Animals of the North Quiz | Identify the Animal

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What animal carries around an appendage that measures about 10% of its body weight, on its head?

Answer: Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep

These sheep live in the western portion of North America, mostly in the Rockies and adjacent mountain ranges. While the sheep live in herds, males live with other males and females live with other females and offspring, except during mating season. Males are famed for their head-butting battles when competing for females or for dominance in the herd.

They have thick bone across their forehead area which protects them from serious injury when fighting.

2. Which of the following animals lives in the Sahara Desert of Northern Africa and has oversized ears?

Answer: Fennec fox

All the choices listed live in the Sahara, but only the fennec fox has extra-large ears. The ears serve to cool them off by dissipating body heat. Their bodies are covered in thick cream-colored hair that insulates them from the blazing heat of their environment.

Fennec foxes are the smallest of all foxes, about the size of a large domestic cat when full grown. They live in underground burrows in small groups of ten or so.

Because the foxes are so attractive, they are prized not only as captive pets but also for their fur. It is not known how prevalent they are in the wild today, but concerns exist that if controls are not imposed on their capture and killing, they will become endangered.

3. Which of the animals listed has no natural enemies?

Answer: Polar bear

Polar bears are at the top of their food chain. Their only known predator is man. They prey on seals (not elephant seals - their habitats don't intersect), fish and even whales, including the occasional narwhal.

4. What animal feeds on lemmings to such an extent that its numbers fluctuate depending on how plentiful the lemming population is at any given time?

Answer: Arctic fox

While Arctic foxes do eat things other than lemmings when they have to, the lemming is the staple of their diet and their numbers decline when lemmings aren't readily available for consumption. As of 2015, Arctic foxes are not listed as an endangered species, except in Scandinavia, where they have been overhunted and their numbers severely depleted.

5. Of the four choices given, what ground-dwelling bird is found ONLY in Australia's Northern Territory?

Answer: White-throated grasswren

Grasswrens are of the family Maluridae, which, although they are called wrens, are unrelated to the wrens of the Northern Hemisphere. There are grasswrens in several regions of Australia, but the white-throated grasswren is found only in a couple very small areas of the Northern Territory. It is a threatened species due to habitat loss.

6. What tiny member of the marsupial opossum family, native to northern South America and parts of Central America, has no pouch-and females who grow to mature size three times faster than the males?

Answer: Robinson's mouse opossum

South America is home to a multitude of different opossum species. The Robinson's mouse opossum is not endangered, yippee! Although females achieve adult size much more quickly than males, males end up larger, with females measuring around five inches long, males slightly under six inches.

7. Which species has the disparate names of "doe" for its females and "kitten" for its babies?

Answer: Fish-eating rat

A fish-eating rat kitten is a mouthful...

There are several types of fish-eating rats in northern South America. They are semi-aquatic rodents, of which most genuses are considered endangered due to habitat loss. In addition to small fish, they eat insects and crustaceans.

8. What wild cat, with tufted ears and hind legs longer than forelegs, has very large paws that allow it to stay on top of the snow?

Answer: Canada lynx

The Canada lynx is found in, well, Canada; it is found, as well, in the northern tier of US states. Lynx are sometimes confused with bobcats, and although they both belong to the Lynx genus, they are different species. Bobcats are found farther south and do not have the long tufts of fur at their ears that are so striking in the Canada lynx (although they do have insignificant tufting on their ears). Bobcats also have smaller paws.

9. What animal produces a large reddish "bubble" when competing for the affections of the female of its kind?

Answer: Hooded seal

The male of the hooded seal has an interesting, to say the least, method of fighting for mating rights. Its nasal cavity is located at the top of its head. This structure is elastic, and the seal is able to inflate it when experiencing a threat, so that it looks remarkably like a big reddish-pink balloon attached to the seal's head. This is intended to frighten away the attacker (that would work for me!)
Males also use this unique feature to attract mates (definitely would NOT work for me...).

10. What medium-sized bird of the grouse family is informally known as the "snow chicken"?

Answer: Rock ptarmigan

Rock ptarmigans are "circumpolar"--literally, they live around the pole, in this case, the North Pole. They mostly prefer the tundra for habitat. They are one of the species of animal that change color seasonally: brown-speckled in summer months and white in the winter.

Another member of the ptarmigan family, the willow ptarmigan, also lives in the tundra. The only other type of ptarmigan, the white-tailed ptarmigan, lives only in the Rocky Mountains.

Source: Author austinnene

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Tizzabelle before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Animals of the North Trivia Quiz

This quiz is on animals from the northern parts of whatever land mass they inhabit-for instance, one from northern New Zealand, in the Southern Hemisphere, would qualify. Some are obscure, but the photos will provide clues to the right choices!

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