Random Facts on Animals Trivia Quiz

Answer: Marsupial

Marsupials are an infra-class of mammals. Most marsupials are known for carrying their young in a pouch. This list includes koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, bandicoots and so on, the majority of which are native to Australia. A koala is often referred to erroneously as a bear. Koalas spend most of their day in trees, with their diet consisting of eucalyptus leaves from same. A baby koala is known as a joey. A male koala can be distinguished from a female by his size. He's twice as large as the little woman, and has a larger curved nose. How noble. A far easier way to distinguish the two however is that the male usually has two bare patches on his chest. These are where his glands are located with which he marks his territory.

The mating practices of koalas are rather noisy. When the female is ready, she indicates this by tremors and spasms. You'd think the male koala would have figured this out by now - but he hasn't - and he sometimes accidentally tries to mount the wrong female, who objects rather strenuously. The male also spends a lot of time in mating season with wrestling, chasing and biting other males who try to muscle in on his territory, and has hardly any energy left to get the job done in hand if he emerges victorious.

Answer: The creature from the black lagoon

Who said paleontologists don't have a sense of humour? Jenny Clack named this never seen before fossil after the 1954 science fiction horror film "The Creature from the Black Lagoon". This was your average, run-of-the-mill horror movie about a man-like creature from a murky lagoon who preyed on convenient humans who passed by.

The fossil Eucritta melanolimnetes itself though is only about eight inches long, and is described as having an amphibian like skull, with keyhole shaped eye sockets, and a reptilian shape.

Answer: One hundred percent

This record of 25 straight wins in the top races around around the world broke a record that stood unbeaten for over one hundred years. When her owners finally decided to retire this beautiful little mare in 2013, she left competitive racing with a reputation described, by the International Federation of Horseracing Authories, as the best horse in the world.

Born in 2006 in Victoria, Australia, this enchanting little heartbreaker is now going to be bred with top stallions to produce little champions of her own. I wonder if she ever dreams of those racing days now gone, and longs now and then to be pounding gloriously up the turf once more?

Answer: By their nose prints

How cute is that, noseprinting a dog. Another interesting fact about dog noses is that different sizes have different names. They're not just ordinary old noses, dear me, no. A dog with a longer muzzle is referred to as mesocephalic, while shorter nosed, or pushed in nosed dogs are known as brachacephalic.

The shape of a dog's retina is also related to the shape of its nose, and in that same snozzle, more than 220 million smell cells are located. I'm just looking at a photo of a bloodhound right now, and for some odd reason, am strongly inclined to laugh at all the above facts.

Answer: Pupniks

Strelka, one of the Russian space dogs that managed to return safely to earth, was eventually mated with another Russian dog, Pushkov, that was used in ground based space experiments in that country. Of the pups that were produced, one named Pushinka was given, in 1961, to Caroline Kennedy as a gift from the Russian Premier Khrushchev. That name translates to "Fluffy" apparently.

The dog's name that is, not the Premier's. Pushinka, in true diplomatic fashion, mated eventually with one of the Kennedy dogs named Charlie - and the pupniks were the result.

Answer: They were used in pie fillings

That's disgusting, but true. Found up and down the east coast of Australia, this lovely little bird is about eight inches long, with a green or yellow body, a beautiful turquoise face, red patches on its shoulders and blue wings. The female lacks the red patch.

It's quite lovely in fact - and they used it to make pies?? Fortunately its numbers have now recovered, but at one stage this multi-coloured little beauty was thought to have been made extinct by the rapacious appetite of the colonists.

Answer: North-south

This apparently caused the scientific world to go into paroxysms of excitement, but why it's hard to imagine. As reported in scientific journals of the time, "It boggles the mind that no one - herdsman, rancher, or hunter - had noticed this before," writes ethologist Jonathan Balcombe. "What else are we failing to notice?" No doubt this is true, but appropos of what? I'm afraid my response was not heady excitement at all, but a large large yawn at the fact that cattle and deer line up with magnetic north when they eat or sleep. Still, it is rather interesting though. Rather like a case of animal feng shui. Perhaps we should all do likewise.

Answer: Yes

How amazing is that? Not only that, but to date, this elephant orchestra has already released three CDs. Obviously for the tone-deaf, but an orchestra nonetheless. Instruments played by this fascinating group include gongs, drums, harmonicas if you please, and sawmill blades. One can of course visualise an elephant playing a drum, or a gong - as long as they don't accidentally sit on them - but an harmonica? The Thai elephant orchestra, which was established by elephant conservationist Richard Lair and musician/neuroscientist Dave Soldier, comprises fourteen elephants who play on specially enlarged musical instruments. Elephants have an astonishing ability to recognise twelve separate tones on a musical scale.

Answer: Lassie

Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) was a noted beauty in her time, known, apart from her thespian skills, for her striking dark hair, her beautiful coloured eyes and her perfectly arched eyebrows which earned her that award. She appeared in a vast number of films during her long career. Lassie, who was really a Laddie, was a dog named Pal who appeared in several films in the 1940s and 1950s, and a long running television series (1954-1973) about the adventures of a champion collie who saved all and sundry from various mishaps and misadventures. Pal's descendants continued to play the role after he retired (probably to have gender counselling) and even well into the 21st century, his great, great, great descendants still continue to carry the Lassie name on in show business appearances from time to time.

Answer: She urinated on the bomb and extinguished it

This quick witted woofles saw the bomb drop through the roof of the house, raced over to it, stood over it and urinated on it until the flames were extinguished. Amazing, and, given the size of a great Dane, that must have been some fire. Juliana was awarded a Blue Cross medal for her bravery and her bladder. That was in 1941.

In 1944, Juliana won a second medal of its kind for another act in which she saved her owner's life. She alerted them to a fire blazing in their small business. Sadly Juliana died in 1946 when some disgusting soul posted poison in the owners letterbox, a dreadful, heartless thing to do to any animal.