Five-Letter Fauna Favorites Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hyrax

Rather than being akin to pikas or rodents (or rabbits/hares, as the terms for them found in the Bible are often translated to), the mammals that hyraxes are most closely related to are elephants or manatees.

Answer: Koala bear

The koala is a marsupial, not a bear. The panda, or more properly, giant panda, is from the family Ursidae, which includes all the bears. Interestingly enough, there is also a mammal called the red panda, which is NOT a bear, but is actually from the family Ailuridae, of which it is the only member, and is more closely related to otters, raccoons, and skunks.

Answer: Quoll

A meat eater, the quoll's diet is generally made up of insects, small birds, smaller mammals, and lizards. They are marsupials in that they carry their young in a pouch. Like kangaroos and wallabies, quolls are found in Australia and New Guinea.

The galah is also known as the rose-breasted cockatoo. The dhole is a wild dog of Asia. A liger is the product of a male lion and a tigress. Ligers are the largest of the big cats, but are infertile.

Answer: Larva

All eels give birth to larvae, but in the case of species that live in brackish water or fresh water, or that migrate up rivers while maturing into adulthood, the larvae develop into elvers before reaching maturity. But in the case of moray eels, the larvae just mature into adults.

An owlet is a baby owl and a guppy is a popular freshwater aquarium fish. Fiver was the fictional rabbit in "Watership Down".

Answer: Finch

True finches are in the Frangillidae family and include grosbeaks and chaffinches, among others. The family is found pretty much worldwide. The Eastern goldfinch is the state bird of Iowa. Members of several other bird families are often called finches, and include waxbills, buntings, and sparrows.

Porgies include about 100 saltwater fishes and are also known as bream. Perch are popular freshwater game fish. Loaches are a popular freshwater aquarium fish.

Answer: Quail

To quail is to show one's fear of something. Quail are also gamebirds. Grunts, also known as pigfish and porkfish, are saltwater fish, often seen by divers around coral reefs. They are often caught for food. Smelt are also a small food fish which can be found as either freshwater, as in the Great Lakes, or saltwater, in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Skates are cartilaginous, like sharks, to whom they are related.

However, they are more closely related to stingrays, to which they bear a close resemblance.

Answer: Cisco

The cisco is a North American lake fish, also known as a lake herring.

Juncoes are small North American birds found in forests from the far north to Panama. They are ground foragers, eating mainly seeds and insects. Vireos are songbirds, some of which are called warblers. They live in both North and South America. Snipe are shorebirds with long bills. Snipes have a worldwide distribution and include about 25 species.

Answer: Pipit

Pipits are found on all the continents except Antarctica and are a ground-dwelling bird usually associated with grasslands.

The three incorrect answers are all associated with water. Boobies are sea birds, closely related to gannets. Grebes are freshwater diving birds. Stilts are long-legged shorebirds, closely related to avocets.

Answer: Gecko

While the gecko we see on television is pretty cute, being a lizard means he's probably not as cuddly as a lot of mammals. The potto is a close relative of the loris. Pottoes live in the tree canopy in rain forests of Central and West Africa.

Answer: Addax

A beautiful but critically endangered antelope, the addax once roamed widely across the Sahara, but is now extremely rare. It is noted for its long, winding horns, which have earned it the name of screwhorn antelope.

The anole is a member of a large genus of lizards, the arara is a large black Australian cockatoo, and the akita is a breed of large husky-type dog that originated in northern Japan.