natgeolittlekids.

com • NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

LOOK INSIDE:
ANIMAL CARDS!

Snowy
Panda
Play!
 Why?
ANIMALS

Why do you
think a sloth
hangs upside
down?
Sloths eat and
sleep upside
down. They
use less energy
when they hang
instead of walk
(like you do
when you sit
instead of run).
This means
they can eat less
CLAUS MEYER / MINDEN PICTURES

food and hide

from hungry
animals.
2 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021
 SORTING

What Is Different?
Look at each picture in the top row.
Find the differences between it and the one below.
© DANIELA JAKOB / DREAMSTIME (DOG); ANDY CRAWFORD / GETTY IMAGES (CARS);
D-BASE / GETTY IMAGES (SNOW FAMILY); © IA64 / DREAMSTIME (GLASSES)

Find one Find two Find three

difference. differences. differences.
N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C 3
 NATURE

This
salamander
That’s Cool!
lives in lakes and Meet the axolotl.
wetlands in only Say: ACK-suh-LAH-tuhl
one place in the
world.

GILLS

If it is
injured, it can It breathes
AUREAPTERUS / GETTY IMAGES

regrow its legs, underwater with

jaw, spine, heart, its feathery gills as
or parts of its it hunts for bugs,
brain. tadpoles, worms,
and fish.
4 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021
 TOP ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): ALEX SNYDER / NGS; RICARDO FURTADO / SHUTTERSTOCK; © ISTOCK / SELLINGPIX.
MIDDLE ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): GREKOFF / SHUTTERSTOCK; © ISTOCK / CHIYACAT; © EYEWAVE / DREAMSTIME.
BOTTOM ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): ANDREA IZZOTTI / SHUTTERSTOCK; HEROMEN30 / SHUTTERSTOCK; RTIMAGES / SHUTTERSTOCK.

—IRD

—EAPOT

—EA STAR
NAMING

—AMERA
—LOWERS

—MBRELLA

Name some other blue things.

—AR

—ANDY

—ELMUT

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
5
What in the World Are These?
ANIMALS

PANDA FUN
IN THE SNOW
Giant pandas live in forests
in the mountains. They need
to stay warm when it is
cold and snowy.

To stay
warm, panda
moms and cubs
sleep in dens,
like a hollow
log.
 Mother
pandas hold their
babies nonstop
for a month to
keep them warm
and safe.

STEVE BLOOM IMAGES / ALAMY (BIG PICTURE);

MITSUAKI IWAGO / MINDEN PICTURES (DEN)

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C 7
Thick, woolly fur PANDA PAW

keeps pandas warm

and dry when they
sleep in the snow.
Furry feet keep them
warm as they walk.
8 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021
 Pandas sometimes EATING
BAMBOO

sit on the snow

for a long time
to eat. They
crunch on a
plant called
bamboo. Eating
a lot gives them
energy to stay A panda
eats 12 hours
warm. a day. That is
half a day!

The best part

of living in
snow is rolling
like a fuzzy
snowball!
KATHERINE FENG / MINDEN PICTURES (ON ALL FOURS, PAW); KEREN SU /
DANITADELIMONT / ARDEA (EATING); SBS ECLECTIC IMAGES / ALAMY (ROLLING) N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C 9
MATCHING

TOPS AND
BOTTOMS
The animals in these pictures are all mixed up—
they have the wrong bottoms! Look at the top
of each picture. Find the correct bottom that
matches that animal.
MOUNTAIN GOAT

ERMINE

SUZI ESZTERHAS / MINDEN PICTURES (TIGER); CAMILLE DAI / EYEEM

10 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021 (SQUIRREL); KONRAD WOTHE / MINDEN PICTURES (ERMINE);
 TIGER

SQUIRREL

OKAPI
COMMON STILT

Which animal bottom would you like

to pretend was part of your body?

11
DONALD M. JONES / MINDEN PICTURES (MOUNTAIN GOAT); GLENN BARTLEY /
BIA / MINDEN PICTURES (STILT); ARTERRA PICTURE LIBRARY / ALAMY (OKAPI) N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 ANIMALS

ALKING ’ W IT H
‘T
GUAN A CO S
Guanacos live in groups. They
use their noses, tails, and ears
to tell each other things.
Use your eyes to “listen”
to these guanacos. Say: gwah-NAH-koh

They eat Touching noses

grass, leaves,
and other means “Hello.”
plants.

YVA MOMATIUK AND

JOHN EASTCOTT / MINDEN
PICTURES (ADULT AND
BABY); TORSTEN LORENZ /
12 ALAMY (TOUCHING NOSES)
 Ears up and tail down means “I feel good.”

About
10 guanacos
live in a
family.
N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C 13
 A tail that’s straight out
means “Hey, something
is out there.”

A tail that’s
straight up
means “You are
bugging me.”

Flat ears mean

“I mean it—
leave me alone.”

If a guanaco wants to say “You

should have listened to me,” it spits!
14 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021
 MORE
CAMELS
Guanacos are BACTRIAN
CAMEL

part of the camel

family. Meet the VICUÑA

other animals
in the family.
LLAMA

DROMEDARY
CAMEL

PETE OXFORD / MINDEN PICTURES (STRAIGHT-OUT TAIL);

WESTEND61 GMBH / ALAMY / ALAMY (STRAIGHT-UP TAIL);
JUNIORS BILDARCHIV GMBH / ALAMY (FLAT EARS); DMITRY
PICHUGIN / SHUTTERSTOCK (BACTRIAN CAMEL); CHRIS
MATTISON / MINDEN PICTURES (VICUÑA); SEBASTIAN
KENNERKNECHT / MINDEN PICTURES (LLAMA); ALESSANDRA
SARTI / IMAGEBROKER/ARDEA (DROMEDARY CAMEL) 15
 READING

SILLY SOUNDS
Read each silly sentence aloud. What sound
do you hear most in each sentence?
Say the name of each animal. Fill in the blank of
each sentence with the animal that starts with
the same sound.
A big bounces on blue bubbles.
A crow counts a crowd of .
The good gulps goo.
Five frogs find fluffy .
A happy hugs a horse.
The loud licks lemons.
A yellow yells, “Yikes!”

