1. What is the highest recorded jump by a kangaroo in a single leap?
9 meters (30 feet). Fun fact: Female kangaroos can decide their offspring’s sex. They will even delay pregnancy when environmental factors are highly probable to decrease the opportunity of survival of the fetus.
2. Which animal only spends four days nursing their baby?
Hooded Seals – found only in the central and western North Atlantic, their pups are usually around 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) long at birth and weigh about 24 kilograms (53 lb).
Nursing the baby only lasts around four days, the shortest lactation period of any mammal, a period during which the pup doubles in size, gaining around 7 kilograms per day. This is possible thanks to the high-fat content of the milk they drink, which is around 60%.
3. The cheetah is the fastest land animal; what is the second fastest?
Pronghorn antelope – 55 mph.
4. What bird has the biggest brain relative to its body size?
Hummingbird – over 4% of its body weight.
5. Other than humans, what is the only primate capable of having blue eyes?
Black Lemur
Although it’s common to see light eyes in animals such as dogs, cats or even parrots, most of them have brown or dark eyes (irises). Among primates, which include humans, monkeys, apes and other species there is only one exception to blue eyes other than humans, black lemurs.
The blue eyes of humans and lemurs are caused by a single nucleotide polymorphism. In simple terms, ‘blue’ is caused by a single spot in the genes that changed.
The same spot mutated separately in humans and lemurs – something called convergent evolution.
6. What is a group of rattlesnakes called?
A rhumba
7. What is the largest current day shark?
Whale shark – up to 41 feet long and 47 000 pounds.
8. What animal has the largest brain?
Sperm whale – 17 pounds
9. What bird species is the highest flying ever recorded?
Ruppell’s griffon vulture – it has been spotted at 37 000 feet; they have special hemoglobin that makes their oxygen intake more effective.
10. Why is a giraffe’s tongue black or purple?
To prevent sunburn – it is exposed a lot of the time while they eat.
11. What animal has the most legs?
Milipede – up to 750.
12. A flamboyance is a group of what animals?
Flamingos
13. What do sea otters do while they are sleeping, so they don’t drift apart?
Hold hands
14. In terms of the senses, what do most birds lack?
Sense of smell
15. What is the fastest two-legged animal?
Ostrich – over 40 mph.
16. If cats are feline, what are sheep?
Ovine
17. What is the world’s largest rodent?
Capybara – up to 150 pounds
18. What is the fastest moving land snake?
Black mamba – 12 mph
19. What animal has the world’s largest egg?
White shark – the ostrich has the largest laid egg.
20. What color is a polar bear’s skin?
Black
Animal Trivia
21. What happens to a bear’s urine when they hibernate?
They don’t urinate in hibernation; their body converts the urine into protein, and they use it as food.
22. What is the largest animal ever known to have lived on Earth?
Blue whale – up to 100 feet long and 200 tons.
23. What animal can survive temperatures from -458 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, 1 000 atmospheres of pressure, radiation hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for humans, the vacuum of space, and can live for 30 years without food or water?
Tardigrade – they are water dwelling, eight-legged micro (about 0.02 inches long) animals that were discovered in 1773 and are found everywhere from mountain tops to the deep sea and from tropical rainforests to the Antarctic.
24. What shark is thought to be the largest to have ever lived on Earth?
Megalodon – it became extinct about 2.6 million years ago and was up to 59 feet long and 65 tons.
25. What is the world’s largest reptile?
Saltwater crocodile – up to 20 feet long and 3 000 pounds.
26. What is the national animal of Scotland?
Unicorn
27. What country has the largest population of poisonous snakes?
Australia
28. What is the most common group of insects?
Beetles – followed by flies
29. Iguanas have three of something that most animals have two; what is it?
Eyes – a third parietal eye on top of their head can just distinguish light and dark.
30. Lemurs are native to what island nation?
Madagascar
31. What animal has the longest tongue relative to its size?
Cameleon
32. What is the sleepiest animal in the world?
Koala – it sleeps around 22 hours per day.
33. Including hunting dives, what is the fastest bird in the world?
Peregrine falcon – 242 mph
34. Where is the only place in the world that alligators and crocodiles exist together naturally in the wild?
Southern Florida
35. What is the largest lizard?
Komodo dragon – up to 10 feet long and 250 pounds
36. Why are bald eagles called bald when they aren’t?
Bald comes from the old English word piebald which means white headed.
37. What is the only animal that naturally has an odd number of whiskers?
Catfish
38. What are the two main types of cartilaginous fish?
Sharks and rays (including skates)
39. What is the name for a group of elk?
Gang
40. A troglobite is a creature that cannot survive outside which natural environment?
A cave – a troglophile can survive outside the environment and a trogloxene (such as a bat) uses the cave simply as a home.
Animal Questions and Answers
41. At what age does a filly become a mare?
Five
42. What is a group of rhinoceros called?
Crash
43. Humans have seven neck vertebrae; how many do giraffes have?
Seven too
44. Birds don’t have what basic body function of most animals?
They don’t urinate. Birds convert excess nitrogen to uric acid instead of urea; it is less toxic and doesn’t need to be diluted as much. It goes out with their other waste and saves water, so they don’t have to drink as much.
