Only an Animal Expert Can Get All of These Questions Right. Can You?
By: Monica Lee
4 min
Image: shutterstock
About This Quiz
A shrimp that can break aquarium glass. A whale whose cry is louder than a rocket leaving the launch pad. Cockroaches who refuse to drown. The animals around us are so amazing that this quiz couldn't describe them all. But can you identify them all? Test your expert knowledge. Find out how well you know the fantastical creatures that roam the earth. You'll find representatives from the sky, the sea, the jungles, the woods, your neighborhood, the microscopic world and much more. Will you be able to select all the correct answers? There is only one way to find out. Take the quiz right now.Â
The tallest, the bravest, the fastest, the slowest. Do you know which animals these are? Ever heard of the fish that can shoot prey on land from its "pea-shooter" mouth? Or the Water Bear that can survive in the vacuum of space and radiation? It's important to know all about these animals and learn from their unique abilities in order to advance our own. Whether you're a hobbyist or expert, you'll love learning about the wild and wonderful animals in this quiz. Take it now and add to your knowledge. Just click the button below to begin.
Why does a beaver slap the water with its tail?
To communicate a warning
Beavers slap their tail on the top of the water to make a loud sound that warns other beavers of danger. The beaver's large, flat tail is relied upon for so many things, a rudder when swimming, stability when standing, and a storehouse of fat for the winter.
Which insect is known to transmit yellow fever, Zika, malaria, filariasis, and dengue?
Ticks
Flies
Mosquitoes
When female mosquitoes bite you, they can leave behind viruses and parasites that cause diseases like West Nile, Zika, malaria, yellow fever, and more. Only the females draw blood because the blood is used for the development of their eggs.
Need to lure a skunk out of your garage? Which of these would do the trick?
Celery
Crisp Bacon
Skunks have a strong sense of smell, so anything smelly will get their attention. Baits that work to trap a skunk include canned fish (such as sardines), crisp bacon, or bread with peanut butter. Er... they are more like us than we might think!
Moose in the Alaska are known for using which of these paths to get around?
Bear paths that have broken a trail
Railroad tracks through the deep snow
Many moose die on railroad lines in Alaska as they pick out the easiest path to walk. When snow gets deep in the mountains, skinny, ungainly moose ankles have trouble getting the animals around, so they use the rails to find food. Unfortunately, many moose die after getting struck by a train.
Black bears can move at speeds of 25 to 30 miles per hour. They use their short but powerful legs to run in bursts to either hunt or run from danger. All you need to know is, don't try to outrun a bear, just outrun the person you're with ... it's an old joke!
A grasshopper is an amazing insect. How high can it leap?
Twice the height of its own body
Ten times the height of its own body
15 times the height of its own body
20 times the height of its own body
The grasshopper can leap 20 times the length of its own body. So as compared to a person, if you were 6 feet tall, you could jump 120 feet in the air or leap over a 13-story building. You'd be SUPER PERSON, leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
Which one of these animals has a diet that is 75 percent comprised of berries, leaves, and nuts?
Grizzly Bear
Although they are huge, grizzly bears have a diet that mostly consists of berries, leaves, and nuts. They also like to eat fish, rodents, and moose. Animals that eat both plants and animals are called "omnivores."
There is a reason there is a comic strip character named Ant Man. What can an ant do?
Drink 10 milkshakes at a single sitting.
Lift up to 50 times its body weight.
Just ask Ant Man, he'll tell you that not only are ants exceptionally strong, they are also fast. Depending on the species of ant, they can carry an average of 10 to 50 times their own body weight. As for running, it will win the race at 300 meters an hour.
What animal can survive radiation and the vacuum of space?
Water Bears
According to a July 14, 2017, article published in the "Washington Post," Tardigrades, or water bears,​ can withstand conditions that would kill off other animals, including humans. Some of these microscopic invertebrates survive temperatures of minus 272 Celsius, while other species can endure powerful radiation and the vacuum of space.
Just like antelope at a watering hole with predators ready to leap out the minute they lower their necks, the sloth who only poops once a month has similar risks when it descends from the safety of the canopy to take a poop. This slow-moving animal is very vulnerable on the forest floor.
Anteaters have a long, sticky tongue, up to 2 feet long that they use to eat up to 30,000 ants and termites each day. Did you know that anteaters are great swimmers? They are!
What is the name of the species of fish that can breathe air?
Catfish
Guppy
Lungfish
Lungfish are capable of breathing out of water since they have both lungs and gills. The Australian lungfish has very well-developed gills and breathes mostly through its gills. Only when the water becomes stagnant and the amount of oxygen in the water becomes low, will it come up for air.
Which of these ants can be found in the forests of Brazil and become a zombie ant?
Carpenter Ant
Carpenter ants of the Brazilian rainforest can get infected by a certain fungus that turns it into a “zombie ant.†The parasite infects the ant so that it can no longer control its body. It will make the ant leave the tree and head for the forest floor where it will grow a spore in the ant's head. It can take up to 10 days for the ant to die ... It's the stuff of nightmares!
If you lived in complete darkness thousands of feet below San Antonio in the Edwards aquifer, you wouldn't need eyes either. And like the Widemouth Blindcat - also called the Satan fish - you would have transparent skin, since you don't need any coloring for camouflage or to stand out for mating -- It's pitch black!
Because the Hagfish does not have a traditional jaw, how do they bite through tough flesh?
Tie themselves in a knot .
The hagfish needs to anchor itself since, without a traditional jaw, it's hard to bite through tough skin. Once they find their meal, they bury into it face-first to bore a tunnel deep into its flesh. While eating carrion or live prey, they tie their tails into knots to generate torque and increase the force of their bites.
