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ING
KIN
K UTT
GTTU
MYSTERY
M
FLYING
PIG

30
FOREST
RAIN FOREST
FACTS

COYOthTeES
on MOVE
SEPTEMBER 2014
 NG KIDS IS
IS
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20 Crash Test Mummy
PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY Scientists use cool technology to figure out how 22
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Southeast Ali Hartz (212) 610-5503; Detroit Karen Sarris Find out how this orphaned sea mammal
(248) 368-6304; West Coast Eric Josten (310) 734-2221 found a new family.
Parents, contact us online: kids@ngs.org
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COVER: © KITCHIN & HURST / FIRST LIGHT (COYOTE); KENNETH GARRETT / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE (KING TUT); © MGKUIJPERS /
DREAMSTIME (STRAWBERRY POISON DART FROG); PETER SOLNESS / GETTY IMAGES (PIG). PAGE 2: © KITCHIN & HURST / FIRST LIGHT (IPAD
COVER); © TOM & PAT LEESON / ARDEA (THREE PUPS PLAYING); AP PHOTO / MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES BASEL, ANDREAS F. VOEGELIN (TUT'S COFFIN);
JAMES R.D. SCOTT / GETTY IMAGES (MANATEE); © MGKUIJPERS / DREAMSTIME (STRAWBERRY POISON DART FROG); © SEAORBITER® / JACQUES
ROUGERIE (SEAORBITER)
 sports
ies
uh-oh!

funn
i’m a
mean,
green,
dance
machine.

1 Green Bay
Packer Clay
Matthews
(right) stretches
with teammates
during a 2011
football practice in
Dallas, Texas.

for once
2 i wish this
game would
get out of
hand!
REUTERS / JEFF HAYNES (1); © WANG QINGAQIN / XH / XINHUA PRESS / CORBIS (2)

Water polo players

compete for the
ball during a game
between Serbia and
Italy at the 2008
Summer Olympics in
Beijing, China.

3
 auGHty
N
CAU

PETS
GHT
ON CAM
ERA

NAME Weasley
FAVORITE ACTIVITY
Pillow fights with
The imaginary pooch pals
pillow
started FAVORITE TOY
it. A blanket—it’s for
playing tug-of-war,
right?
PET PEEVE
Time-outs in his crate

NAME Ginger
FAVORITE ACTIVITY The real
Reminding her surprise is
humans what a gift the hair ball
she is i'm about to
give you.
BEST HIDING SPOT
Birthday cake
PET PEEVE Cards—
they’re so boring!

PM IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES (WEASLEY); TETRA IMAGES / SUPERSTOCK (GINGER) 5

 BY ALLYSON SHAW

7 mouthwatering
facts about
ice cream
1 A dairy cow 5 You can get
may produce enough milk pizza-flavored
in her lifetime to make ice cream in
9,000 gallons Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
of ice cream.
6 It takes about
2 People buy
more ice cream on
50 licks
to finish a scoop
Sunday than on of ice cream.
any other day 7
of the week. A man once

3
balanced 71
In just one summer, ice-cream scoops
George Washington spent on one cone.
what would be about
$5,000 in today’s The Ice Cream Expedition might
PLA
N E T, O N E

money on ice cream.

SC
be coming to a town near you! HE O
T

Powered by National Geo-

NG

PA
PRO TECTI

TA

graphic Kids, this national

TIME!

tour is all about saving the

4 A main ingredient Earth—plus, you know, free
ice
e
ice cream! Go online to see
cream
rea
in ice cream is air, which
how you can help protect the
planet, one scoop at a time. EDITION
kids.nationalgeographic EXP
helps make the treat soft. .com/icecreamexpedition

6
M. UNAL OZMEN / SHUTTERSTOCK
SEPTEMBER 2014
 tupid
S minals BY ELISABETH DEFFNER

Cri BUST
ED!

