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About This Quiz
There are many thousands upon thousands of animal species on this planet, and while we may think we know them all fairly well, even an experienced veterinarian really only knows the ones they deal with all the time. Animals belong to the kingdom Animalia, which is the second-highest taxonomic rank (the highest being a domain). Animalia includes all vertebrate and invertebrate animals, including the ones who crawl, fly, swim and run. We humans also have less formal classifications for animals: pets, pests, prey, predators, farmyard animals, food, and so on. We find it absolutely abhorrent to eat certain animals, usually because they're cute, friendly, companions, or perhaps because they're getting increasingly rare and we want to protect them.
However, we don't always know too much about these feathery, furry, scaly, and other friends who share our homes, wind up on our plates, or simply engage our attention as we go out and about in the world. Anyone can own a dog, but only a true dog-lover knows all about a dog's health needs. Anyone can eat a cow without knowing how many stomachs it has. So click through and let's see how well you know the animals that fill our lives!
How many stomachs does a cow have?
four
Ruminants have four stomachs, which is why they chew the cud - it's a way of softening up high-fiber food like grass to make it ready for further digestion.
one
eight
two
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Which of these is not a pachyderm?
Hippopotamus
Rhinoceros
Elephant
Gazelle
Pachyderms are a somewhat obsolete "order" of mammal with a thick skin, and include elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus.
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What's special about male seahorses?
They're monogamous
They carry the pregnancy
Male seahorses take the fertilized eggs back from the female and carry them to term. It's all very feminist as labor is divided!
They do all the childcare
They're super misogynistic to the lady seahorses
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How long can a snail sleep?
a week
a month
a year
more than a year
Snails can sleep for a really long time! But they move so slowly that it's really hard to tell the difference if they're awake or not.
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Why might a koala be arrested?
They have fingerprints
Koalas have fingerprints like those of humans!
They steal
They beat each other up all the time
They commit blasphemy
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What animal has an opposable thumb?
Panda
Human
Primate
All of the above
All these animals have opposable thumbs, meaning they have a digit that faces the others and enables effective gripping.
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What is the oldest living animal?
a tortoise
Jonathan the tortoise is about 186 years old and still kicking - albeit really slowly.
a whale
a grey parrot
a bird
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Can turtles feel through their shells?
No
Yes
Turtles can feel through their shell - they usually don't like it but if you want to make a turtle smile, give it a very gentle scratch with a soft toothbrush and watch it wriggle for joy!
only temperature
only pressure
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What sound do giraffes make?
Moo like a cow
Croak like a frog
Roar like a rutting stag
no sound
Giraffes' necks are too busy getting blood all the way up to their heads to deal with sounds. They have no vocal chords.
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What mammal especially preys on snakes?
Mongoose
Mongooses prey on snakes, though they don't eat them - they just kill them to protect their nests.
Lion
Jackal
Hyena
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What endangered animal has striped skin?
Tiger
Tigers have striped skin and fur - it's just that their fur is so beautiful that you'd never shave it off to see!
Kangaroo
Quagga
Okapi
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What is a hart royal?
A kind of fallow deer
A kind of red deer
A stag with at least ten points on its antlers
A hart royal has at least ten points on its antlers. It's not very good form to hunt one though, as he is probably in his prime, and for the health of deer herds in places without large predators, hunting should be limited to the old, sick, and weak, if it is to be done at all.
A stag over ten years old
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What is a badger's den called?
a burrow
a warren
a hole
a sett
A badger lives in a sett, which is like a warren but with bigger tunnels. It usually has a few entrances for safety and ventilation.
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What is a female rabbit called?
a buck
a doe
Rabbits are divided into bucks and does, just like deer.
just a rabbit
a lady
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What is a male duck called?
a mallard
just a duck
depends on the type of duck
a drake
Ducks are divided into drakes and hens. Mallard is a type of duck.
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What animals kiss?
Chimp
Bonobo
Prairie dogs
All of the above
All these animals kiss. Others have a sort of proxy, like grooming or nuzzling, but they don't kiss the way we do.
