Chairman Meow Trivia Quiz

Answer: Big feet sense sound

Elephants talk using low frequency ground vibrations they send and receive through their ultra-sensitive feet, scientists have discovered. Elephants can pick up messages sent from at least a mile away, and they know not only who the message is from (a friend, relative or stranger), but the specific meaning of the message.

It might be a warning, share good news or ask a group to meet the sender somewhere. Yep, elephants are Commanders of Communication through their soles and toes.

Answer: Long jump

Also called a mountain lion or panther, the puma can jump 15 feet vertically from a standstill. With a good running start it can clear 12 meters (about 40 feet) with ease. Why be the arch ruler of the long jump? So the puma can silently sneak up on prey, pounce the distance, and then dispatch by biting the neck. This takes strength, speed, grace, and flexibility.

The men's world champion long jump record set in 1991 was 8.95 meters (about 26 feet) and remained unbeaten in 2017. Archon means ruler, from the Greeks.

Answer: Mimicry

The lyrebird is an Australian ground-dweller known for its extraordinary ability to mimic both natural and machine sounds. The vocal organ of the bird is called the syrinx, and in the lyrebird it is complex. They combine their own songs with the sounds of other birds, dogs, dingoes, chain saws, cars, and nearly anything else they choose.

In mating season the male displays a fantastic and beautiful tail. The lyrebird is a true maestro of sound.

Answer: Brute strength

For brute strength the fearsome "grizzly" bear--properly called North American brown bear "Ursus arctos"--is a Titan hard to match. This bear of Canada and the USA can lift more than eight times its 500 pounds, and use its powerful limbs, canine teeth, claws and surprising speed for dispatching food and defense.

The grizzly can kill a 1-ton moose with a swipe of its six-inch long claws, and may stand over eight feet tall. Generally the grizzly is a peaceful animal, though, unless furious in defense of its family.

However mighty the bear, the strongest creature on earth relative to its size is...the dung beetle.

Answer: Distance flight

The albatross is overlord of the ocean skies, able to travel up to 10,000 miles in a single trip; able to circle the entire earth in just 46 days. The albatross has a wing span of up to 11 feet, and they use what is called "dynamic flying" to sustain flight without flapping their wings.

In layman's terms, the bird is phenomenal at riding a wind wave. They can also remember their way through a 25,000 mile round trip, to go back to a roosting spot. Most of these birds hang out in the Southern Hemisphere, including Antarctica, Australia, South Africa and South America, and their seas.

Although they might fly literally around the earth, they are not migrators.

Answer: Air acrobatics

The hummingbird could be named the flying ace of birds. It is a tiny, often colorful bird found in the West. It is the only bird that can fly left, right, down, up and even upside down, as well as hover in place. This brave and territory-aggressive little creature beats its tiny wings up to 80 times a second, which makes a humming sound. In mating season the male takes a 50 mph (80km) nose dive, allowing the vibrations in the air to tear through his tail feathers in such a way it produces a song. These are truly remarkable and striking flying ace birds.

Answer: Stink shot

"Ictonyx striatus", the zorrilla striped polecat, often known simply as zoril, lives in Africa and belongs to the weasel family. It is closer to a dog than a cat. They are cute, striped and resemble a skunk. But the zorrilla is territorial and will unleash from its anal stink glands a torrent of horrid smell that fouls the air for half a mile. If you happen to be in the stream of this stuff it's quite toxic and can temporarily blind you. That's why I call the zorrilla the gunner of the animal kingdom. Its aim is true.

Answer: Speed burst

Cheetah, the lord of the speed burst, is a beautiful and endangered "big cat" of Africa and Iran. He can go from a standstill to 64 mph (103km) in just three seconds, and stop on a dime as well. Often called "the fastest animal", the claimed speeds of 70 mph (112km) are debated. Also the antelope, falcon, sailfish, and frigate and humming birds may match the cheetah's speed and sustain it, while the cheetah has explosive power for only a few hundred yards. So the precise "fastest" animal is unclear.

The pronghorn, a major prey, runs just shy of the cheetah's speed, but can keep it up for six miles. The cheetah's strategy is to creep up close to the herd, then burst forth, trip an antelope and strike its neck. But because the cheetah is a slight and delicate animal, often its meal is stolen away.

The cheetah does purr, and meow.

Answer: Immune to cancer

The naked mole rat is well, naked, as it doesn't have any fur. It lives entirely underground, and has adapted to its burrowing lifestyle by becoming master of long life, for a rodent that is. Additionally, it seems to be immune to cancer. In 2013 scientists isolated a tissue substance, called hyaluronan, in these animals which makes skin elastic. Humans make it in tiny quantities, and it is used in dermatology and arthritis treatments, but naked mole rats produce five times what humans do. Probably these high levels of hyaluronan protect the vulnerable skin of the mole rat as it burrows around underground, but scientists hope to use the substance to stave off human cancers. Elephants and whales do get cancer, but at a much lower rate than humans.

Answer: Walks underwater

Besides having one of the most fun names in all the animal kingdom, the hippopotamus has the amazing ability to take his or her 8-9 thousand pounds of fat and muscle for a walk underwater. This captain of the submerged stroll cannot swim, but glides along the bottom of a river or a lake quite comfortably for up to thirty minutes. On land the hippo is surprisingly agile, able to trot and jog up to 15 miles per hour (24km), or briefly up to 30 mph. By comparison, humans walk at about 5 km/h (about 3.1 mph). They vary, but run on average about 28 mph.