Famous Fauna Fun Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shamu

Shamu was only the fourth orca that was ever captured alive. She was caught in 1965 to be a companion to the female named Namu in the Seattle aquarium - her name actually means 'friend of Namu'. The pair, however, did not get along and she was sold to SeaWorld in San Diego.

She was trained to perform in the SeaWorld show and she entertained thousands until April 1971 when she bit an employee and refused to let go until her jaws were pried apart. She was retired from the show and died four months later.

Her name was then trademarked by SeaWorld and has been used by a line of performing orcas ever since.

Answer: Bubbles

Bubbles was born in 1983 and bought by Jackson from a research facility in Texas. The chimp traveled everywhere with him and even slept in a crib in his bedroom at Neverland. Bubbles became quite aggressive as he became older and had to be re-homed when he was 20.

He was moved to the 'Center for Great Apes' in Florida in 2005, reached the age of 34 in 2017 and is one of the alpha males in residence. He has taken up painting and his work was displayed at an exhibition where he sold five pieces.

Answer: Sam

Sam was a black and white cat that belonged to one of the crew on the Bismarck. This German battleship was defeated and sunk on the 27th of May 1941. Out of 2,200 crew only 118 and the cat survived - he was found floating on a piece of wood by the crew of the HMS Cossack, a British destroyer.

The crew named him Oscar and he stayed on their ship until it was torpedoed in October of the same year and sank off the coast of Gibraltar and he was brought to land. It was here he was nicknamed 'Unsinkable Sam' and transferred onto the British air carrier the Ark Royal.

A month later this ship was also torpedoed and sank and the survivors taken back to Gibraltar. Sam was then kept on land by the Governor and was eventually taken back to the U.K. He spent his final years living in a sailor's home in Belfast, dying in 1955.

Answer: Christian

Christian was born in captivity on the 12th of August 1969 and acquired by Harrods and then sold to two Australians, John Rendall and Ace Bourke. They raised him in their London home until he was a year old and then moved him to the basement of their furniture store where they had created a home for him.

As he grew larger they began to worry about his quality of life and started looking for alternatives for him that would let him be free. They eventually made contact with George Adamson - the conservationist who had reared and released Elsa of "Born Free" fame. He agreed to reintegrate Christian back into the wild in Kenya.

It took Adamson a year to teach Christian and establish a pride for him before he was finally released. When he informed Rendall and Bourke they traveled to Kenya to see him. Adamson warned the men that Christian may not remember them and it seemed at first that he didn't - approaching them warily but then he came bounding over, stood on his back legs and gave them a hug. He then nuzzled them and introduced them to his two lionesses.

A video was made of the reunion as part of a documentary and this was posted online in 2002. It became a worldwide internet sensation and has been seen by millions of viewers since. There are still multiple YouTube videos online to be viewed.

Answer: Albert

General consensus by scientists decided on a boundary that separated our atmosphere and space. This is called the Karman line and is at 110 kms (68 miles) from earth. The first animals to reach this were fruit flies in Feb 1947.

Albert was a rhesus monkey that was launched into space 16 months later but he only reached 63 km and died of suffocation. A year later Albert II became the first mammal in space when he reached 134 km but he died on impact at re-entry as did Albert IV (who reached 130 km). Albert III's flight ended at 10.7 km when it exploded.

The first animal to go into orbit was Laika, a Russian dog on the 3rd of November 1957.

Answer: Incitatus

Gaius Caligula was born on the 12th of August 12 AD and reigned from 37 - 41 AD when he was assassinated. Historical reports from the time have led to him going down in history as an insane tyrant.

Incitatus, Latin for 'swift' or 'at full gallop', was his favourite horse and accounts from famous historians Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus and Cassius Dio write about the privileged treatment the horse received from the Emperor. The stories include a magnificent stable of marble with an ivory manger, jewel studded tack and oats mixed with gold flakes.