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What color are flamingos?
white
Flamingos are born white. Their diet of shrimp makes them pink!
pink
brown
all of the above
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Where is a shrimp's heart?
its head
A shrimp thinks with its heart - but that's OK because it is in its head!
its chest
its tail
it hasn't got one
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What's special about prairie voles?
They are the most promiscuous animal
They are totally monogamous
Prairie voles are very monogamous, and never cheat - but you can subvert their monogamy by messing with their natural levels of vasopressin, sometimes thought of as a sort of fidelity hormone (as human men who are faithful are believed to have more of it than men who are not).
They are really a kind of weasel
All of them are overweight these days
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How many dancing frog species are currently known?
five
eight
12
24
There are 24 dancing frogs, which is a whole lot of amphibian booty-shaking. They do it to attract a mate, much like we humans do.
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How do bats save the farming industry money each year?
They eat insects
Bats save the American farmer $3 billion a year! If you have a problem with insects near your place, a colony of pipistrelle bats can eat hundreds of them per day - each!
They fertilize crops
They carry seeds and poop them out, planting crops
They scare off pests
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How do honeybees tell each other they found food?
waggle dancing
Waggle dancing is a way bees say, "This is a good spot" - but they will shove each other to stop a colony member doing it if it's getting in the way of agreeing about where to go.
tiptoe dancing
cursing each other out, bee-style
shoving each other
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A group of parrots is called a what?
a parrotium
a pandemonium
Yep, it's a pandemonium, which is very cute, of course. The weirdest collective noun, however, is probably a whoop of gorillas, which was a joke from Rowan Atkinson's breakout TV show, "Not the Nine O'Clock News" - but one that soon became popular with primatologists!
a whoop
a flange
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Which of these does not have a cloven hoof?
Cattle
Horse
These animals all have a cloven hoof except a horse, which has a single toe (a hoof is technically a toe).
Goat
Sheep
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Why is colic so dangerous for horses?
They can't burp
If you think you've had bad gas, you've never seen a horse with literally no way to get it out without lots of luck and possibly a human manipulating it.
They can't puke
They panic and injure themselves
Their guts are prone to twisting
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How do butterflies taste?
with their mouth
with their feet
Butterflies taste with their feet, a useful skill when you land on a flower and need to immediately assess whether it's a good source of food.
with their antennae
with their wings
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What shape is wombat poop?
round
spherical
tube shaped
cube shaped
Wombats can poop cubes so their poop stays where they put it and doesn't roll away!
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In what position do toucans sleep?
a ball
Toucans sleep in a ball with their great big beak folded protectively back over their body.
standing up
hanging upside down
flying
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What rather mean name does the African penguin also go by?
Doofus
Dumbo
Jackass
African penguins make a braying sound rather like a mule or donkey, hence they are called jackass penguins!
Numpty
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How do anteaters chew?
with their teeth
with their gums
Anteaters do not have teeth. Ants are tiny so they just vacuum them up.
with their lips
they don't
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What type of armadillo might you find in the arid regions of Argentina?
Pink fairy
The pink fairy armadillo is adorable, genuinely pink, and it's super cool because it has hair AND a shell!
Blue dwarf
Green elf
White pixie
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How does an axolotl stay mobile?
It constantly grows new limbs
It can grow new limbs if it has to
This super cute little fishy creature can grow a new limb if it loses one!
It never stops moving
It has more limbs than it needs
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What is a muntjac?
a dog
a deer
A muntjac is a funny-looking little deer that comes from Africa. It was introduced to the U.K. a while ago and now it drives gardeners up the wall with its uncanny ability to get through fences.
a large rodent
a tiny horse
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What is clever about red-eyed tree frogs?
They camouflage
Their eggs hatch early if there is danger
Red-eyed tree frogs will detect danger and escape their eggs early if they have to!
Their eggs don't hatch if there is danger, keeping them innocuous
They hatch fully ready to fight
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When were dogs domesticated?
roughly 10,000 years ago
roughly 8,000 years ago
roughly 15,000 years ago
Dogs were probably domesticated some 15,000 years ago in Europe, and a couple millennia later in Asia.
roughly 5,000 years ago
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