Dark Night Risers Quiz | Miscellaneous Animal Trivia

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. This animal has an unusually long tongue extending into the abdominal cavity, enabling it to eat insects without teeth or chewing. Which night roller is covered with hard keratin scales?

Answer: Pangolin

The pangolin is a fascinating Asian and African animal covered with keratin scales, and able to roll into a tight ball for protection. Pangolins eat an estimated 70 million insects each year, including ants, termites, flies and crickets. They can seal their nostrils and ears to prevent insects from crawling in; and they have special mouth muscles to keep insects from crawling out. Unfortunately most of the eight species are threatened or endangered.

2. Found in Australia and surrounding areas, these night risers look like squirrels, with big eyes for night views, and swiveling ears. Which possum eats insects and tree sap, seeming to fly from tree to tree?

Answer: Sugar glider

The sugar glider is a small, tree gliding possum native to Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania and Indonesia. They live in groups of 15-30, gliding among the trees up to fifty meters through the air. Many people adopt them as pets but abandon them shortly, as they are messy and need a lot of space for gliding.

They are noisy creatures, communicating with chirps, barks and unique rattles called crabbing.

3. This familiar and slimy night crawler can get itself home, but only at six inches a minute. Which gastropod carries its shell along, as it cleans up dead plants and fungi?

Answer: Snail

The snail is a gastropod, a term derived from ancient Greek and meaning "stomach-foot", since a snail appears to crawl upon the belly. In truth they secrete a thin layer of slime over which a specially designed foot can slide, or use the slime as suction for impressive maneuvers.

There are land, sea and freshwater snails, most of them quite strong, and very, very slow. A slug is also a gastropod, but lacks a shell.

4. Running in a band, pack or rout, the nocturnal American jackal, or coyote, expands its range to fill a niche left by which oft exterminated yet legendary night roamer?

Answer: Gray wolf

Coyote, American jackal, prairie wolf and brush wolf are all names for the same animal. They thrive near, or even within human populations, and will expand their population to fill a niche left by exterminated gray wolves. Dingos are not found in America, coyotes do not fill a big cat niche, and malamutes are domesticated dogs.

5. Welcome the bat, who can eat around 1,000 mosquito-size insects in just an hour! It's the only mammal who naturally and truly does what?

Answer: Flies

The bat is the only true flyer among the mammals, though others are able to glide for short distances. Bats suffered massive population loss due to white-nose syndrome, a fungus that covered the face and wings of the bat, disturbing its natural sleep patterns, and causing nearly 100% mortality in those infected. Bats are essential to the natural world as insect predators, pollinators and spreaders of seed.

6. Living in South America, the paradoxical frog is a puzzle to scientists. Also called the shrinking frog, mom frog must be stunned when her tadpoles are what?

Answer: Three times bigger than her

Paradoxical frog tadpoles are three times bigger than their parents, up to 9.8 inches (25 centimetres), but then, mysteriously, they shrink as they grow, becoming ordinary size frogs as adults.

7. This cute Asian primate with big eyes and opposable thumbs can stay completely still for hours on end. Which venomous animal is famous for being such a poke?

Answer: Slow loris

Asia's slow loris is one of the few venomous mammals in existence. Sadly the illegal animal trade captured a great many, pulled out their teeth, and if they survive this, they are sold to exotic pet buyers and market traders, contributing to their status as endangered. The slowest mammal is the three-toed sloth, averaging just .15 miles per hour. Pokey is a talking animated clay horse.

8. We can smell this one a mile away! Skunks are crepuscular, meaning they favor dusk and dawn as well as the deep of night. At birth, every skunk has what? Even Pepe Le Pew has this.

Answer: Striping

Skunks have poor sight, and sadly for all of us they cannot see approaching vehicles. While some 21% carry the rabies virus, only dogs and bats transferred rabies to humans from 1990 to 2002, according to the CDC (US Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Skunk bites are very rare, and as such, skunks are sometimes kept as pets in the US and UK. Charles Darwin described them as rulers of their realm due to their smelly defense, but in the wild they live short lives, perhaps only a year, mostly due to cars. Humans can indeed smell a skunk as far as a mile away.

9. The aye-aye is a primate related to apes and humans, spending the day curled up in the trees of the rain forest. This rare animal is found only on which bio-diverse island, which has a red, white and green flag?

Answer: Madagascar

The aye-aye of Madagascar has big eyes, a big bushy tail, big ears and large, pointed claws on all their fingers and toes except the opposable big toes. Some who live on Madagascar consider the aye-aye bad luck, perhaps due to the huge eyes peering out in the night, so they kill any they see. It is called aye-aye because of its unusual cry, "I-I."

10. The cockroach chooses where to hang out based on how dark and moist an area is, as well as how many cockroaches have already been there. If you never want to see a cockroach again, go to the arctic areas, or else to which locations?

Answer: High elevations

Cockroaches are not found in arctic areas, or generally above 6,500 feet. To be rid of them, you might enlist the help of a house gecko, toad, beetle or iguana, all natural predators of roaches. Roaches prefer sweets, starches, meat and grease products but will also eat beer, glue, leather, book bindings and organic matter...as well as pretty much anything else. Roaches are not intentionally harmful but do carry bacteria and disease on their feet.

Source: Author Godwit

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

Dark Night Risers Trivia Quiz

Cloaked by the night, nocturnal creatures rise from their daytime sleep, each unique, each specially equipped for existence in the dark. This quiz asks you something about night risers and their habits.

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>