FLOWERS

BUMBLEBEE

16 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

 CRABS
GORILLA

LEMUR

with the same letter as your name?

Can you name an animal that starts
YAK

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
HIPPOPOTAMUS

17
SUZI ESZTERHAUS / MINDEN PICTURES (GORILLA); VICKI JAURON, BABYLON AND BEYOND PHOTOGRAPHY / GETTY IMAGES
(HIPPOPOTAMUS); STEPHEN BELCHER / MINDEN PICTURES (CRABS); JAKUB DEML / ADOBE STOCK (LEUMUR); XI ZHINONG / NATURE
PICTURE LIBRARY (YAK); MICHAEL DURHAM / MINDEN PICTURES (BUMBLEBEE); NATEEWACH TAKAM / DREAMSTIME (FLOWERS)
 NATURE

A PENGUIN
HATCHES
An emperor penguin
mother lays an egg.
She passes it to
the father.

EGG UNDER
POUCH

The father
holds the egg
on top of his
feet. He keeps
it warm under
a pouch of skin.

© BIOSPHOTO / SAMUEL BLANC (1); © FRED OLIVIER /

18 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021 NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY (2); © WORLDFOTO / ALAMY (3)
 3 In about two months, a penguin
chick hatches. Its parents keep
the little baby warm and fed
until it grows up.

CHICK

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C 19
 SPACE

STARS
On a clear night, you might see
about 3,000 stars in the sky. But
there are billions more that you
cannot see.
Stars create energy that makes them
shine. They are made of hot gases.
Stars have different temperatures.
The hottest stars are blue. The
coolest stars are red. Yellow stars,
like Earth’s sun, have a temperature
between blue and red stars.

20 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021 EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY AND NASA

 Can you
draw and color
a star of each
temperature?

HOT STAR

FROM THE
PAGES OF

COOL STAR

21
SORTING

HEAVY AND
Look at the pictures. Some are light—
you could pick them up with one hand.
Others are too heavy to pick up at all!

Draw a circle with your finger

around all the light things. Draw
an x through all the heavy things.

DIME
FEATHER

BUTTERFLY
CASSOWARY

22 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

LIGHT Editor in Chief and Vice President,
Kids Magazines & Digital
Rachel Buchholz
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Eileen O’Tousa-Crowson

Editorial Ruth A. Musgrave, Contributing Writer

Photo Shannon Hibberd, Senior Photo Editor;
Kelley Miller, Contributing Photo Editor
LOG Art Dawn McFadin, Contributing Designer
Production Sean Philpotts, Director
Digital Laura Goertzel, Director

PUBLISHED BY
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS, LLC
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Peter Rice
Editorial Director
Susan Goldberg
Managing Editor, Magazines
David Brindley

Are you International Magazine Publishing

JIANG HONGYAN / SHUTTERSTOCK (LOG); PANICATTACK / SHUTTERSTOCK (BUBBLES); BLICKWINKEL / ALAMY (CASSO-

Yulia Petrossian Boyle, Senior Vice President;

light or
(BUTTERFLY); PHILIP ARNO PHOTOGRAPHY / SHUTTERSTOCK (FIRE TRUCK); STEVE BLOOM IMAGES / ALAMY (COVER)

Jennifer Jones, Director;

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LITTLE KIDS,

Issue 89, November / December 2021
(ISSN 1934-8363), is published bimonthly by
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N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C 23
wild cards

HARP SEAL

COPYRIGHT © 2021 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS, LLC

 harp seal
FUN FACTs
Harp seal babies like this one
are called pups. Harp seal pups
are born with yellow fur. Their
fur turns white after a few days.

MICHIO HOSHINO / MINDEN PICTURES

wild cards

RED-NECKED PADEMELON
 red-necked
pademelon
FUN FACTs
This kind of pademelon lives in
forests. It carries its baby in a pouch
like a kangaroo. Pademelons eat
grass, leaves, fruit, and bark.

© JEAN-PAUL FERRERO / MINDEN PICTURES

wild cards

SPOTTED PORCUPINE FISH

 spotted
porcupine fish
FUN FACTs
A porcupine fish puffs up
like a balloon and sticks
out spines that are on its body.
That way enemies won’t eat it.

© ALEX MUSTARD / NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY

wild cards

EUROPEAN BEE-EATER
 European
bee-eater
FUN FACTs
These birds eat bees and
other insects. Bee-eaters
dig burrows, or holes, and
build their nests inside.

© OLIVIER SEYDOUX / MINDEN PICTURES

wild cards

JAGUAR
 jaguar
FUN FACTs
Jaguars have spots that help
them hide in the forest. They use
their strong jaws to catch the
animals they hunt.

FRANS LANTING / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION

wild cards

EUROPEAN MOUFLON
 European
mouflon
FUN FACTs
A mouflon is a kind of sheep.
Male mouflons, called rams, have
big, curved horns. Mouflons grow
thick, warm coats in the winter.

© KLEIN-HUBERT / KIMBALL STOCK

 OBSERVATION

Hide-and-Seek
Can you find the snow leopards in this picture?

SYLVAIN CORDIER / NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY

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