Medium-Sized Mammals: What Am I? Quiz

Answer: Panda

Seeing giant pandas is not easy because they are an endangered species. Only certain zoos around the world have them. Pandas have six fingers. They use their 'thumb' to help break off the bamboo shoots they love to eat. In China, the panda is called a 'xiongmao', or 'bear cat'.

'Ni hao ma' is how people greet each other in China.

Answer: Kangaroo

Kangaroos are marsupials, or animals that carry their young around in pouches. The scientific name for a kangaroo's pouch is 'marsupium', which means 'pouch' in Latin. The scientific name for a kangaroo is 'Macropus', which means 'large foot' in Latin.

Answer: Anteater

There are four different species of anteater, the silky anteater the giant anteater and the northern and southern tamandua. The silky and giant anteaters have bushy tails, while the tamanduas do not. Tamanduas primarily feed on termites, while the silky and giant varieties of anteater eat more ants.

The family name of the anteaters is 'Myrmecophagidae', which literally means 'ant eater' in Latin!

Answer: Sloth

Sloths move so slowly, algae actually grows on their fur! If a predator threatens a sloth, the sloth may use its long, sharp claws to defend itself. Sloths of both the two-toed and three-toed variety mostly live in South America.

Answer: Coyote

Coyotes look very much like wolves, but the two are different species. Coyotes inhabit many areas of North America, their habitat has actually spread with human development. The most famous celebrity coyote is Wile E. Coyote, the Warner Brothers cartoon character.

Answer: Cheetah

Cheetahs usually hunt gazelles and impalas solo, using their incredible speed to capture their prey. The cheetah gets its name from the ancient Indian language called Sanskrit, in which the word chitraka means 'spotted one'.

Answer: Goat

There are several different goat species, including the ibex, the tur and the markhor. Many people around the world keep goats on their farms. Goats are used for their wool, their milk and sometimes their meat.

Answer: Seal

Seals are pinnipeds, which is a name that means 'winged foot'. Other pinnipeds include walruses and sea lions. The smallest seal is the Galapagos fur seal, while the largest is the elephant seal.

Answer: Wolverine

The scientific name for the wolverine is Gulo gulo. Though they are part of the weasel family, wolverines resemble small bears. They hunt like bears too, and are much stronger and ferocious than they appear. Some wolverines, hunting in packs, can take down a moose or a polar bear.

Answer: Orangutan

The name orangutan means 'man of the forest' in the Malay language. Orangutans really do resemble human beings in many ways, and are very intelligent members of the primate family. Unfortunately, due to the destruction of their habitat, too few orangutans still exist in the wild. Now human beings must help them to survive with conservation programs.

Thank you for visiting our zoo, I hope you enjoyed it here and learned a thing or two. Please come again!