I Dreamt of Africa Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

It is actually the other way round. Female cheetahs remain solitary and the males, usually brothers, bond together. Other unusual features concerning the cheetahs are: 1)the cubs are born with a silvery mane which camouflages them in the tall grass, a feature which is lost by adulthood and 2)cheetahs hunt during the day in order to minimize competion from other larger and stronger predators. Cheetahs are too weak to defend their kill and almost always exhausted (because of the sprint).

As a consequence, their food is often stolen and sometimes they also get killed trying to protect it.

Answer: backwards

Warthogs enter their burrows backwards so that they can use their tusks to defend themselves when attacked or to run out quickly and flee. Usually warthogs live in disused aardvark burrows or burrows dug beneath termite mounds.

Answer: he kills the cubs

A male lion will sometimes kill the cubs so that the females will come back into oestrus and mate with him. He never lets anyone eat before him, although he does help the pride to bring down a larger prey but that doesn't have anything to do with establishing authority. Lions first topple their prey and then close their jaws over the muzzle or the windpipe.

As a consequence the animal chokes to death. This does not happen however when it comes to smaller prey like baboons. However, lions are often killed or badly injured when hunting animals like buffaloes and giraffes.

Answer: True

An "eagle bark" makes them climb up trees and take cover, a "snake chutter" has them checking the bushes and long grass for snakes while a leopard alarm call also gets them scrambling into a tree.

Answer: rooikat

Although the caracal has a height of around 45cm at the shoulder and weighs up to 18kg, it can kill animals as large as an antelope and bring down birds while they are flying using its powerful hind legs. A solitary, nocturnal hunter, it often attacks and kills goats and other livestock.

Answer: he makes a pile of it

Rhinos are the second largest land mammals in the world, with the males weighing up to 2300kg.

Answer: True

A hippo will spend its day bathing and relaxing in the water (they can stay underwater for up to 5-6 minutes) and will come out at night to eat grass, around 40kg per night. Its long incisors and canines (up to 50cm) are useless for feeding but are used as weapons.

Answer: the males' horns are much thicker

Males are usually darker then the paler females but this is not always true. What is certainly a safe way to positively discover the sex of a giraffe are the horns: males' are much thicker than the females' and smoother because of fighting.

Answer: after half an hour

Only a single zebra weighing 30-35kg is born in summer after a gestation period of approximately 360-365 days. Amazingly enough, the baby zebra can move with the herd within half an hour.

Answer: False

Actually it's the second largest after the eland (Taurotragus Oryx) and weighs almost 300kg. It has a black and white face mask. It is currently found in small numbers and is very difficult to be seen as it is a very shy and elusive animal. I consider myself very lucky to have seen one! In this trip I saw many other mammals such as buffalo, impala, kudu, elephant, mongoose, springhare, bushbaby, hyena, bushbuck as well as birds and reptiles.

But this is another story (or better, another quiz)!