SNOOZER LOSER
KEY WEST, FLORIDA
This guy should’ve gotten a better night’s sleep. After he broke into an
apartment, took the flat-screen TV off the wall, and stole some cash, he
took a snooze on the living room floor. When the woman came home, she
couldn’t even wake him. Police finally arrived and handcuffed the crook,
which really disturbed his dreams. Now he’s getting plenty of rest—in jail.

BAD TO THE BONE

KENT, WASHINGTON
Tired of traffic jams, this
driver brought along a pas-
senger so he could travel
in the uncrowded carpool
lane. But the passenger was
a plastic skeleton! Wearing
a hooded sweatshirt, the
skeleton looked a lot like a
person and fooled everyone
until the police pulled over
the driver for speeding. He
also got a ticket for carpool
violation. “Every so often
we get that person who
goes the extra mile,” says
trooper Julie Startup.

TOM NICK COCOTOS

7
 N ISH ING
ASTO IES FROMF
Guinne ss
ords
STOR FILES O
THE

World Re c
BY ANGELA MODANY

MORE RECORDS!
Go online for more information
about Guinness World Records.

DIVING PIG
kids.nationalgeographic.com/
worldrecords/

Look out, Olympic divers—here comes Miss

Piggy. The Australian porker holds the record
for the longest dive by a pig. Her nearly 11-foot
jump, measured from the end of the diving
board to where her snout hit the water, was
higher than a basketball hoop. Next she’ll
probably want to dive into the mud.

TAKING
1 OFF

FLYING
2 THROUGH 3 SUCCESS!
THE AIR

BALLOON SLUUURRRPPP!!!
SWALLOWS
Want some fries with that
ketchup? Benedikt Weber must
have said “nope.” In 32.37 seconds
he drank a bottle of ketchup

DUDE Loud noises definitely don’t

through a straw, the fastest time
anyone has done that. With sore
cheeks from the slurping, Weber
says from now on he’ll be using
startle this guy. Paolo ketchup to dip, not to drink.
Scannavino squeezed his
whole body into a giant
inflated balloon, then
popped his way out.
Eleven times. In two
minutes. That’s the
most giant balloons
entered and popped in
that amount of time.
And he didn’t even
need a giant pin.

PETER SOLNESS / GETTY IMAGES (MISS PIGGY, ALL); PAUL MICHAEL HUGHES / GUINNESS

8
WORLD RECORDS (BALLOON); RICHARD BRADBURY / GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS (KETCHUP).
SEPTEMBER 2014 INFORMATION PROVIDED BY © 2014 GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED.
© 2013 Pepperidge Farm, Incorporated.
®

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 i’m loving
my new
water bed!

SEAL SEIZES RAFT

Skomer Island, Wales
This Atlantic gray seal really rocked the boat when he found
himself an unusual place to hang out. After the marine mammal
came across a raft anchored in the harbor where he lives, he
flopped inside and wouldn’t budge for four days.
“One morning the seal just pulled himself aboard,” says island
RELAXING warden Ed Stubbings, who owns the boat-turned-bed. Probably
IN THE BOAT thinking the craft was a rock, the seal made himself at home,
kicking back and putting up his flippers. “The way he was bent in
the boat, he looked like a giant banana,” Stubbings says. The seal
Morgan Seal didn’t move an inch—not even to eat or, ahem, relieve himself.
Stubbings thinks he may have been molting, or shedding, which
takes a lot of energy, or resting up from fights with other seals.
Stubbings didn’t mind that the seal had “seized” the raft, but
he was a little worried that the 500-pound animal might sink it.
Mr. Stubbs Luckily on the fifth day, the seal slipped back into the water and
swam off. But the animal made sure the boat’s owner wouldn’t
forget his guest anytime soon. “The boat still reeks from his
visit,” Stubbings says.

