Animal Selection (2) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tiger

This is a reference to the 1794 poem "The Tyger" by William Blake, part of his "Songs of Experience" illustrated collection. It is the sister poem to "The Lamb" from his 1789 "Songs of Innocence" illustrated collection. The two collections were combined in 1794 under a merged title in which Blake explores the terms innocence and experience. The first verse reads:

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

Answer: Dog

C M Coolidge produced a series of humanised dog calendar paintings for the advertising firm Brown & Bigelow from 1903. He produced sixteen for them, including nine with dogs playing poker, and another two outside the commission in 1894 and 1910. 'A Friend in Need', painted in 1903, was one of the Poker-themed ones.

Answer: Bear

The initials stand for the New York Stock Exchange, one of the largest in the world. Two animals often connected to stock markets are the bull and the bear, such as those represented by statues outside the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. A bear market refers to one where there is a prolonged drop in share prices. A bull market is the opposite. In this quiz, the bear is the correct answer as there is another question for which the bull is the correct answer.

Answer: Bull

Pamplona is the most famous of the locations in Spain where a running of the bulls takes place. In Pamplona, it takes place during the week-long festival of San Fermin held in July each year and is now a major tourist event, much changed from the original local version. Typically six bulls are run which are then destined for the afternoon's bullfight. Deaths amongst the (human) runners are not unheard of. Bull-runs are held in other countries such as Portugal, Mexico and France.

Answer: Horse

Bucephalus was a famous Greek-bred war horse belonging to Alexander the Great. He died during or after the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326BC in what is now Punjab, India. Alexander built two cities on the site of his victory, Boukephala and Nikaia, with the former being named after his horse.

Answer: Sheep

Dolly was a sheep who is famous for being the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell. Not the first animal to be cloned, the work nevertheless led to widespread advances in stem cell research. Dolly was cloned at Roslin Institute in Scotland in 1996 and gave birth to several lambs.

Answer: Lion

"Born Free" could refer to the 1960 non-fiction book by Joy Adamson, the 1966 British drama film which followed or the title song of the film which won an Oscar. All are about Elsa the lioness, an orphaned lion cub raised by Joy and George Adamson to adulthood in Kenya before being released.

Answer: Moth

This is a reference to the phrase 'like a moth to a flame', which means someone irresistibly attracted to something or someone potentially harmful. "Moth to a Flame" by Swedish House Mafia and Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd, released as a single in 2021, and the 2009 novel "Moth to a Flame" by Ashley Antoinette both play on this idea.

Answer: Wolf

British new wave band Duran Duran wrote the song "Hungry Like the Wolf" and released it in their second studio album "Rio" (1982). Released as a single, its music video helped it reach number three in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983 with the video winning a Grammy in 1984. It is one of the band's most popular songs.

Answer: Rabbit

Richard Adams wrote the 1972 adventure novel with the title "Watership Down". It tells the tale of a small group of anthropomorphised rabbits in England as they face life's challenges. It was Adams's debut novel and turned into an animated film in 1978, a TV series running from 1999 and a second one from 2018. A sequel "Tales from Watership" was published in 1996.