How Amazing Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

The elephant life-cycle is very similar to that of humans. They go through babyhood, into adolescence, at which time females start to become fertile, and then into maturity and eventually menopause and the end of their fertile years. They have a baby every three to four years, partly due to the long (twenty-two month) gestation period.

Like humans, they can have a long lifespan past their baby producing years, when they take on the role of grandmother to babies in the herd. With an average lifespan of seventy years, they can also suffer some of the age related illnesses that we do, such as arthritis and heart disease.

Question by Christinap

Answer: Barking deer

Originally introduced to his deer park by the Duke of Bedford, muntjac deer soon escaped from his estate at Woburn, and quickly spread throughout the south of England. They are now being found in Wales too, and will almost certainly end up colonising everywhere if not checked. Originally from South Asia, muntjacs are the oldest species of deer in existence, and fossil records of them go back up to thirty-five million years.

Despite their cute appearance and small size, Muntjacs are pests that destroy woodland plants and bird habitats, and they can wreak havoc in your garden. They will eat your cabbages and your courgettes and may keep you awake at night calling to one another in a strange barking voice, hence their alternative name.

Roe deer and red deer are the only native deer species in the UK, although there are several others such as fallow deer and sika deer that have been introduced over the years.

Question by invinoveritas

Answer: Mouth

When you see a group of crocodiles on a river bank with their mouths open it may look aggressive, but in fact they are just trying to cool off as they do this through their mouths. They are amazing creatures. The first appeared around 240 million years ago, and they are one of the few creatures to have changed their appearance very little in the intervening period. They do not chew their food, they grasp and crush it. They swallow stones to grind the food up in their stomach. They have an average lifespan of eighty years and the largest individuals can reach up to six metres long. They are thought to be responsible for up to 2,500 human deaths worldwide every year.

Question by Christinap

Answer: Immortal jellyfish

The medusa, or sexually mature jellyfish can revert back to the polyp stage, before sexual maturity, via the process of transdifferentiation of cells. Although this theoretically makes the jellyfish 'biologically immortal', realistically they will probably be eaten by a predator or fall to disease during the plankton stage. The jellyfish are being studied to look into applications to the extension of human life.

Question by pagea

Answer: Stones

Although gentoo penguins can be found around the continent of Antarctica itself, most of the breeding colonies are found on sub-Antarctic island groups such as the Falkland Islands and the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia. Gentoos can make nests of up to eight inches high by collecting stones and arranging them in a roughly circular pattern. Some people see the presentation of a stone as the male proposing to the female. Who wouldn't fall for a nice stone!


Question by pagea

Answer: True

The theory was developed by studying wolves in zoos, not in the wild, and has since been discredited. Wild wolves behave in a much more co-operative manner, like a family.


Question by Christinap

Answer: Guinea pig

Rodentia (rodents) is the largest order (by number of species) in the phylum Mammalia, with around forty percent of known mammals being rodents. The largest of these is the capybara, found throughout the Amazon basin. The second largest is the beaver, famous as the national animal of Canada, while the third largest is the porcupine. Although related to guinea pigs, maras are much larger and are nicknamed Patagonian hares.


Question by pagea

Answer: They have free-floating collar bones

Unlike humans, the clavicle bones in a cat are not fixed, allowing them to pass through any gap which admits their head. Other anatomical adaptations that allow cats to be so successful are their large eye sockets and powerful jaws.


Question by pagea

Answer: Cartilage skeleton

The skeleton of sharks is made up entirely of cartilage not bone, and scientists believe that this is what gives them their resistance to cancer. They hope that research on this may help in the fight against human cancer. A chemical called angiogenin assists with tumour growth by enhancing the blood supply around a tumour. Angiogenin inhibitor, a chemical found in shark cartilage, prevents any tumours getting an adequate blood supply and therefore inhibits their growth.

Question by Christinap

Answer: Oyster

All oysters are born male, but when they reach sexual maturity they can change gender to female for the purposes of breeding. They will do this when water conditions are at the optimum, and after breeding they can change back to male again. They can do this because their reproductive organs produce both eggs and sperm. An undisturbed oyster living in the wild will change sex several times during the course of a year.


Question by Christinap