14
KATE LOCK (BIG SEAL); ED STUBBINGS (SEAL INSET); PHOENIX
SEPTEMBER 2014 HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY (MR. STUBBS); ALEX SNYDER (MORGAN, ALL)
TOP DO

16 SEPTEMBER 2014
OGS
New research
reveals a secret A YOUNG
COYOTE
GETS A
Coyotes
call to each other
by howling—a sound
that carries over
long distances. Then
they yip, whine, and
yelp when they
meet up.

to coyote success.
HOWLING
LESSON.

S
BY KAREN DE SEVE
hadows shifted among the trees as the sun set behind
a young coyote padding along the forest edge. She
moved eastward, away from the home turf where she
had lived with her parents for a year and a half. It was
time for her to find her own space and her own mate.
Suddenly she froze in mid-step and sniffed the springtime air.
It was a wolf. Would he attack?
Wolves and coyotes don’t mix well in the western
United States. Stronger and bigger, wolves often kill
SCIENTISTS THINK COYOTES coyotes in the west. But this scene happened decades
WALKED ACROSS WINTER ICE
TO GET HERE. ago, when coyotes were expanding their range east-
ward. Here, wolves were scarce and had a difficult
COYOTES… time finding mates. The female coyote waited as the
wolf approached. Instead of fighting, the two canines
CANADA
ended up becoming mates and having a litter of pups.

CANINE COUSINS
G re a t
Lived here Lak
es
before 1700
Research shows that the wolf-coyote pairings began in
UNITED STATES the late 1800s to early 1900s. People had wiped out
nearly all of the eastern wolves through hunting, trapping,
Atlantic
Lived here by Ocean
and clear-cutting forest habitat. No more wolves meant
the early 1900s no more fierce enemies for coyotes, so western coyotes
successfully branched out toward the east to claim
MEXICO new territories.
A few wolves survived in the Great Lakes region.
Live here today Pacific Lonely and isolated, these wolves bred with the coy-
Ocean ote newcomers, and the coyote-wolf hybrid was born.
Around 1950 the hybrid coyotes crossed into New York

© TOM & PAT LEESON / KIMBALL STOCK (BIG PICTURE); © DLILLC / CORBIS (HOWLING); MARTIN WALZ (MAP) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 17
 Coyotes often
mate for life. Both
parents and some-
times older siblings
help take care of
the pups.
Coyotes are
members of

ALL CANADA PHOTOS / SUPERSTOCK (COYOTE ON ROAD); © TOM & PAT LEESON / ARDEA (THREE PUPS PLAYING)
(THREE ADULTS); © GEORGE SANKER / NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY (COYOTE WITH DEER); © ROBERT MCGOUEY /
the dog family
Canidae. State from Canada. They were spotted in South Carolina in 1978.

© M. WATSON / ARDEA (ADULT AND PUP); PERRY MCKENNA PHOTOGRAPHY / MOMENT / GETTY IMAGES
“I call them the eastern coyotes,” says Roland Kays, who
directs the Biodiversity Lab at the North Carolina Museum
of Natural Sciences.
Though these coyotes are still considered to be the same
species as the western coyotes and retain the typical cleverness
of any coyote, the eastern cousins do have a few different traits
that developed as the animals and their descendants continued
their expansion eastward after mixing with wolves. It looks like
this “new” canine cousin of the western coyote may be so successful
in the east because it combines coyote brains with wolf brawn.

BIGGER AND STRONGER

Stalking silently, a pair of eastern coyotes closes in on an unsuspecting
white-tailed deer munching leaves in the forest. The two 35-pound
coyotes spring into action, clamping down on the young 150-pound
deer with their powerful jaws. Western coyotes generally stick to
smaller prey such as rabbits and mice, but their larger eastern rela-
tives have expanded the menu to include deer. One of the advantages
to bigger prey is that it can feed four to five coyotes for several days.
According to Kays, interbreeding between eastern wolves and
western coyotes probably
helped the new hybrid coy-
otes adapt to going after the
prey that is easily available in
the east. “The wolves passed
on characteristics that made
these coyotes slightly bigger,”
Kays says. “That also resulted
in wider skulls, which we think
allows them to have a stron-
ger jaw that can handle larger
prey, such as deer.”

