

A DRAGON
STATUE
BREATHES
FIRE near
Wawel Royal
Castle in
BY SEAN McCOLLUM Kraków,
Poland,
24 25 26 where a
MORE FRENCH- ISTANBUL, TURKEY, The local government has used
SPEAKING PEOPLE LIVE mythical
IN KINSHASA,
is the only major city to
stand on two continents:
30 sheep to dragon
was once
THE CAPITAL OF THE ASIA AND EUROPE. “mow” the parks rumored
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC to live.
OF THE CONGO, of Curitiba,
THAN IN PARIS. Brazil.

29
LIMA, PERU,
averages
28 about A HALF
In Beijing, China, officials sometimes
FIRE ROCKETS FILLED WITH INCH of rain
27
CHEMICALS to create clouds and rain. a year.

30
The daily high summer
temperature in Kuwait
WHICH

THE TUK-TUK,
City, Kuwait, averages
about 115°F. CITY
A THREE-WHEELED,
MOTORIZED RICKSHAW,
SHOULD YOU
IS A COMMON FORM OF
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
LIVE IN?
IN BANGKOK, THAILAND. natgeokids.com/august
DIMMITRIUS / DREAMSTIME (15); JOE ATLAS / BRAND X PICTURES / PICTUREQUEST (16); JPLDESIGNS / DREAMSTIME (17); ERIC NATHAN / ALAMY (18);
DIRK ERCKEN / DREAMSTIME (19); MICHELE FALZONE / ALAMY (22); KASIA NOWAK / ALAMY (23); DAVID LEE / ALAMY (24); MIKAEL DAMKIER / DREAMSTIME (25);
JULIA MCCLUNIE / DREAMSTIME (26); TUPUNGATO / DREAMSTIME (27); ANDRZEJ TOKARSKI / DREAMSTIME (29); ABDULLAHUSAIN / DREAMSTIME (30) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 29
 Birthday
Bash! s may seem
These two bir thday par tie there are
t gla nce , but
JAMES YAMASAKI

the sam e at firs

ween the
actually 20 differences bet erences.
nes . Fin d and circle the diff
sce ANSWERS ON PAGE 35

30 AUGUST 2017
 TOP ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): PUNCHSTOCK; PHOTODISC BLUE / GETTY IMAGES; © PICTUREQUEST. MIDDLE ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): PAL HERMANSEN / GETTY IMAGES;
PUNCHSTOCK; VIBE IMAGES / SHUTTERSTOCK. BOTTOM ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): ANTHONY ISE / GETTY IMAGES; PUNCHSTOCK; DENIS BURDIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.

UDM

SMSO

ERTE KTURN
NSESOT

REIEGCB
WOTDSRNIFS
and faraway views of different
BACK TO NATURE

letters to identify each picture.

These photographs are close-up

ANSWERS ON PAGE 35
textures in nature. Unscramble the

AAVL

LPMA AEFL

DSNA SUDEN
CHECK OUT

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS

THIS BOOK!

31
 STRIKA ENTERTAINMENT 1

2 3

5 6

7 8

32 AUGUST 2017
9
10

12
11

13 14 15

16 17 18

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 33

 Splatter Up!
BY SARAH YOUNGSON
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.

I’ve never been more . My baseball team, the ,

adjective color noun, plural

was about to play the championship game. But Coach announced that the
celebrity

official rules had changed! First, every player would times

verb large number

before going to bat. We also had to wear our gloves on our like
body part, plural article of clothing, plural

and run like a(n) . Before Coach could explain more, the umpire shouted,
animal

“ ball!” The umpire tossed me our new official bat, a(n) .

verb tool

When the threw the new official ball, a(n) , it zoomed past
type of job fruit

me and all over the catcher. After tries, I finally hit the
past-tense verb large number

all the way to . I started as fast as

same fruit faraway city verb ending in -ing

I could until I slid into home base. This new game isn’t so after all.
adjective
DAN SIPPLE

34 AUGUST 2017
A tone
WEIRD SCIENCE
EXPERIMENTS
Nat Geo Kids readers mixed up some mad
creations in these drawings.

Science Lab S
Antonio A., 11
Hillsborough, New Jersey

W Mushroom
Corn Sprout- W Mr.
Infused Explode in
Bacon His Lab
Shelby A., 12 Abigail S., 14
Eagle, Colorado Marietta,
Georgia

The Fluxxeauator
Pierce R., 12
Morris, Minnesota
T

Answers
iceberg, sand dunes.
palm leaf. Bottom row: tree trunk,
Middle row: moss, stones,
Top row: mud, snowdrifts, lava.
“What in the World?” (page 31):

“Birthday Bash!” (page 30):

S
Jelly Bean Volcano!
Annabella L., 11
Howell, Michigan

Nat Geo Kids—School Art Zone

Draw a new school subject. Send us your original drawings! 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.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 35
 Aw
Giveaeswom
Seepage
e
ay!
27 .

DARE
TO
natgeok EXPL
ids com ORE

TELL US
SS
INNE D!
A GU COR
LP SET RLD RE
HE WO FEBRUA
RY 2017

WHAT YOU
TO
DARE s.c

THINK!
natgeo
kid
Coo
veaw
!

2017
MAY

ANI
FA
OU
TRICTK ,
PHOTO Y
and M S,
ORE

APRIL DARE
2017
TO
natgeo EX
kids.co PLORE
m

Join the National Geographic Kids Team.*

’ invite
Throughout the year we’ll i i you by email i to complete our latest
online survey. The surveys ask for opinions about current magazine issues,
articles we’re working on, and topics that affect kids like you.

Apply online!

I GN I NG U P IS
S
For each
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complete, you’ll be
entered into quarterly
drawings to win an

1 Grab a pa
are
ent.
AMAZON
2 Go to ngk
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