Question 1

What is the only mammal capable of true sustained flight?

Accepted Answer

The bat. Bats account for about a quarter of all mammal species. Flying squirrels and sugar gliders only glide, while bats achieve genuine powered flight.

Question 2

What is the largest land animal alive today?

Accepted Answer

The African bush elephant. Adult bulls can weigh over 6,000 kilograms (13,000 pounds) and stand up to 4 meters tall at the shoulder. They are also among the most intelligent animals.

Question 3

What is the fastest land animal in a sprint?

Accepted Answer

The cheetah. Cheetahs can reach about 70 mph (112 km/h) in short bursts of around 20 seconds. They cannot maintain this speed for long because they overheat quickly.

Question 4

Which land mammal has the longest known gestation period?

Accepted Answer

The African elephant (around 22 months). African elephants carry their young for roughly 22 months. The long gestation produces very large, well-developed calves at birth.

Question 5

What is the tallest living animal in the world?

Accepted Answer

The giraffe. Male giraffes can reach about 5.5 meters (18 feet) tall. Their long necks contain the same number of vertebrae as a humans, but each is much larger.

Question 6

Which tiny species is generally considered the smallest mammal by weight?

Accepted Answer

The bumblebee bat (Kittis hog-nosed bat). The bumblebee bat weighs about 2 grams and is roughly the size of a large bumblebee. By body length the Etruscan shrew is comparable.

Question 7

The blue whale is the largest known animal ever to have lived. What is its primary food?

Accepted Answer

Krill. Blue whales can grow over 30 meters long and weigh up to 200 tonnes. They eat enormous quantities of small shrimp-like crustaceans called krill.

Question 8

What is the term for a young kangaroo carried in its mothers pouch?

Accepted Answer

A joey. A newborn kangaroo joey is the size of a jellybean and crawls to the pouch to keep developing. Joeys can ride in the pouch for up to a year.

Question 9

What is the largest living bird in the world?

Accepted Answer

The ostrich. Ostriches can stand up to 2.8 meters tall and weigh 150 kilograms. They cannot fly but can run at about 70 km/h, the fastest of any bird on land.

Question 10

Which bird is famous for an annual migration from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back?

Accepted Answer

The Arctic tern. Arctic terns fly roughly 70,000 kilometers round trip each year, the longest known migration of any animal. Some live more than 30 years.

Question 11

Which bird is generally cited as the fastest animal on Earth in a dive?

Accepted Answer

The peregrine falcon. Peregrine falcons reach speeds of more than 240 mph (390 km/h) when diving on prey. Special baffles in their nostrils stop the airflow from harming them.

Question 12

Approximately how many bird species are there in the world?

Accepted Answer

About 10,000 to 11,000. Modern taxonomy recognizes roughly 10,000 to 11,000 living bird species, with new species occasionally split off through DNA analysis.

Question 13

Which bird family is famous for mimicking human speech and includes the African grey?

Accepted Answer

Parrots. Parrots have unusually large brains for their body size. African grey parrots in particular show vocabulary and reasoning skills comparable to a young child.

Question 14

Roughly how far can a typical owl rotate its head?

Accepted Answer

About 270 degrees. Owls can turn their heads up to about 270 degrees in either direction. They need to because their eyes are fixed in their sockets and cannot move.

Question 15

Which flightless bird native to New Zealand is the national symbol of that country?

Accepted Answer

The kiwi. Kiwis are roughly the size of a chicken, lay enormous eggs relative to their body size and are mostly nocturnal. They are critically endangered.

Question 16

Penguins are flightless birds that live almost exclusively in which hemisphere?

Accepted Answer

The Southern Hemisphere. All living penguin species live in the Southern Hemisphere. The northernmost, the Galapagos penguin, just reaches the Equator.

Question 17

How many hearts does an octopus have?

Accepted Answer

Three. Octopuses have two branchial hearts that pump blood through the gills and one systemic heart for the rest of the body. They are mollusks, not fish.

Question 18

Which fish is widely regarded as the fastest fish in the ocean?

Accepted Answer

The sailfish. Sailfish are commonly cited as reaching about 68 mph (110 km/h) in short bursts. Other contenders include marlin and the swordfish.

Question 19

What is the largest living reptile species in the world?

Accepted Answer

The saltwater crocodile. Adult males can exceed 6 meters in length and weigh more than a tonne. They are found in coastal waters from India to northern Australia.

Question 20

A famous Galapagos tortoise named Lonesome George died in 2012 as the last of his subspecies. How old was he?

Accepted Answer

About 100 years old. Lonesome George was the last known Pinta Island tortoise. His death marked the extinction of the subspecies and refocused attention on conservation.