The most famous legend was that Caligula made the horse a priest and intended to promote him to his senate. History shows that this did not happen and later historians question the story's validity.

Answer: Cher Ami

Cher Ami was a British Homing pigeon that was donated to the US Army Signal Corps in France during WWI. Her main claim to fame is based on her actions during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in October 1918.

Major Charles White Whittlesey was in charge of more than 500 men who were trapped behind enemy lines without any food or ammunition. They were surrounded by Germans and were being targeted by their own allies. Over 300 men were killed that day including the runners who were trying to get the message out about their location.

Major Whittlesey decided to try and get the message out by pigeon. Cher Ami was the fourth attempt - she met a barrage of German fire as she attempted to fly out and was shot down but managed to take off again and deliver the message. She flew a distance of 40 kms in 25 minutes and upon arriving was discovered to have bullet wounds to her breast, one leg was hanging off and she was blind in one eye.

Army medics managed to save her life and she was sent back to the US on the next boat. The French awarded her the Croix de Guerre Medal and she received the Oak Leaf Cluster from the US Armed Forces for her bravery in service.

Cher Ami, meaning 'dear friend' in French, is the masculine version of the name and she is still referred to as a male bird in many accounts but she was found to be female upon taxidermy after her death.

Answer: Digit

Dian Fossey was a famous primatologist and conservationist, best known for her work in Rwanda with the Mountain Gorillas. She went to work in the mountains in 1966 and first met Digit the following year. She named the young gorilla because he had an injured finger on one hand. She studied several groups over the years but she had a special bond with Digit who would spend the days playing with her even as he grew into a large silverback.

Ten years later her beloved Digit was killed by a group of poachers on New Year's Eve. He managed to fend off six men and their dogs which saved the lives of the other 13 gorillas in his group but he was later found with 5 spear wounds, and with his hands and head missing.

Fossey was heartbroken at the loss but it only intensified her stand against the poachers and increased her efforts for conservation. It is believed that these efforts are what lead to her brutal murder in December 1985 - she was found bludgeoned to death with a machete in her cabin. Memorial services were held in the US but she was buried on the mountain next to Digit.

Answer: Togo

The legend of the Nome serum run is known by many throughout the world - January 1925 and a diphtheria outbreak in the isolated town and the only serum that could stop it was 1085 km (674 miles) away with no transport available. The solution - use 20 different sled teams to run a relay across the frozen land to deliver the serum. The heroism of the dogs running through the freezing land in blizzards and snowstorms made headlines throughout the world.

Five and a half days after it left Nenana Gunnar Kaasen drove his team, led by Balto, into Nome and their names went down in history. Although Balto ran the last leg it was only an 85 km (53 mile) run while Togo ran 146 kms (91 miles) after travelling 274 kms (170 miles) to reach the pickup point. His leg also included running across the Norton Sound at −40 °C, in a blizzard with the ice breaking beneath them.

Togo belonged to Leonhard Seppala and was smaller than the average sled dog. He was also sick as a puppy and was thus given away as a pet. Togo found his way back, so Seppala kept him although he was a mischievous, unruly dog who distracted the other dogs while they were working. Seppala put him in a harness one day and found that he was a natural sled dog and he became his lead dog a few years later. Togo was 12 when he made the serum run.

Answer: Surus

The Carthaginian general, Hannibal, took 37 elephants with him on his famous crossing of the Alps in 218 BC during the second Punic War. The only survivor was Surus, the one he himself rode. It is believed that he was a large Asian elephant with only one tusk but history remains unclear as to its actual origins.

Logic assumes that the elephants were African purely from a geographical point of view in obtaining them and Carthaginian coins of the time portray an image of the African. They are also the larger, more imposing breed.

However they are also worse tempered, harder to train and eat more. Indian war elephants had already been used successfully in battle against Alexander the Great the century before. It is possible that some of these elephants had been seized by the Egyptians later in their campaign against Syria and taken back to North Africa and bred. This could also explain the name - Surus means 'The Syrian'.