Which insect bite is rated at the highest level (4) on the Schmidt sting pain index?
The Western Paper Wasp
The Sweat Bee
The Bullet Ant
The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different insect stings. The Bullet Ant tops the list with a 4-plus. Schmidt has described the sting as "pure, intense, brilliant pain...like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel."
Which bird can fly up to 10,000 miles on a single journey?
Seagull
Hummingbird
Geese
The Wandering Albatross
The Wandering Albatross, one of the largest of the species, can travel 10,000 miles in a single journey. They have the longest wingspan of any bird, reaching up to 3.5m (11.5 feet).
Which of these beetles can lift 850 times its own weight?
Rhinoceros Beetle
Rhinoceros Beetles can lift objects 850 times their own weight. In the insect world, you would want to stay away from them. However, they are harmless to humans as they don't bite or sting.
Which animal has fingerprints that are similar to humans?
Gorillas
Monkeys
Black Bears
Koalas
It would be natural to guess gorilla or chimp since they are our closest relatives, however it is the koala that has fingerprints just as humans do. But unlike primates, koalas don't share an ancestor with humans and developed fingerprints independently.
What type of ant will keep fighting after its been cut in half?
Red Fire Ant
Carpenter Ant
Bulldog Ant
Bulldog ants have a nasty sting, are very aggressive and territorial. With a ganglia (nervous system) that runs through their body, even when cut in half they will keep fighting. Even turning on their other half to continue the fight!
Although observing that a shrimp's heart is in its head is intriguing, it's a bit misleading. Based on shrimp anatomy, the heart is located on its thorax just after the head, but since both the head and the thorax are under a single exoskeleton, it looks like the shrimp's heart is in its head.
Also known as the Arctic Whale, the Bowhead outlives mammals on Earth, including humans. How do we know? The tips of ivory spears left by whalers over 200 years ago have been found in the whale's flesh. The oldest known Bowhead was at least 211 years old.
Cockroaches are not dependent on their mouths to breathe. They have little holes in each of their body segments that they breath through. Thus they can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes! A cockroach can even survive being submerged under water for half an hour.
Although the hair is tightly compacted in the horn, it is still hair. It is made of keratin which is a type of protein that makes hair and fingernails. If a hairstylist had a rhino as a customer, he would want the Indian or Javan rhinoceros which has a single horn, rather than the African species and the Sumatran rhinoceros which have two horns.
Which one of these insects can look at your face and recognize your facial features?
Mosquitoes
Honeybees
Not just honeybees, but bumblebees and wasps have facial recognition abilities. According to an article in the December 2013 issue of "Scientific American," honeybees can recognize and recall facial features. So instead of swatting these insects when they are hovering around your face, introduce yourself!
Kitti's hog-nosed bat is a famous animal for two reasons: it's the smallest bat in the world and the smallest mammal in existence. The hog-nosed part of its name comes from its unusual facial feature that sits between tiny eyes and is hidden by hair: a flat, fleshy, pig-like muzzle.
How long does it take an average sloth to digest a meal?
One hour
One day
One week
Four weeks
Compare a sloth eating a single leaf to you eating a regular meal. It will take you approximately 12 to 48 hours to ingest, digest, and eliminate waste from food. Sloths can take 30 days to completely digest a single leaf. Their metabolism is so slow, they don't need to use or digest the energy from the leaf or eliminate it for weeks on end.
Which of these bird's eye is bigger than its brain?
Raven
Ostrich
You've heard of the term "bird brain"? Well in an ostrich, its big eye is bigger than its brain. The flightless ostrich is the world's largest bird. Since the eyes are so small on other types of birds, their brains are larger.
Which of these mammals can produce the loudest sound?
Blue Whale
The blue whale can produce the loudest sound of any animal. You wouldn't like them as your neighbor because their cry, at 188 decibels, is louder than a rocket leaving a launch pad. The sound can be detected over 500 miles away. Sound also travels about four times faster and farther in water than it does in air.
Hummingbirds can fly right, left, up, down, backward, and even upside down. Flapping their wings at about 80 times per second, it's hard to see the wings in action, although we can hear the humming sound that comes from them. Besides flying backward, hummingbirds can also hover by using a figure-8 pattern to flap their wings.
Although the fur is white, the skin is actually black. The white fur helps camouflage the polar bear, while the black skin absorbs the heat from the sun.
Instead of looking for prey in the water, which one of these fish get their prey from the land?
Green Swordtail
Archerfish
The Archerfish may be the smartest fish in the pond. While all the other fish are fighting over the scare resources in the water, the Archerfish catches land-based insects and other small animals by shooting them down with water droplets from its specialized mouth. Think pea-shooter. An Archerfish makes a tube with its tongue then quickly closes its gills, which shoots the water out.
For a long time, scientists believed that Komodo Dragons' saliva contained deadly bacteria. Recently, however, they learned the saliva was fine, but there were venom glands in the animal's lower jaw. When the Komodo Dragon bites, the venom causes paralysis, extreme blood loss, inadequate clotting, tissue damage, and excruciating pain.
The lion's mane jellyfish is the largest jelly species in the world. It can grow up to 120 feet long. Scarier than that, is its powerful tentacles that stun and poison prey.
Which of these animals has a reputation for breaking the glass in an aquarium?
Puffer Fish
Mantis Shrimp
The punch of the Mantis Shrimp has the power of a .22 caliber bullet. They are known for breaking the glass of aquariums. How? The Mantis Shrimp carries built-in clubs on each of its hinged arms. Each club can travel at about 50 mph, faster than scientists had previously estimated.