Australian Animals Abound Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bat

The black flying fox (Pteropus Alecto) is one of Australia's largest bats. It is also known as the black fruit bat. Although its size is limited to about 16cm (6.5 inch), its wingspan can reach a full metre (more than a yard).

The black flying fox feeds on pollen and nectar and occasionally also fruits such as apples or mangos. They live all over the northern shores of Australia, as well as in Indonesia and the south of Papua New Guinea.

A typical Australian carnivore is the dingo, related to wild dogs. The Australian snubfin dolphin is a typically Australian species of dolphin, living near the northern shores. An example of a native Australian rodent is the western chestnut mouse.?

Answer: Northern quoll

Quolls are carnivorous marsupials. Six species still exist in the first quarter of the twenty-first century: the four quolls mentioned in the question (living in Australia) as well as two species living in New Guinea: the bronze quoll and the New Guinea quoll.

The northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus) was once abundant in the Northern Territory and Queensland, but the population shrunk a lot when the cane toad was introduced in Australia. Quolls like to eat toads, but the cane toads are toxic to them. That's why attempts have been made to migrate some northern quolls to a few small islands off the northern coast of Australia where no cane toads live.

The western quoll lives in the southwest of Western Australia. The eastern quoll lives on Tasmania, but was reintroduced in Victoria. The tiger quoll dwells in the coastal areas of the south-east of Australia (from Queensland southwards to Victoria and Tasmania).

Answer: Small terrestrial animals

The laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) is an Australian kingfisher. But unlike most kingfishers, it doesn't hunt for fish and crustaceans but for terrestrial animals: small mammals such as mice, small lizards, small snakes (their favourite food), worms and insects.

The laughing kookaburra is about 44cm (17.5 inch) long, with dark brown plumage (spotted in blue) on the back and creamy white undersides. It lives a monogamous life in the eastern part of Australia. The name is derived from their call, which they usually indulge in with the whole family.

The "Australian seven-course meal" is of course a joke: it consists of six pints of ale and a meat pie. This would not be suitable for wild animals (and is also rather unhealthy for humans), because of the high alcohol content.

Answer: Waterfowl (Anseriformes)

The Australasian shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis rhynchotis) is a species of duck living in the southern parts of Australia, in swamp areas with lots of plants. A similar subspecies lives in New Zealand. As a duck, it belongs of course to the waterfowl family, together with geese and swans.
The Australasian shoveler reaches a length of about 50cm (almost 20 inches). It has a mainly brown plumage, while the males have blue-grey heads.

Australian owls include the Christmas Island boobook. The Australian hobby is one of the native falcons. And as for the hundreds of songbirds native to Australia, I'll mention just the superb lyrebird - one of the largest songbirds, and with a fascinating courtship dance.

Answer: On the low slopes of Mount Elliott in Queensland

McDonald's frog (Cophixalus mcdonaldi) is an endangered amphibian living in Queensland. Habitat loss has limited the population to the lowland forests near Mount Elliott. It is a small frog (about 40mm or 1.5 in long), with a light brownish hide.

Some of the more curious names of frogs in the Swan River area include the moaning frog and the motorbike frog. Lake Illawarra is the habitat of the bleating tree frog, among others
.
Don't associate the McDonald's frog with fast food restaurants: the frog was named after its discoverer, not after the fast food restaurant chain.

Answer: Termites

The turtle frog (Myobatrachus gouldii) dwells in Western Australia, in a sandy region around Perth. Its name is derived from the fact that it uses its paws to dig in a forward direction (like turtles also do), and not in a backward direction as most other digging frogs do. Unlike most frogs, turtle frogs don't need to stay in the immediate vicinity of a lake or pond.

Turtle frogs are brownish, with pale cream undersides. They can reach a length of 5 cm (2 in).
Bamboo shoots are the typical diet of the giant panda, while the koala survives on eucalyptus leaves. And who would make turtle soup for a frog?

Answer: Western Australia

The western blue-tongued skink (Tiliquia occipitalis) is a lizard of about 45cm (18 in) long. Its body is light brown to yellow, with dark splotches over it. A distinguishing feature is its blue tongue, in a quite pink mouth. The western blue-tongued skinks feeds in broad daylight on insects, spiders, snails, berries and leaves, sometimes also carrion. It lives mainly in the south of Western Australia and in South Australia, although there also have been spotted western blue-tongued skinks in the Northern Territory, in Victoria and in New South Wales.

None of these skinks have been reported in Queensland nor in Tasmania. And Christmas Island is not an Australian state, but merely an Australian territory.

By the way, there is also an eastern blue-tongued skink, living mostly in New South Wales.

Answer: Barking gecko

The thick-tailed gecko (Underwoodisaurus milii) is another lizard native to Australia. It's about 130 mm (5 in) long, reddish-brown with white or cream bands and yellowish spots. The tail is black with pale stripes and, as the name indicates, it has a thicker tail than other geckos. It lives mostly in the southern half of Australia, and feeds at night. The thick-tailed gecko is a carnivore, preferring insects and other small animals. One of their most unusual behaviours is that they tend to rest in larger groups, not individually as most reptiles do.

The alternative name of barking gecko is derived from the sound it utters when it feels threatened.
Believe it or not, but there are indeed other geckos named after the sound they make.

The leopard gecko, named after its spotted hide, lives in lower parts of South-Asia (roughly from Iran in the west to India in the east). It will scream when very stressed.
T
he male Namib chirping gecko has the habit of making chirping or twittering sounds to attract females.

The cat gecko lives in south-east Asia and is named after its habit of sleeping with the tail curled up to the face. Occasionally it will utter a sound similar to the meowing of a cat.

"Meow !" That's one of my pet cats interfering. They insist that only cats have the full vocabulary of meowing and purring sounds, reaching at least twenty (according to scientists) and maybe even a few hundred (according to my cats) different vocalizations.

Answer: The Murray-Darling river basin

The Murray cod (Macullochella peelii) was named after the Murray-Darling River basin (mostly in Victoria and New South Wales), where it has its typical habitat. It is a large freshwater fish, not related to the Atlantic cod that is frequently served for dinner. Murray cods typically reach a length of 80 - 100 cm (31 - 39 in), but there has been recorded one fish of double this length. Their back is greenish to dark grey or even black, while the underside of their body usually is white or pale cream. When their environment has clearer water, the Murray cods show more vivid colours.

Murray cod hunt for small fish and crustaceans. Once they were the most abundant freshwater fish in Australia, but their numbers have significantly dwindled due to overfishing, deterioration of their habitat and the introduction of the carp, whose larvae are competitors for the food Murray cod larvae like.

Fraser Island is a sandy island off the coast of Queensland. There are about twenty species of fish living in the local lakes, but no Murray cod.

The Ross Sea is a sea located to the south of Antarctica, next to the part of the Antarctic mainland territory claimed by Australia. It is the home to saltwater fish, not to freshwater fish such as the Murray cod.

Cook Strait is between the North Island and the South Island of New Zealand, and thus not Australian.

Answer: Brown

Mountain galaxias (Galaxias olidus) is a freshwater fish living in the eastern rivers of Australia, mostly in New South Wales and in Victoria. Although the different colonies can vary in the specific hue, they all have brownish colours - ranging from tan over light brown to brown-green or orange-brown. Some have darker spots or stripes. They reach a length of 55 to 125 mm (2.2 to 5 inch).
Typical Australian freshwater fish with the other colours are the river blackfish (Gadopsis marmoratus), the golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) or the Australian grayling (Protoroctes maraena).