18 `
WILE E(ASTERN) COYOTE
Eastern coyotes’ “new” traits are actually beneficial to their adopted
homeland. Deer in the east suffer from overpopulation because big
predators such as wolves and mountain lions have been
essentially wiped out. Eastern coyotes may help lower
the number of deer. The canines also hunt mice and
rabbits, and even steal eggs from Canada geese. Coyotes usually
This helps keep the population numbers of those try to avoid people,
prey species healthier, especially in urban and but one was spotted at a
suburban areas. sandwich shop in Chicago,
Clever eastern coyotes have even been able Illinois, and another
to adapt to humans’ expanding neighborhoods. coyote even climbed
“The suburbs are providing better habitat for the fence into a
many animals,” says Jon Way, founder of Eastern county jail.
Coyote Research. The edges of forests, city parks,
and even patches of grass along highways are all
favorite habitats for rabbits and mice, and also
provide food for the deer that eastern coyotes hunt. Coyotes
aren’t choosy about what they eat, which is one reason they’re
so adaptable. As long as there’s food, coyotes can mark out a
territory. “Roaming 10 to 15 miles a night is pretty normal for
a hunting coyote,” Way says.
Way has spent much of his life tracking the beeps of radio-
collared coyotes on Cape Cod and near Boston, Massachusetts. “One
really amazing thing is the hybrids have learned to cross bridges,”
Way says. That kind of flexibility allows eastern coyotes to branch out
even farther. “They have saturated the eastern landscape, except for
Long Island, New York. But they will show up there soon.”
Coyotes have definitely lived up to the title “top dogs.”

NOW PUPS PLAY

SHOWING! A LOT IN
A COYOTE
PACK.

COYOTE
PUPS
kids.nationalgeographic
.com/videos/

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 19

 Scientists find NEW EVIDENCE about
how KING TUT may have died.
BY ZACHARY PETIT

A
young boy stands in a temple filled with burning incense as he waits for
a priest to place a glittering crown on his head. The ritual is part of the
child’s coronation ceremony. Once completed, he will officially be the
pharaoh of ancient Egypt, and his people will call him by his royal name—
King Tutankhamun. For decades archaeologists have studied Tut’s reign
hoping to learn more about the ruler. They’ve uncovered a lot about his life, but a
riddle remains. No one knows exactly how the king died.
Tut became pharaoh of Egypt in 1332 B.C. at the age of 9. He ruled the country
during a time of conflict, when battles over land raged between Egypt and the
neighboring kingdom of Nubia. Only a decade after coming to power, the young
leader died. In 1922, explorers found the king’s crypt beneath an Egyptian desert.
Although drawings and carvings in the tomb tell of events in his life, the story of
his death was never recorded.
Many people have guessed at what happened. Some think he was murdered by
enemies. Others think he died of an infection. A few even think he was crushed by a
hippo. Egyptologist Chris Naunton has a new theory. He believes King Tut may have

(CHARIOT); BLINK FILMS (SCREEN WITH X-RAY); ATELIER DAYNES PARIS / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE (KING TUT BUST);
been struck by a chariot.