Question 21

Which is generally the longest snake species in the world?

Accepted Answer

The reticulated python. Reticulated pythons can exceed 6 meters in length. Anacondas of South America are heavier on average but tend to be shorter.

Question 22

The blue whale is the largest animal ever recorded. Is it a fish or a mammal?

Accepted Answer

A mammal. Whales are mammals: they breathe air, give birth to live young and feed them milk. The blue whale grows up to 30 meters and 200 tonnes.

Question 23

Which group of amphibians undergoes metamorphosis from tadpole to adult?

Accepted Answer

Frogs (and toads). Frog and toad tadpoles hatch from eggs in water with tails and gills, then gradually develop legs and lungs as they mature into adults.

Question 24

Which large fish is famous for its electric organs and lives mostly in South American rivers?

Accepted Answer

The electric eel. Despite its name, the electric eel is actually a knifefish. It can generate shocks of up to 600 volts to stun prey and deter predators.

Question 25

How many legs does a typical spider have?

Accepted Answer

Eight. All spiders have eight legs, which is one of the features that places them with arachnids rather than insects. Insects, by contrast, have six legs.

Question 26

In a honeybee colony, which single bee is the only one that normally lays eggs?

Accepted Answer

The queen bee. A queen bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day. The rest of the colony is made up of sterile female workers and a small number of male drones.

Question 27

What is the four-stage life cycle of a butterfly, in order?

Accepted Answer

Egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), adult. This complete metamorphosis turns a leaf-eating caterpillar into a nectar-drinking flying adult. The whole cycle can take weeks or months depending on species.

Question 28

What is a swarm of locusts capable of doing that makes it such a serious agricultural pest?

Accepted Answer

Stripping crops bare across huge areas. A single desert locust swarm can contain billions of insects and eat the same amount of food in one day as tens of thousands of people. Swarms can travel hundreds of kilometers.

Question 29

Female praying mantises are famous for what behavior toward their mates?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes eating them during or after mating. Sexual cannibalism is observed in many mantis species, but it does not happen in every encounter. The male provides an easy protein boost for the egg-laying female.

Question 30

Which beneficial garden insect is famous for its red wings dotted with black spots?

Accepted Answer

The ladybug (ladybird beetle). Ladybugs eat large quantities of aphids and other plant pests. Farmers sometimes release them in greenhouses as a form of biological pest control.

Question 31

What is the largest order of insects, containing about 40 percent of all known insect species?

Accepted Answer

Beetles (Coleoptera). There are roughly 400,000 described beetle species. The biologist J.B.S. Haldane joked that the Creator had an inordinate fondness for beetles.

Question 32

Which insect is responsible for transmitting malaria to humans?

Accepted Answer

The mosquito (Anopheles species). Only female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria parasites between humans. Malaria still causes more than half a million deaths a year, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Question 33

What is the collective noun for a group of lions?

Accepted Answer

A pride. A pride of lions typically contains related females, their cubs and a small number of adult males. They are the only cats that live in social groups.

Question 34

What is the collective noun for a group of crows?

Accepted Answer

A murder. The phrase a murder of crows dates back to the Middle Ages and is one of many fanciful collective nouns from English hunting tradition.

Question 35

What is the collective noun for a group of owls?

Accepted Answer

A parliament. The phrase a parliament of owls was popularized by C.S. Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia and is now widely used.

Question 36

What is the collective noun for a group of fish swimming together?

Accepted Answer

A school (or a shoal). A school is generally a coordinated group moving the same way at the same speed, while a shoal is any group of fish staying together for social reasons.

Question 37

What is the collective noun for a group of dolphins?

Accepted Answer

A pod. A pod of dolphins typically contains five to 30 animals. Larger temporary gatherings, called superpods, can include more than 1,000 individuals.

Question 38

What color is a giraffes tongue?

Accepted Answer

Blue-purple (or dark grey). Giraffes have very dark, bluish-purple tongues about 45 centimeters long. The dark pigmentation is thought to protect against sunburn while they feed in the open.

Question 39

Which mammal sleeps the most each day, with some individuals dozing for over 20 hours?

Accepted Answer

The koala. Koalas sleep up to 22 hours a day. Their eucalyptus leaf diet is low in nutrients and full of toxins, so resting helps them conserve energy and digest.

Question 40

Which marine creature has been observed living deeper than any other known animal?

Accepted Answer

The snailfish (genus Pseudoliparis). A snailfish has been filmed at more than 8,300 meters down in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench off Japan, the deepest fish ever recorded alive.

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