Black and White Trivia Quiz

Answer: Carnivora

One of the world's most recognizable animals, the giant panda is a highly specialized mammal. It is a carnivore, both because it will on occasion eat meat, but even more notably because its digestive tract is anatomically that of a carnivore. Despite that, nearly its entire diet consists of bamboo.

The low energy provided by bamboo can be seen in how pandas eat constantly, defecate frequently, and tend to avoid activities that are strenuous or require a lot of energy. Their specialized lifestyles along with rent fees to China makes them incredibly expensive to upkeep.

Answer: motion dazzle

Dazzle camouflage is a type of color pattern that was used extensively in World War I on warships. Pablo Picasso claimed to have invented it as part of the cubist art style. Of course, zebras invented it long before people ever did. The point of dazzle camouflage is that it makes it difficult to estimate things like the object's direction and speed.

This is particularly helpful to zebras which usually live in large herds. The stripes can disrupt polarized light and its outline, making it difficult for predators large (lions) and small (flies) to pick it out and attack.

Answer: cancer

Tasmanian devils are the largest surviving marsupial carnivores. They are famous for their ferocious temperament, particularly while feeding. Tasmanian devils will eat an entire animal, down to its bones, and are extremely noisy while eating. Such vicious behavior has become a serious problem in their long-term survival because it results in cuts that can spread devil facial tumour disease.

It's a type of transmissible cancer that has resulted in dramatic declines in the Tasmanian devil population since it was first discovered in 1996.

Answer: its mother

Killer whales have a matriarchal social structure that is more commonly associated with great apes. They travel in pods and remain with their mothers their entire lives, and are known to live as long as people do. Unsurprisingly, killer whales are known to be very intelligent and have some of the heaviest brains among all animals.

They are known to teach skills to their own kind. Their intelligence and social structure has led some to question the ethics of keeping them in captivity despite their popularity as aquarium exhibits.

Answer: older female

The black-and-white ruffed lemur is one of the more distinctly colored lemurs. They are native to the increasingly fragmented rainforests of eastern Madagascar. They live in clans and often forage together and can be very loud. The clan is usually dominated by an older female lemur.

Despite their distinctly different color schemes, black-and-white ruffed lemurs are very similar to red ruffed lemurs, and can even understand their calls. Although these lemurs adapt well to zoos, their wild populations have seen dramatic declines.

Answer: thiol

An early French explorer described the skunk as "so stinking, and casts so foul an odor, that it is unworthy of being called the dog of Pluto." Charles Darwin wrote that "whatever is once polluted by it, is for ever useless." That wonderful odor that skunks emit mainly consists of thiols, a type of organic compound that contains sulfur.

They are easily perceived even at low concentrations and do not break down readily. The great horned owl is the skunk's only usual predator. Despite this and their notorious defenses, skunks are short-lived, often living for only a year or two.

Answer: ratel

Native to Africa and Asia, the honey badger (or ratel) is an incredibly fierce, weasel-like predator. They are vicious, with thick claws and malodorous scent glands. Honey badgers are particularly fond of honey, and are not intimidated by bees, venomous snakes, or even lions.

In India, they have been observed digging up dead bodies to eat, and will eat such appetizing things as feathers, hair, and bones. A honey badger's skin is loose, yet tough to the point that bee stings, animal bites, and even machetes have difficulty penetrating it. And if that's not crazy enough, they've also been known to use tools.

Answer: piebald

Dalmatians are recognized has having originated in the Dalmatia region of Croatia. The oldest illustration of the dog breed is seen in a painting from the early 17th century. They were particularly used as guard dogs, and are often associated with carriages and firehouses. Puppies are born in large litters and are pure white; after a few weeks, their spots start showing.

A large proportion of Dalmatians are deaf, and this is not a coincidence. White animals frequently lack melanocytes (dark cells) in their ears, which play an important role in auditory perception.

Answer: sight

The Malayan tapir is the largest of tapirs and also the only one that is native to Asia. It is also the only species that features a large, white patch around half its body; this is believed to act as a sort of disruptive camouflage. As with elephants and rhinoceroses, tapirs have a terrible sense of vision, and generally rely on their sharp senses of smell and hearing in day-to-day life. Excess exposure to light can cloud their eyes, and thus, tapirs are often nocturnal or crepuscular.

They are herbivorous and use their proboscises to smell and to grasp at food.

Answer: large

White tigers are noticeably larger than regularly-colored tigers, and this has been suggested as a reason why the 'white tiger gene' has stuck around. As with a number of white versions of animals, white tigers are NOT albino. The gene that causes the color mutation is recessive, and occurences of white tigers in the wild are very rare.

Many zoos breed them though, and there are hundreds of white tigers across the world. Naturally, the rarity and recessive nature of the gene has resulted in serious inbreeding issues, along with attempts to lessen them.

Other color varieties of tigers exist too.