AP PHOTO / MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES BASEL, ANDREAS F. VOEGELIN (TUT'S COFFIN); PRINT COLLECTOR / GETTY IMAGES

© BRYAN BUSOVICKI / DREAMSTIME (PYRAMIDS); © MOHAMED OSAMA / DREAMSTIME (BREAD); IASHA / SHUTTERSTOCK
(HOCKEY STICK); PETER PIKULIK / SHUTTERSTOCK (PUCK); ARTFORM / SHUTTERSTOCK (BORDER)
ONE OF TUT’S
CHARIOTS

KING TUT’S
COFFIN

20

BY SCOTT ELDER
S
wimming along a river in western
Florida, a newborn female manatee
frantically calls out for her mother
with squeaky, chirp-like cries. But
the baby hears no answer. The mother has
disappeared, possibly scared away by the
loud rumblings of a passing motorboat. Des-
perate for her mom’s comforting touch, the
confused manatee begins nuzzling the clos-
est big thing she can find—a docked boat.
MANATEE EMERGENCY
From his home beside the river, Richard
Dash sees the manatee rubbing against
the boat. He keeps watch on the animal,
hoping the mother will appear. But after
two hours, she’s still alone. Dash calls the
QUICK PICS
RESCUING
KEE
RESTING IN
A BABY POOL
KEE (LEFT)
AND DELLA
22
MANATEE
How this orphaned sea
mammal found a new mom
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Com-
mission for help. “A baby manatee needs its
mother to show it where to find food,” says
Andrew Garrett, a rescue coordinator at the
organization. “Without a mother’s guidance,
chances of survival are pretty much zero.”
A rescue team rushes to the scene and
deploys a large net to catch the three-
foot-long newborn. But the little animal
repeatedly slips around the net. Improvis-
ing, Garrett borrows Dash’s smaller dip net,
designed for scooping up fish, and finally
catches the manatee. The calf is carried to
the team’s van and placed in a baby pool
filled with water in the back. Garrett sits
by the pool to keep it steady and makes
sure the manatee can breathe. The team
takes off for the rehabilitation center at
Lowry Park Zoo.
After arriving at the center, the flip-
pered patient is given a checkup by staff.
The doctor’s exam shows that the manatee,
now named Kee, is dehydrated and danger-
ously underweight. At less than 50 pounds,
she’s one of the smallest orphans ever
treated at the zoo. The baby is placed in
a pool where staff give her 24-hour care.
To boost Kee’s weight, she’s bottle-fed
nutrient-packed formula every three hours,
even through the night. Gradually Kee puts
on pounds and gains strength.
A NEW FAMILY
A few weeks later, an adult female manatee
recovering at the center from a collision
with a boat has a baby. This gives
animal care manager Virginia
Edmonds an idea. She decides
to introduce Kee to the new
mom, named Della. Ed-
monds hopes that Della
will adopt and raise
Kee alongside her own
calf, Pal. So staff place
the three manatees
in the same pool.
Within hours Della
is nursing Kee with
her milk. Soon Kee is getting all of her food
from Della.
Eventually Della begins teaching Kee and
Pal to chow down on solid foods provided
by caretakers, including romaine lettuce
and hydrilla, an underwater plant that wild
manatees eat. The trio spend their days
gliding around the water together. For
naps, all three sleep beside each other at
the bottom of their pool, sometimes with
Kee resting on Della’s back. “Della doesn’t
appear to treat Kee any differently from
her biological calf,” Edmonds says. “They’re
one family.”
HOME FREE
In September, five months after Kee is res-
cued, the young manatee has fattened up
to 150 pounds. Della has also fully recovered
from her injuries. Workers decide it’s time
to release Kee and her adopted family back
into the wild.
The manatees are loaded into a van and
driven to Della’s home at St. John’s River.
Each manatee is carried on a large tarp
held by several people and lowered into
the water. Once submerged in the stream,
the manatee family paddles away from the
shore and back into the wild. “Kee is back
where she belongs,” Edmonds says. “To give
her a second chance so that she might have
calves of her own one day—well, that’s just
awesome.”
drink up!
E
When resting,
manatees can
stay submerged Average
for up to 20 adult manatees
minutes. are about 10
feet long and
weigh 1,000
pounds.

Manatees
only breathe
through their
nostrils.