45. Horses can’t do what normal body function through their mouth?
Breathe – a soft palate blocks off the pharynx from the mouth except when swallowing.
46. What is the heaviest bird capable of flight?
Kori bustard – it is from Africa and weighs about 40 pounds.
47. What is unusual about a cat’s jaw?
It can’t move sideways, so they can’t chew large chunks.
48. Besides elephants and rhinoceroses, what other animals are considered pachyderms?
Hippopotamuses
49. Oysters can change what about themselves based on environmetal conditions?
Gender – it can change back and forth based on conditions.
50. What animal’s name translates from Arabic as “fast walker”?
Giraffe
51. What is the largest invertebrate (animal without a backbone) species?
Colossal squid
52. An elephant is a pachyderm; what does pachyderm literally mean?
Thick skinned
53. What is unique about a crocodile’s tongue?
They can’t stick it out; it is attached to the roof of their mouth; their tongue helps keep their throat closed underwater, so they can open their mouth to hunt prey.
54. A female cat is called a molly; after she has become a mother, what is she called?
A queen
55. Owls have how many eyelids?
Three – they have one for blinking, one for sleeping, and one for keeping their eyes clean.
56. What is the largest land predator?
Polar bear – up to 11 feet long and 1,700 pounds.
57. What creature can be Indian, White, or Broad Lipped?
Rhinoceros
58. What do insects do with their spiracles?
Breathe
59. What kind of animal does cashmere come from?
Goat
60. What type of creature lives in a sett?
Badger
Animal Trivia Questions and Answers
61. What fish is known as poor man’s lobster?
Monk fish
62. What is the largest species of deer?
Moose – up to 7 feet tall and 1,500 pounds
63. What lives in a formicary?
Ants
64. What did ancient Egyptians do to mourn the deaths of their cats?
They shaved off their own eyebrows.
65. What is a rhinoceros horn made of?
Hair
66. What animal has the world’s longest distance migration?
Sooty shearwater – it is one of the most common seabirds in the world and has been tracked electronically migrating 40,000 miles.
67. Along with some species of sharks, what common ocen fish needs to swim continuously to breathe?
Tuna – they can’t pump water through their gills without swimming.
68. What is the heaviest snake?
Anaconda – up to 550 pounds.
69. What is the only snake that builds a nest?
King cobra – it lays up to 40 eggs at once and builds a nest from vegetation to help keep the eggs safe.
70. Aligators are naturally found in the United States and what other country?
China
71. What bird has the largest wingspan?
Albatross – up to over 11 feet
72. Ribbon worms will do what if they can’t find food?
Eat themselves; they can eat a substantial portion of their own body and still survive.
73. What male fish species give birth?
Seahorse and pipefish
74. Only one species of bear is almost exlusively carnivorous, and only one species is almost exclusively herbivorous; what are these two species?
Polar bear and giant panda
75. What is the fastest swimming fish?
Sailfish – can reach speeds of up to 68 mph.
76. What color is octopus blood?
Blue – a copper rich protein carries oxygen instead of the iron rich protein in other animals.
77. How many eyelids do camels have?
Three – for sand protection
78. What was the first animal placed on the endangered species list?
Peregrine falcon
79. What order of mammals has the most species?
Rodents
Animal Trivia for Kids
80. How many toes does a rhinoceros have on each foot?
Three
81. What is the largest venomous snake?
King Cobra
82. What boy’s name is also given to a young kangaroo?
Joey
83. Which bird is an international symbol of piece?
Dove
84. Cougar and mountain lion are alternative names for which member of the cat family?
Puma
85. Which mammal is known for expelling a foul-smelling fluid when attacked?
Skunk
86. True or false – penguins can be found at the North Pole?
False – they spend about 80% of their time in water hunting fish which they can’t really do in the North Pole because it’s surrounded by ice.
87. What type of creature is a black widow?
Spider
88. How many legs do butterflies have?
Six
89. How many digits does a squirrel have?
Eighteen – four on each front foot and five on each back foot.
90. Adult domestic cats meow for what purpose?
To communicate with humans – they don’t meow to each other.
Random Animal Trivia
91. Which type of snake is responsible for approximately 82% of snakebite fatalities in the US?
Rattlesnakes
92. The impala is a mammal unique to which continent?
Africa, specifically to the southeastern part.
93. Which mammal was rendered extinct by 1936 after the government introduced a cull in response to the farming lobby?
Tasmanian Tiger
94. Giraffes, alligators and dolphins all share what nomenclature for male and female adults?
Cow and bull
95. Which creature, believed extinct, was caught by South African fisherman Hendrik Goosens in 1938, and remains with us today?
Coelacanth
96. If a male donkey is a jack, what is the female called?
Jenny
97. The wombat and the possum belong to which sub-class of mammals?
Marsupials
98. The guillemot is a species of which group of sea birds?
Auks
99. By what name is the dangerous aquatic life-form called the Physalia better known?
Portuguese Man o’ War
100. Which bird is also known as the halcyon bird, a harbinger of calm and prosperity?
Kingfisher
