See pictures and read about Great Smoky Mountains National Park on National Geographic Kids.
Festival more to explore National Parks Nature Boom Time Videos Travel the U.S. and find
See pictures and read about Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on National Geographic Kids.
Festival more to explore National Parks Nature Boom Time Videos Travel the U.S. and find
The outdoors is one photo studio everyone can use! To help you get your best shots while you’re out exploring nature, we’ve asked wildlife photographer Gabby Salazar to share a few photo secrets.
That’s why all of our great photo stuff is in one easy-to-find place.
See pictures and read about Grand Canyon National Park on National Geographic Kids.
Festival more to explore National Parks Nature Boom Time Videos Travel the U.S. and find
American alligators once faced extinction. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service placed them on the endangered species list in 1967. Fortunately, the legal protection worked. Just 20 years later, American alligators were taken off the list. Brought back from the brink of extinction, over a million of these reptiles survive today. Now the main threat to alligators is habitat destruction, caused by such human activities as draining and developing wetlands. American alligators live in the wild in the southeastern United States. You’re most likely to spot them in Florida and Louisiana, where they live in rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps, bayous, and marshes. These reptiles are kind of clumsy on land, but they’re built for life in the water. Great swimmers, they are equipped with webbed feet and strong tails that propel them through the water. An average male American alligator is 10 to 15 feet (three to five meters) long. Half of its length is its massive, strong tail. An alligator can weigh as much as half a ton (1,000 pounds), but an average male weighs between 500 and 600 pounds (227 to 272 kilograms). Females are usually smaller than males. As big and ferocious as the female alligator may look, she is a gentle mother. A mother alligator makes a nest on shore, where she lays her eggs. Then she guards her eggs until they’re ready to hatch. At that point the babies start to make noises, and their mother hears her little ones‘ peeps as they break out of the eggs. She gently carries them—in her mouth—to the water nearby. Newly hatched young are only about six to eight inches (15 to 20 centimeters) long, and very vulnerable. Their mother protects them from predators, which include raccoons, bobcats, birds, and even other alligators. The young alligators stay with their mother for up to two years. After that, they’re able to fend for themselves.
they’re able to fend for themselves. 1:55 Cool Facts About Alligators and Crocodiles Find
The Gila monster is one of only a few poisonous lizards in the world. The Gila (pronounced HEE-luh) is the largest lizard native to the United States. Their black bodies are covered in beadlike scales with bright spots, blotches, or bands of pink, orange, or yellow, which probably warn other animals to stay away. Their bulky bodies, slow-moving stride, thick forked tongue, and snorting hisses reinforce the name Gila monster. They live in the dry, arid regions such as the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts of the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. They are named after the Arizona Gila River Basin, where they were first discovered. Gila monsters are more likely to use their venom on a predator than on prey. They clamp their jaws down with the power of a vise grip. Then the venom in their bottom jaw flows through their grooved teeth into the victim. Although the Gila’s bite is extremely painful, no human death has been reported. Gilas are sluggish creatures that feed primarily on eggs raided from bird nests and newborn mammals, such as rabbits and squirrels. They sometimes eat quail eggs whole without crushing the shells. They spend about 95 percent of their time underground and emerge only to hunt for food or to take a sunbath. They don’t need to eat very often because they can store fat in their large tails.
Save the Earth tips Find out how you can help make a difference.
Despite their reputation, pigs are not dirty animals. They’re actually quite clean. The pig’s reputation as a filthy animal comes from its habit of rolling in mud to cool off. Pigs that live in cool, covered environments stay very clean. Pigs are also known as hogs or swine. Male pigs of any age are called boars; female pigs are called sows. Pigs are found and raised all over the world, and provide valuable products to humans, including pork, lard, leather, glue, fertilizer, and a variety of medicines. Most pigs raised in the United States are classified as meat-type pigs, as they produce more lean meat than lard, a fat used in cooking. In the wild, pigs eat everything from leaves, roots, and fruit to rodents and small reptiles. In the United States, farm-raised pigs eat commercially made diets of mostly corn. In Europe, pigs eat barley-based diets. Pigs have sharp tusks that help them dig and fight. Farmers often take off the tusks to avoid injury to people and other pigs. Sows give birth to a litter of young called piglets. They usually nurse the piglets for three to five weeks. Piglets weaned off their mother’s milk are not called piglets but are referred to as shoats. Piglets weigh about 2.5 pounds (1.1 kilograms) at birth, and usually double their weight in one week. Fully grown, pigs can grow to between 300 and 700 pounds (140 and 300 kilograms), and sometimes much more. Pigs have poor eyesight, but a great sense of smell. The pig’s nostrils are on its leathery snout, which is very sensitive to touch. The pig uses the snout to search, or root, for food. Pigs are among the smartest of all domesticated animals and are even smarter than dogs.
Save the Earth tips Find out how you can help make a difference.
Youngsters tumble, climb, and run playing follow the leader. Another group plays a rowdy game of king of the mountain. Several adults watch the action, relaxing nearby. Is this a playground scene at school? No, guess again. It’s a lush mountain forest high in the Virunga mountains of Africa, and the playmates are young mountain gorillas under the watchful eyes of their mothers. For a long time the image most people had of a gorilla encounter included chest pounding, roaring, charging, and big, bared teeth. But researchers studying gorillas reveal a very different picture of mountain gorillas. The animals are peaceful, gentle, social, and mainly vegetarian creatures. The occasional ferocious-looking, impressive displays are generally from a male gorilla protecting his family group from a threat. A typical group is led by the biggest and strongest mature male gorilla—often the guy doing any chest pounding or charging. He’s called a silverback because the hair on a male’s back turns from black to silvery gray as he matures. This happens when he is between 11 and 13 years old. A silverback’s group normally includes a subadult male or two and a few females and their young. Mountain gorillas wander around a home range of up to 15 square miles (39 square kilometers). Mountain gorillas spend much of their time eating. Their food includes a variety of plants, along with a few insects and worms. At night the animals make a nest to sleep in. Many lightweight gorillas nest in trees, making beds of bent branches. The heavier individuals may nest in grasses on the ground. Babies snuggle with their mothers for the night. Life for mountain gorillas isn’t all peaceful. They are endangered, threatened by civil war in a small area of Africa where they live. Hunters kill them for food or trophies. Their forests are chopped down for farmland, fuel, and housing. But many dedicated scientists, park rangers, and other concerned people are working hard to protect mountain gorillas, their forests, and their way of life in the mountains.
Save the Earth tips Find out how you can help make a difference.
Discover the kind of engineering involved in designing pop-ups!
Find the center point of the sides of the bags and the opening.
The Native-American woman who showed Lewis and Clark the way
Sacagawea remembered Shoshone trails from her childhood and helped the expedition find