WORLD!
SAVE ANIMALS, SAVE THE
National Geographic Kids Interview a manatee Manatees migrate each winter. Design a bumper Check out the National
has an initiative called expert and conduct Learn a manatee’s migration sticker to raise Geographic Kids book series
Mission: Animal Rescue research at your library route, and draw it on cardboard. awareness about Mission: Animal Rescue. For
to show kids how to save to find out more about Label the START and FINISH the situation of more information or to donate
threatened animals such the animal. Then write points. Then draw spaces along manatees. Include to the initiative, grab a parent
as manatees. You can help an article on manatees the path to make a board game. pictures and a and go online.
too! Try out these rescue for your school or city Decorate your game, grab some catchy slogan on the kids.nationalgeographic.com/
activities. newspaper. dice, and play it with friends. sticker. mission-animal-rescue/

23
CAPT. STACY DUNN (RESCUING KEE); COURTESY OF FWC. ACTIVITIES WERE CONDUCTED UNDER THE USFWS PERMIT NUMBER
MA770191 (KEE IN BABY POOL, KEE AND DELLA, DRINK UP); JAMES R.D. SCOTT / GETTY IMAGES (BIG IMAGE) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS
1 2 3 4
Only around six
percent of Earth’s
A PRICK FROM THE TOXIC land surface is
GYMPIE-GYMPIE rain forest—BUT
PLANT IN AUSTRALIAN ABOUT HALF OF
AND INDONESIAN RAIN
FORESTS CAN STING ALL ANIMAL AND DARWIN’S BARK SPIDERS
FOR MONTHS. PLANT SPECIES IN MADAGASCAR’S
LIVE THERE. FORESTS CAN WEAVE
The Korowai people of 82-FOOT-WIDE WEBS.
New Guinea’s forests live
5 in tree houses as high as
150 feet off the ground. 7
In Central American
GOLIATH BEETLES from forests, rival STRAWBERRY
Africa’s rain forests CAN POISON DART FROGS might
WEIGH nearly as 6 WRESTLE for up to
much as a STICK IT CAN TAKE 20 MINUTES.
TEN MINUTES FOR
OF BUTTER. A FALLING
RAINDROP TO

30 COOL RA
TRAVEL FROM A
RAIN FOREST’S
THICK CANOPY
TO ITS FLOOR.

THINGS
ABOUT
10 12 13 Latin American forests
Moabi trees are home to black howler
8 in the Congo Basin
monkeys, whose calls
forest can be as tall
can be heard three
14 double-
as miles away.
THE AMAZON
RAIN FOREST decker buses.
IN SOUTH AMERICA IS
NEARLY AS BIG AS 11
THE CONTIGUOUS A TREE KNOWN
AS THE IDIOT FRUIT
UNITED STATES. GROWS IN AUSTRALIA’S 14 THE
DAINTREE
RAIN FOREST. RAINBOW
BOA
9
WHEN PANGOLINS—SCALY MAMMALS FROM
AFRICAN AND ASIAN RAIN FORESTS—CURL UP,
THE
THEY RESEMBLE PINECONES. RHINOCEROS
HORNBILL BIRD
FROM SOUTHEAST has prism-like scales
ASIAN FORESTS HAS A HORNLIKE that turn light into
STRUCTURE ON ITS HEAD THAT rainbows when it
LOOKS LIKE AN EXTRA BEAK. bounces off the snake.
© SUZANNE LONG / ALAMY (1); © DANITA DELIMONT / ALAMY (2); © DK / ALAMY (5); © MGKUIJPERS / DREAMSTIME (7);

24
© SOFTLIGHTAA / DREAMSTIME (8); © PHOTOSHOT HOLDINGS LTD / ALAMY (WALKING PANGOLIN); © FLPA / ALAMY (CURLED
SEPTEMBER 2014 PANGOLIN); © ADS / ALAMY (12); © PIPER MACKAY / NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY (13); © CHRIS MATTISON / ALAMY (14);
15 20 CLOUDED LEOPARD 21
RAIN FORESTS OFTEN GET MORE THAN
100 INCHES OF RAIN A YEAR. OTHER FORESTS MOST GOLDEN
USUALLY RECEIVE NO MORE THAN 60 INCHES. LION TAMARINS,
WHICH LIVE IN
RAIN FORESTS
16 18 25 percent of IN BRAZIL, HAVE
INGREDIENTS in A TWIN.
modern MEDICINES
come from RAIN
FOREST plants. 22

