Wild animals, pets and the strange habits of both.
About this quiz
This Animal Quiz is about how animals actually behave, and it is full of surprises: a panda's scent-marking trick, a lizard's bizarre last-ditch defense, why koalas sleep so much and how hippos get around in rivers. Giants like the blue whale and tiny marvels like the hummingbird are here too, along with oddballs such as the axolotl and the tuatara.
Pets and working animals get their own share: dog breeds and where they come from, horses bred for an emperor's court or ridden on epic journeys, and the animals early voyagers took across the Pacific. A round is 10 questions on a 20-second timer, and the fact after each answer often turns a guess into something worth remembering.
Try a few questions
Tap an answer to check it, or open the answer underneath.
Which bird is famous for building elaborate, colour-themed collections of objects to attract a mate?
- The kingfisher
- The albatross
- The bowerbird
- The kiwi
Answer: The bowerbird
Did you know? Male bowerbirds construct and decorate 'bowers' with carefully sorted collections of berries, flowers, shells and even bottle caps — often arranged by colour — essentially building an art installation to woo a female.
A hummingbird's heart can beat at an astonishing rate during flight — roughly how fast?
- About 100 beats per minute
- About 300 beats per minute
- Exactly the same as a human
- Over 1,200 beats per minute
Answer: Over 1,200 beats per minute
Did you know? A hummingbird's heart can race past 1,200 beats a minute, and it's the only bird able to fly backwards. To survive the night it drops into torpor, slowing its heart to save energy.
The okapi of the Congo rainforest has zebra-striped legs, yet its closest living relative is what?
- The tapir
- The deer
- The giraffe
- The zebra
Answer: The giraffe
Did you know? The okapi is the giraffe's only living relative, sharing its long dark prehensile tongue, skin-covered horn-like ossicones and gait. Unknown to Western science until 1901, it was once dubbed the 'African unicorn'.
Sloths move so slowly partly to conserve energy, and they can also do which of these better than a dolphin?
- Climb vertical glass
- Run on land
- See in the dark
- Hold their breath underwater
Answer: Hold their breath underwater
Did you know? By slowing their heart rate, sloths can hold their breath for around 40 minutes — far longer than most dolphins. Their metabolism is so leisurely that it can take a month to digest a single meal of leaves.
Before people arrived, New Zealand's native land mammals were all of which kind?
- Marsupials
- Rodents
- Bats
- Shrews
Answer: Bats
Did you know? Bats could fly across the sea, so the islands' other native mammals all lived in the water: seals, sea lions, whales and dolphins. Rats, possums and stoats came with people. The lesser short-tailed bat even forages on the forest floor, folding its wings and scurrying on all fours.
Iceland's parliament banned importing horses in 982. What happens to an Icelandic horse once it is exported?
- It may return after a year in quarantine
- It must be gelded before it leaves
- It may never come back
- It must be given a foreign name
Answer: It may never come back
Did you know? The Althing's ban ended crossbreeding with outside horses, and Icelandic law also bars exported horses from coming back. After a thousand years of isolation the breed has two extra gaits, among them the smooth, four-beat tölt.