Famous Animals Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ham

He was named after the Holloman Aerospace Medical Centre. This monkey was trained to pull different levers to respond to any flashing lights during the flight in the spaceship. He was launched in a Mercury capsule on January 31, 1961.

Answer: Elsa

Elsa's mother was killed by Joy Adamson's husband George. The family took the cubs in. They kept one cub and sent the others to a zoo. The one that they kept was Elsa. Elsa lived a lot of her life as a domesticated pet, but she was introduced to some game reservations.

She later had three cubs that became used to living in the wild. She died at an early age of five from a disease caused by ticks called Babesia.

Answer: Jonathan

Jonathan the tortoise is well over 160 years old. A photograph was taken of him during the Boer War in 1900. At the time that the picture was taken he was around 70 years old.

Answer: Mr. Magoo

Mr. Magoo was a mongoose that loved to kill snakes and drink tea. In 1962 when the word went out that Mr. Magoo was sentenced to death or deportation back to India, there was a national uproar. Eventually thousands of people visited the mongoose in a couple of days and many more people mailed authorities to get rid of the beast, as they called the animal.

This change was mainly caused by fear of the animal escaping and the entire area being overrun by the critters. They thought that since they have propensity to breed that that might happen.

However the mongoose was later on given a pardon and went back to living a normal life. He died in 1968.

Answer: Punxsutawney Phil

Punxsutawney Phil was once known as quote "Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary." He was the groundhog that "tell the weather" on Groundhog Day.

Answer: Sam

Sam was a black and white cat that survived three shipwrecks during the Second World War. His first name was Oskar. The first ship was the Bismarck. This ship sank on May 27, 1941. 2,000 crew members died and he was the only one alive. The HMS Cossack was the second ship to go down and the crew named him Oscar.

This ship was hit by a torpedo and was towed to safety. As it was being towed an explosion happened and killed 159 people. The next crew named him Unsinkable Sam. The HMS Ark Royal was the next ship and it was torpedoed as well. All but one crew member was saved and they found the cat floating on a plank, mad, but unhurt.

Answer: Cher Ami

Cher Ami was blind in one eye, missing a leg, and wounded in the chest when it sent a message to the attackers. US people were attacking their own and the attacked people sent a message to stop it. The bird was given a wooden leg, but died a year later.

Answer: Marocco

This horse was very popular in 1591 when he was mentioned by Shakespeare in "Love's Labour's Lost" where he was referred to as "the dancing horse." The horse would move its legs in certain way whether on two or four feet in response to certain questions. Because the horse was able to do this the horse appeared to be dancing.

Some people found this rather odd and thought that may have been witchcraft or psychic. The actual owner of the horse was William Bankes. The horse and the owner were eventually accused of witchcraft and were condemned to death.

It has been said that the horse then appeared to plead for their lives and the judge then called it off.

Answer: 13 feet

Jumbo was a 13 foot tall elephant that weighed 6 tons and was born in 1861. He eventually went into the circus where he was very happy. He died in a train crash three years later.

Answer: Moscow

Laika was going to be the first canine in space, but the rocket that she was put in was rushed. The name was Sputnik 2 and was a Russian rocket. The dog died around seven hours into the flight because of stress and heat exhaustion. Because of the building of the rocket being rushed, there was no heat shield.

The Soviet president Nikita Khrushchev wanted it launched on the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7, 1957.