One ritual of the Sateré-Mawé

tribe in the Amazon rain forest 19 VEILED
KINKAJOUS, STINKHORN
involves pulling on gloves filled WHICH LIVE IN
with stinging ants. CENTRAL AND India’s FUNGI
FOUND IN
Jeypore-Dehing TROPICAL
17 A type of fir tree in forest is home to RAIN FORESTS
the United States’ Pacific
Northwest can contain as seven wild cat WORLDWIDE
SMELL LIKE
much water as 60 bathtubs.
SOUTH AMERICAN species, the most GARBAGE.
RAIN FORESTS, ever recorded in
LIKE TO LICK HONEY a single area.
FROM BEEHIVES.

AIN FORESTS
23 A LAKE inside a
rain forest on the
Caribbean island of
25 Living in Central
and South American
rain forests, a
26
In Illinois, the remains
of a 300-MILLION-YEAR-OLD
29
trees in
Tasmania’s
BY ALICIA KLEPEIS
Some pine

Dominica SIZZLES sloth can RAIN FOREST were found

temperate rain
AT AROUND carry algae, 250 FEET UNDERGROUND in
190˚F. beetles, and forests CAN LIVE
a coal mine.
even roaches FOR 2,000 YEARS.
in its fur.
27 A CAVE BENEATH MEXICO’S YUCATÁN 30
RAIN FOREST HAS A WATER-FILLED Tropical
SINKHOLE WHERE YOU rain forests have
CAN GO SWIMMING. RED SOIL
because of
high levels
24 of IRON and
ALUMINUM.

28 The wingspan of the

blue morpho butterfly
from Central and South WIN THE
American rain forests is
six inches wide. BOOK!
TRY ONLINE SEPTEMBER 22-29.
FOUND IN AUSTRALIAN RAIN FORESTS, kids.nationalgeographic
THE RED-LEGGED PADEMELON RESTS .com/giveaways/
ITS HEAD ON ITS TAIL WHILE SLEEPING.
© BRAD CALKINS / DREAMSTIME (15); © MORLEY READ / ALAMY (16); © TTATTY / DREAMSTIME (17); © PETE OXFORD /

25
MINDEN PICTURES (19); © SUPERSTOCK / ALAMY (20); © GEORGE H.H. HUEY / ALAMY (23); © BLICKWINKEL / ALAMY (24);
© SUZI ESZTERHAS / MINDEN PICTURES (25); © DAVID KILPATRICK / ALAMY (27); © MILOUS CHAB / DREAMSTIME (28); NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS
© RAYMOND WARREN / ALAMY (29); © GEOGPHOTOS / ALAMY (30)
26
SUPERLAB
AT SUPERFAB LAB An egg-shaped space with three
levels, the marine lab will be lined with several aquariums.
These tanks will contain small aquatic animals such as fish
and crustaceans collected from the ocean so that scientists
This cutting-edge
vessel may change
SEA can examine the marine animals up close. They can also use
the top-notch lab equipment to perform chemistry experi-
ments on seawater to test such things as pollution levels.

