The platypus, also known as the duck-billed platypus, is an unusual mammal. For one thing, it is a monotreme, the only group of mammals that lay eggs rather than give birth to live young. For a second it is venomous, using a combination of proteins that is unique to the platypus to deliver venom via spurs on its feet.
As a semiaquatic mammal, its habitat is rivers and streams. Its range is quite wide but restricted to the east and south-east coast of Australia as well as the island of Tasmania, making it endemic. This range diminished over the course of the 20th century with the last inland sightings of the platypus in areas such as the Murray-Darling basin in the south-east of the country coming late in the century as human habitation affected the environment in the region.
2. Koala
Answer: Oceania
The koala is only found in the east and south-east of Australia. Its distribution is non-continuous, with human settlements having broken its habitat into distinct isolated regions. There is evidence that it once lived across the country but a mixture of hunting and environmental changes saw it die out in the west long before the arrival of European settlers in the 18th century. Attempts to reintroduce the koala to Western Australia have not been successful.
3. Kiwi
Answer: Oceania
The kiwi is a ratite, a group of birds that contains a number of flightless birds such as the ostrich, emu and cassowary. The kiwi is the smallest ratite as well as being the only nocturnal one. It is endemic to New Zealand and its natural habitat was moist coniferous forests.
However, a combination of forest clearing and the introduction of non-native mammal species to the country has reduced the population of the five species of kiwi to the point where four of the species are labelled as threatened or endangered.
As a national symbol of the country, to the extent that New Zealand people are colloquially known as kiwis, there are extensive conservation policies in place to maintain and build their numbers.
4. Matschie's Tree Kangaroo
Answer: Oceania
Much smaller than its better known Australian counterpart, the largest Matchie's tree kangaroos stand at around 80 cm (just over two and a half feet) tall minus the tail. The species is endemic to Papua New Guinea and, as you might expect from their name, they live most of their life up the trees of the mountainous Guinean rainforest.
Sadly, this habitat has been significantly reduced in size in modern times placing the Matschie's tree kangaroo on the list of endangered species. Thankfully conservation efforts in Papua and the ability of the species to thrive in captivity means that the decline in numbers has been slowed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
5. Komodo Dragon
Answer: Asia
The Komodo dragon is endemic to a small number of islands in Indonesia, including the island of Komodo itself. The Komodo is a monitor lizard and is the largest living species of lizard in the world, reaching a length of three metres (ten feet) and weighing in at up to 150kg (330 lbs).
Like many endemic species, they are on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species, caused by their very specific habitat requirements, the encroachment on these by humans and the effects of climate change. For example, the Komodo had once ranged all over the island of Flores but the population is now limited to four nature reserves.
6. Andaman Woodpecker
Answer: Asia
The Andaman woodpecker is endemic to the lowlands forest of the Andaman Islands which are part of India and found off the coast of Myanmar. Common to many of the subjects of this quiz, the species is considered vulnerable because of habitat loss caused by human encroachment. The bird has dark grey to black plumage with the male having a red crest.
7. Giant Panda
Answer: Asia
The giant panda is a bear species that is endemic to China. Widely recognisable for its black and white patterned fur, it is a national symbol of China as well as the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund. It is considered vulnerable to extinction because of habitat loss, having not originally been endemic to China but having been found in neighbouring Myanmar and Vietnam also.
A further challenge to its survival is its low birth rate both in the wild and in captivity.
8. Tapanuli Orangutan
Answer: Asia
The tapanuli orangutan is one of two species of the great ape that is endemic to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The third orangutan species is endemic to the island of Borneo that is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
Until 2017, the tapanuli was not considered a separate species from the Sumatran orangutan but a study of their genetic history showed that the two were related but distinct, with the two species isolated from one another after the Lake Toba supervolcano eruption approximately 75,000 years ago, albeit the two species live just 100km (just over 60 miles) apart. The tapanuli is a species that is critically endangered with its entire habitat contained within an area of just 1,000 square km (390 square miles).
9. Bonobo
Answer: Africa
The bonobo is one of two species of chimpanzee (or three if you believe the theory that humans are in fact an evolved species of chimp). Otherwise known as the pygmy chimpanzee, they are endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. Their distribution in the DRC is separate from the chimpanzee with the bonobo living south of the Congo River and the chimpanzee to the north.
Bonobos are notable for the major role that sexual activity plays in their social bonding. They have a notably lower infanticide rate than other great apes, which is possibly a consequence of the female mating with multiple males thereby placing the parentage of any offspring in doubt.
10. Sclater's Monkey
Answer: Africa
Sclater's monkey, also known as Sclater's guenon, is a tree-dwelling monkey with a striking rust-coloured tail that is endemic to the floodplain forests of southern Nigeria. Feared extinct until its rediscovery in the 1980s, more pockets of isolated communities have since been discovered, although it is still classified as an endangered species.
Its best bet for survival is its status as a sacred animal among some villagers in southern Nigeria with the killing or eating of the animal being considered taboo.
11. Lemur
Answer: Africa
There are around 100 species of lemur and all are endemic to the island of Madagascar off the eastern coast of the African continent. Mostly nocturnal and arboreal, lemurs are primates that have evolved from monkeys.
