"A" is for Apple, and also for which animal? Quiz

Answer: Anteater

Anteaters are members of the Vermilingua sub-order. There are four species, the Northern and Southern tamandua, the silky anteater and the one pictured here, the giant anteater.

Also sometimes called an 'ant bear', the giant anteater grows to between six and seven feet in length and can weigh as much as 90 pounds. Native to South and Central America, it lives both in the rainforests and on the savannahs.

A baby anteater is called a pup. Like pigs, adults are called sows (females) and boars (males).

Answer: Albatross

There are more than 20 species of albatross, some of which are also called mollymawks. One of the largest of all flying birds, the giant albatross has a wingspan of up to twelve feet.

The pictured species is one of the four North Pacific albatross species, the waved albatross or Galapagos albatross, the only albatross species that lives in the tropics. Once breeding season finishes, they make the 600-mile flight to the east to the coast of Peru and Ecuador.

A young albatross is, like many bird species, a chick. A group of them is described as a flock or a rookery or, when looking for mates, a gam.

Answer: Arctic fox

Also known as a white fox, polar fox or snow fox, the Arctic fox is a member of the genus Vulpes like other species of 'true fox'. The Arctic fox has adapted to life in the Arctic tundra of northern Europe, Asia and North America, with thick fur (white in winter and brown in summer) and a more rounded body shape (to reduce loss of body heat) than its southern cousins.

The Arctic fox is Iceland's only land mammal, having reached what is now an island by crossing frozen seas during the last Ice Age.

A typical scavenger, the arctic fox will eat just about anything. They are happy to take the leftovers of carcases killed by wolves or polar bears or to feast on birds, hares and eggs. Their favorite dishes, though, are lemming and helpless seal pups.

Answer: Addax

Also known as the white antelope and the screwhorn antelope, the addax is a member of the antelope family that is native to the Sahara desert. The name derives from Arabic, meaning "wild animal with crooked horns".

Both male and female addax sprout these impressive horns, which can grow as long as 33 inches. They survive on grasses and leaves and can go for long periods without water. Relatively slow-moving for an antelope, addax are fairly easy prey targets for lions, cheetahs, leopards, African hunting dogs and, sadly, humans.

Answer: Armadillo

The armadillo, which means "little armored one" in Spanish, derives its name from its leathery shell. Some 20 species of armadillo survive today including Yepes's mulita, the only member of the family without 'armadillo' in its name. The family originated in South America, only migrating north when the Panamanian isthmus joined the two continents.

Armed with sharp claws (like their cousins, the sloth), armadillos are prolific diggers: they dig both to create burrows and to find the insects and grubs that constitute their primary diet. Despite their short legs, armadillos are surprisingly quick and can also walk underwater for considerable distances.

Young armadillos are called pups or babies. Just as feline describes all things cat-related and simian is the adjective describing monkeys, so armadillos are described as cingulatan.

Answer: Ant

Closely related to wasps and bees, ants have been on the Earth for more than 100 millions years. We have so far identified around 12,500 ant species although that is barely half of the total. Found just about everywhere on Earth except in Antarctica, ants make up between 15% and 25% of planet's entire animal mass.

Whilst I really detest fill-in-the-blank questions, but as you can see I could not come up with one, let alone three, credible alternatives starting with "A". Since "FITB" questions are not allowed in this category, though, you'll have to put up with three stupid options.

Ant young are called larva or pupa. There are numerous collective nouns for ants including colony, army, nest, swarm and bike. The descriptive adjective for things ant-related is either formic or myrmicine.

Answer: Aardvark

Sometimes called an "African ant bear", the aardvark is native to most of sub-Saharan Africa. It is found in bushland, savannah and grasslands: basically anywhere that a constant supply of ants and termites can be found.

The name derives from Afrikaans meaning "ground pig". Although it has some similarities to both, the aardvark is not closely related to either the pig or the South American anteater who we met earlier. Indeed, his closest living relatives are actually elephants, hyraxes, moles and elephant shrews.

Aardvarks typically grow to around four feet in length (plus a tail that can be as long as 28 inches) and can weigh as much as 180 pounds.

A young aardvark is a cub and the descriptive adjective for all things aardvarkian is orycteropodian.

Answer: Alpaca

Don't you think that the one on the right in the photo looks like he is wearing a mask? No, well perhaps it's just my weird sense of humor then.

If you are traveling in the Andes mountains and manage to climb some two miles above sea level, you are likely to see grazing herds of herds of alpaca. Smaller than their cousin the llama, alpaca were bred for their hair/wool rather than as pack animals. The alpaca's closest living relative is its still-wild ancestor, the vicuna.

A young alpaca is called a cria.

Answer: Alligator

Spanish explorers in Florida called this animal 'el lagarto' ("the lizard") and the name alligator is an Anglicization of that. The American alligator (pictured here) grows to an average length of around 13 feet and weighs in at close to 800 pounds. Its Chinese cousin is much smaller, rarely growing more than half of that length.

Louisiana is home to America's largest alligator population, but both that state and Florida are home to more than a million individual animals. They live primarily in freshwater ponds, swamps, marshes, rivers and lakes. Their diet consists primarily of the large semiaquatic rodent called a coypu (also known as a river rat or nutria).

The Chinese alligator is now extremely rare in the wild, with the Yangtze River providing their only natural habitat.

My comments on Q6 apply equally here too.

Answer: Argali

Larger than its cousin, the North American bighorn sheep, argali stand three to four feet high at the shoulder and can be as long as seven feet. By contrast, argali have the shortest tail or any wild sheep or goat-antelope species -- between just three and six inches.

The argali was first described by Marco Polo and the Pamir argali species is sometimes called a Marco Polo sheep.

As the world's largest wild sheep, argali make popular targets for trophy hunters. Their horns are also sought for use in Chinese medicine. That, combined with habitat loss due to overgrazing domestic sheep, has made the argali an endangered species.