how we explore
POWER TRIP With more than
the oceans 3,000 square feet of solar panels
on its sides and a wind turbine
BY APRIL CAPOCHINO MYERS near the top, the SeaOrbiter will
taring out of your bedroom window, you watch mostly run on solar and wind
energy. The craft’s motors will
as a great white shark swims by. Soon an only be turned on when necessary,
octopus shoots into view, followed by a swarm for instance, when the captain is
of jellyfish. You’re aboard the SeaOrbiter, a docking at a port. “The vessel is
high-tech vessel created for ocean exploration. very eco-friendly,” Todd says. “Our
The 190-foot-tall craft, which is being built with goal is to study the ocean without
S
support from the National Geographic Society, is changing it.”
designed so that the top half towers above the ocean’s
surface while the bottom plunges into the water. Unlike other
vessels such as ships, which must refuel regularly, the SeaOrbiter is
so efficient that it can stay in the water for long periods without
DIVE IN After donning scuba
gear in the diving equipment room
returning to land to juice up. “So scientists can observe the ocean located 40 feet above the ocean,
24/7 for months or even years on end,” SeaOrbiter operations direc- scientists taking shallow dives
tor Bill Todd says. Scheduled to launch in 2016, the vessel will sail to can exit the room into an outdoor
remote parts of the sea, then drift with the currents as scientists con- elevator that goes down the back
duct research. “The craft will help us uncover the secrets of the sea,” of the SeaOrbiter to the water’s
Todd says. Check out the SeaOrbiter’s coolest features. surface. Once it hits its destina-
tion, divers will simply hop off the
elevator and into the sea.

SOUND OFF While other
vessels tend to make a racket
as they plow through water, the
SeaOrbiter is designed to be
ultraquiet and therefore less
likely to scare animals. Although
the craft won’t make that much
noise, it will pick up plenty of it.
Super-sensitive recorders on the
SeaOrbiter will capture sounds
from marine life such as whales
that are swimming too far below
the craft to be seen.
DEEP-SEA
DIVERS LEAVE
THE PRESSURIZED
AREA FOR THE
OCEAN.
27
HANGAR HANGOUT
The hangar will hold Remotely
Operated Vehicles (ROVs), devices
that let scientists explore under-
water peaks, canyons, and even
shipwrecks without leaving the
SeaOrbiter. Operated by techni-
cians from the vessel’s control
room, the ROVs can travel thou-
sands of feet deep while sending
live video back to the SeaOrbiter.
THE SUITE LIFE With room
for 22 people, the living area on the
SeaOrbiter will be five-star quality.
Bedrooms will come complete with
TVs and computers. Inhabitants
can exercise at the fitness center
or play the pipe organ in one of the
vessel’s classrooms. And big under-
water windows will be like personal
aquariums where you might see
divers and marine animals swim by.
UNDERWATER SPACE
Pressure below the sea is much
higher than it is above water. A
scuba diver taking multiple trips
deep underwater can get sick
traveling back and forth between
the different levels of pressure. So
before and after long, deep dives,
divers must spend time in a pres-
surized room where the force can
be controlled. The pressure here
is increased or lowered slowly so
divers can adjust to the pressure
of the environment they’re about
to enter. The confined, pressur-
ized environment in this area is
similar to what it’s like on the
International Space Station. So
astronauts can also prepare for
space missions here.
© SEAORBITER® / JACQUES ROUGERIE (ALL)
 games, laughs, an
d lots to do!
CTON (BASE ART); ROVIO, ANGRY BIRDS AND ALL RELATED TITLES, LOGOS AND CHARACTERS ARE TRADEMARKS OF ROVIO ENTERTAINMENT LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Market
Think i
could pull off
one of these

Mix-up
hats?

d by all the goods at

The Angry Birds are amaze rket in Thailand.
ati ng Ma
Damnoen Saduak Flo
e of the ite ms are in the wrong place.
But som ed spaces to its
15 num ber
Match each of the number one shows
missing item. For instance, been misplaced
wh ich has
a missing postcard, answers on page 34
on a boat.

28 SEPTEMBER 2014
 Floating
is as cool as
flying. almost.

CHECK OUT
THE BOOK!

EXPLORE THE WORLD!

PACKED WITH
ANIMALS,
FUN FACTS, GAMES,
MAPS, AND
MORE!

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 29