Many species are threatened by illegal logging activities in their natural habitats. The smallest family of lemurs, the mouse lemurs, was named by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as containing the most endangered of all vertebrate species in the world.
12. Grevy's Zebra
Answer: Africa
Grevy's zebra is the largest of the three species of zebra and the one with the tightest black and white stripes. It is endemic to East Africa, being mostly found in northern Kenya with small pockets in southern Ethiopia where its presence is threatened by the introduction of invasive plant species that are making the presence of the grasses that the zebra feeds on less prevalent. Despite the obvious similarity in looks, the Grevy's zebra is not that closely related to the plains and mountain zebra.
It is named for Jules Grevy, the fourth President of France (from 1879 to 1887), who was gifted a zebra by Menelik II, the King of Shoa in central Ethiopia during his period in office. On examination of the gift, the Grevy's was recognised as a distinct species by French zoologist, Alphonse Milne-Edwards, who chose to name it after his President.
13. Yellow-striped Poison Dart Frog
Answer: Americas
The yellow-striped poison dart frog is endemic to Colombia. Poison dart frogs, which range across Central and South America, are so named because their toxins have been used by humans on the tips of poisoned blowdarts. The yellow-striped poison dart frog is so named because, unsurprisingly, it has a prominent yellow stripe down its back. This stripe is aposematic, displayed as a warning to would-be predators that it is not worth attacking because of its toxicity.
It is one of the smaller poison dart frogs, reaching a maximum length of just 30mm (just over an inch). It lives in the Colombian forests, mostly on the forest floor but also climbs trees to feed and raise its young. The frog develops its venom from its diet of ants and termites. In captivity, when their diets are changed, poison dart frogs often lose their toxicity entirely.
14. Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth
Answer: Americas
The critically endangered pygmy three-toed sloth is endemic to the island of Escudo de Veraguas, a tiny island off the coast of Panama. Despite its size, the island is home to two endemic species of mammal, the other being a species of fruit-eating bat.
The sloth lives in the mangrove trees on the island and its numbers had fallen so low by 2012, with fewer than 100 estimated to be alive, that it was listed among the hundred most threatened species on the planet.
15. Patagonian Mara
Answer: Americas
The Patagonian mara is a rodent that is endemic to Argentina, and is common in the Patagonia region of the country. It is also known as the Patagonian hare because of its physical resemblence to the jackrabbit. Maras mate for life but raise their young communally in burrows where several mothers will leave their offspring together for safety.
16. Giant Kangaroo Rat
Answer: Americas
The giant kangaroo rat is a rat that hops like a kangaroo, with the ability to leap two metres in one bound, but is hardly giant, reaching a size of just 20 cm long (just under eight inches) excluding its tail. Its numbers are hardly giant either, as its range has been reduced by human encroachment to just a very small area in west central California that is less than 17,000 hectares in size.
Its endangerment as a species also imperils many other regional fauna such as the San Joaquin kit fox, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, and the San Joaquin antelope squirrel who depend on the kangaroo rat for food (the fox) and its burrows for shelter (the lizard and squirrel).
17. Weddell Seal
Answer: Antarctica
Since the ban on commercial seal hunting in the 1980s, the Weddell seal population has recovered to levels that mean it is now considered of least concern in terms of its potential endangerment. However, as seals and the environments in which they live are very temperature sensitive, the effects of climate change may see that status change.
The Weddell seal is a very effective and opportunistic hunter with a vast array of potential prey that is available in the waters beneath the sea ice that they reside on. They themselves can be preyed upon when in the water by both orca and leopard seals, though adults are rarely attacked. The seal is named for the British sailor and seal hunter James Weddell who in the 1820s travelled further south than any ship had ever been before and entered an area of the Southern Ocean that would be renamed the Weddell Sea and where the Weddell seal was first encountered.
18. Emperor Penguin
Answer: Antarctica
The emperor penguin is the tallest of the penguins and the flightless seabirds are endemic to Antarctica, its surrounding ice shelves and ocean. Unusually for the subjects of this quiz, the emperor is not considered to be threatened as a species, although the changing nature of the ice shelves with climate change is likely to affect the penguin's breeding colonies, being the only bird that breeds in the Antarctic winter.
19. Iberian Lynx
Answer: Europe
The Iberian lynx, which is endemic to the region in western Europe from which it takes its name, has recovered from near extinction at the start of the 21st century. Fewer than 100 individuals were known to exist at this time, all in the southern Spanish region of Andulusia. Along with the usual twin threats of human hunting and habitat destruction, the lynx was also suffering from the decline in numbers of its natural prey, the European rabbit.
However, conservation activities focused on both species have allowed numbers to recover and it was reclassified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 2024.
20. Jutland Bow-winged Grasshopper
Answer: Europe
In the 1990s, it was noticed that some grasshoppers that lived in the sand dunes of western Jutland in Denmark, had a different song from the other grasshoppers in the region. This led to a detailed study and in 2003, the description of the Jutland bow-winged grasshopper as a new endemic species.
The song is crucial to the survival of the species as the female responds to it to indicate availability for breeding. If the female doesn't like the song, then no copulation takes place.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
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