Cold Habitat, Warm Heart Trivia Quiz

Answer: Reindeer

There are several subspecies of reindeer in the American, Asian and European circumpolar regions, usually named after the region in which they can be found. Even though there are a large number of these animals - the one largest herd in Siberia alone is estimated at at least 400,000 individuals - the species is classified as vulnerable (the least serious of the three "threatened" degrees) due to the human effects on the Arctic habitats.

Answer: Sheep

The bovidae family encompasses both the actual bovines (cattle) and the caprines, including sheep, goats and antelopes. In this subfamily, the musk ox (also written as one word - muskox) forms its own genus, named ovibos (literally "sheep cow"). Musk oxen can be found in Alaska, Siberia and Greenland. They once were common in northeastern Canada, but have been eradicated in that area.

Answer: A long, bushy tail

Arctic hares are well adapted to living in cold climates, with their bodies reflecting the need to conserve warmth. Extremities are shorter than on their temperate brethren, a smaller nose conserves heat in this crucial area of the body and the white, dense fur provides both camouflage in the snow and additional insulation.

A long tail would be very counterproductive, both in terms of temperature regulation and escaping predators.

Answer: Rear legs only

While the snowshoe rabbit does undergo a marked transition between summer and winter, it's certainly not the size of its feet! Rather, this animal's color changes with the season - it has brown fur in the summer but white in the winter. Snowshoe rabbits can be found all across Canada as well as Alaska and some of the more northerly states of the USA.

Answer: Fall

Beaver dams are most vital to the species in winter, providing them with ice-free water, access to food sources and protection of their lodges from predators. However, the primary work on building and repairing beaver dams is done earlier, in the fall, while the animals mostly rest in the winter, when the water is very cold or even frozen.

Answer: It does happen rather frequently, but the deaths are accidental

Lemmings are migratory rodents who can swim quite well, thus it is not uncommon for them to jump into bodies of water to traverse them during a mass migration. However, the animals cannot easily determine the size or dangers of the water in front of them, thus it can well happen that a caravan of lemmings attempts to cross the Atlantic or one of the Great Lakes, with predictably fatal results.

Answer: Tundra vole

Both of the snow vole species are found in southeast Europe and adjacent regions of Asia. Like the Juniper vole, they do live in cold regions, but rather not of the Arctic but of the alpine kind. The tundra vole, however, can be found in subpolar regions across the entire width of America and Europe.

Answer: North American porcupine

North American porcupines can be found in a variety of different climates, all the way from California to Alaska and Canada. Their diet varies by season - in summer, they eat a variety of plant-based foods while in winter, they will mostly feed on bark.

A group of porcupines will usually feed only on a select few trees, often as few as two or three, even if their range contains several thousand trees.

Answer: Parka squirrel

You would need a quite substantial number of these small rodents to make a complete parka, but then this kind of clothing is not primarily made of them but rather the traditional material was caribou or seal skin, stuffed with down and insulated with a lining of fur only at the hood and cuffs. Arctic ground squirrels can be found on both sides of the Bering strait, in Alaska, Canada and eastern Siberia.

Answer: A bird

With the theme of this quiz being warm-hearted animals, only a bird would qualify - any of the others can get quite cold when the outside temperatures fall. Herbivorous birds are rare in cold climates as their high energy needs conflict with the low energy density of plant-based foods.

In fact, only the adult ptarmigan is a complete vegetarian; the young of the species supplement their diet with some insects.