Animal Capitals Trivia Quiz

Answer: The United States

Interestingly, the twenty million bats that make Bracken Cave their home are Mexican free-tailed bats, so one might be misled to believe the answer is Mexico. The truth is that Bracken Cave can be found in Texas, south of San Antonio, and the bats usually there only during the months falling between March and October; during the winter they migrate back down to Mexico proper.

If you guessed the answer to be Thailand, you aren't too far off the mark; there are a number of temples and towns in the country (some not too far out of the Bangkok city limits) that worship bats. The temples themselves often contain thousands of bats who come and go at sunset and sunrise.

Answer: Polar bear

Frigid at the best of times, the small town of Churchill in Northern Manitoba has made a name for itself by being the prime spot to get in touch with the wintertime wilderness of the Canadian Shield. Tourists can check out the Northern Lights, sure, but the real attraction is the polar bears who can be seen in the nearby tundra, especially during warmer months.

Some wander close to town though, so it's not abnormal to see the big bears just in passing (and provided you keep your distance).

Answer: Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, not Catstantinople.

Straddling the Bosphorus, the city of Istanbul is home to fifteen million human citizens, but it also, allegedly, contains more than a million stray cats across both the European and Asian sides of its area. It's a large area for a lot of cats, but the ratio is still 15 humans for every one cat.

If you're looking at a crazier ratio, then Ciorani, Romania, found northeast of Bucharest, has four cats, on average, in every household. That's not even counting any strays.

Answer: Giant panda

Sure enough, Chegdu is called the Panda City of China and with good reason-- 80% of the world's giant panda population is found in Sichuan Province and a good handful of those are found there at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, which places great emphasis on helping grow the giant panda population. Due to numerous factors (notable amongst which being the giant panda's general diets and lifestyles), giant pandas have consistently been on the endangered species list.

Answer: New Zealand

Sheep farming was considered one of the top industries of New Zealand for decades, though the numbers peaked in the 1980s at which point there were ten sheep for every person on the North and South islands. New Zealand has since been overtaken as the big sheep destination (by countries like China, India, and Sudan), but its numbers don't lie; there are still rolling hills full of sheep throughout the nation.

The town of Te Kuiti on the North Island is considered the sheep shearing capital of the world.

Answer: Sea turtles

The Gili Islands near Lombok, Indonesia are both a turtle conservation destination and a hatchery. Though one must typically be cautious when diving into the waters on these islands, it's not uncommon to see several turtles in one go. Nonetheless, it's one of the main homes of the endangered green turtle and it's a popular spot to see hawksbill and leatherback turtles as well.

Answer: Florida

There are only a few thousand manatees in the world, but they generally hang around the coast of Florida; Citrus County (and the Crystal River, where they're known to be) is on the west side of the state, west of Orlando but north of Tampa. Manatees (sea cows!) are calm mammals known for a relatively difficult history wavering on the lines of endangerment.

They typically hang around in warm waters, so Florida and the Caribbean are normal spots to find them. There are also varieties of the creature in the Amazon Rainforest and the coast of Western Africa.

Answer: Orangutans

Due to massive deforestation, regions like Leuser are frequently seen in the decline. Though this region is home to one of the densest populations of wild orangutans, cutting-and-burning for plantation space has been a major issue and it's had a major effect on the ecosystem.

It's because of these concerns that a number of orangutan rehabilitation centers exist on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, found in Northern Borneo, was created for this purpose though, as is often the case with such locations, there are concerns that tourism has a strongly negative effect on the animals housed there.

Answer: Texas

Everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes its killer bees!

Africanized 'killer' bees were created in a lab in an effort to increase honey production, but what resulted in the years after their creation was a media panic over aggressive versions of these otherwise commonplace insects. The first killer bee hive was found outside the town of Hidalgo, Texas, and the town embraced that fear by creating the world's largest killer bee statue. It's two tonnes of bee, and it's right outside their city hall.

Answer: Tiger

Found outside of Umaria in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, India, Bandhavgarh National Park has one of the highest population densities (in the way of tigers) of any location in the world though you might be surprised that the total is eight tigers per square kilometer of space. Surprisingly, however, because of the park's high levels of biodiversity, tigers share the area with more than a hundred other endemic species.

The thirteenth largest city of India, Nagpur, also happens to have a bit of an association since it's known as the Tiger Capital of India. Although it's about four hundred kilometres away from Bandhavgarh, it's surrounded by tiger reserves of all sorts.