The Tooth is Out There Trivia Quiz

Answer: Volcano rabbit

El Pelado, Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl and Tlaloc are all volcanoes and the tiny rabbit found on their slopes is therefore known as the volcano rabbit, although it does have other alternative names such as the teporingo or the zacatuche. They generally have dense dark brown fur, short rounded ears and a very small tuft of a tail. Unfortunately you would be very lucky to spot a volcano rabbit in the wild as they have become endangered thanks to their limited range and human disturbance of their habitat. In fact, as a result of one of their more unusual habits for rabbits, you might be more likely to hear one - instead of thumping their hind legs to indicate danger to other rabbits, they tend to emit a high-pitched squeaking noise.

Although volcano rabbits are known for living at high altitudes, this trait has not been incorporated into their common name; a lava block is something you might give your pet rabbit to chew on rather than an actual rabbit; and a cinder cone is a particular type of steep, conical volcano while coney is a colloquial term for various lagomorphs.

Answer: Steppe pika

Although rabbits are often associated with hopping, pikas are not often stereotyped by their ability to put one footstep in front of another. Therefore the steppe pika actually takes its name from its home in the geographical sort of steppe - an ecoregion generally characterised by its grassland plains, semi-arid climate and the wide temperature differences seen between summer and winter. It is a small creature of about 14 to 19 centimetres in length, with grey-brown fur that becomes lighter in winter to ensure that it is safely camouflaged all year round against predators such as foxes, stoats and polecats.

While all lagomorphs have large front incisors that constantly grow throughout their lives, pikas (including the steppe pika) have two pairs of incisors in their upper jaw that need to be kept trimmed by a large amount of chewing and grinding.

Answer: Canada and Greenland

All of the countries listed as possible answers have territory within the Arctic Circle, however the Arctic hare can only be found in the wild in those regions of Canada and Greenland. It is one of the most distinctive members of the order Lagomorpha as it is one of the biggest and has beautiful thick white fur when wearing its winter coat (in summer it turns brownish-grey). The white fur helps to camouflage it against the snow in winter, while another of its physical features that help it to live in some of the most inhospitable territory on Earth are the large hind feet that act as natural snowshoes.

Arctic hares are not the most social creatures but will sometimes congregate together - particularly in winter, when huddling with other hares helps them to survive the freezing temperatures. Although they are quite speedy, being capable of reaching up to 60 km/h (40 mph), they do have a nasty habit of falling prey to Arctic foxes, grey wolves and snowy owls.

Answer: Cane-cutter

The swamp rabbit, Sylvilagus aquaticus, has several alternative names including cane-cutter, swamp hare and marsh rabbit (which opens up real confusion as that name is usually given to Sylvilagus palustris). They live, somewhat unsurprisingly, in and around swampy or marshy land in central areas of southern states of the USA, particularly Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. In addition to chomping their way through vegetation, male swamp rabbits also use their teeth in fights against rivals.

Swamp rabbits can be identified by their rusty-brown fur with distinctive white patches around their throat, rump and tail and a cinnamon-coloured ring of fur around their eyes. They are excellent swimmers and spent much of their time in the water - one particularly neat trick that they have for avoiding predators is to lie still under the reeds and plant-life, with just their nose left sticking out in order to be able to breathe!

Answer: Mountain hare

The mountain hare, Lepus timidus, is widespread across northern Europe and Asia, including the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, Poland, Russia and Japan in addition to the British Isles. It is by no means the only or most populous lagomorph present in Great Britain, but it is the only one native to the area as both the brown hare and the European or common rabbit are believed to have been introduced in Roman times. By contrast, some mountain hare bones found in Britain have been dated to over 100,000 years ago.

Although it once roamed the whole of Great Britain, the mountain hare is now generally restricted to areas of northern Scotland. It is also found on the Isle of Man and in Ireland - one of its many alternative names is the Irish hare, while others include tundra hare, blue hare, variable hare and white hare. The latter two names are explained by the fact that its coat changes colour dependent on the temperature of its environment, so it tends to have a brownish coat in summer and a white one in the winter.

All of the incorrect options are real hares, but none of them are found in Great Britain - in particular Manchuria is an area of eastern Russia and China and the hare from that region shouldn't be confused with Mancunian, the term given to inhabitants of the English city of Manchester.

Answer: On all fours, uses its nose to manipulate the food

A cottontail rabbit generally doesn't use its paws to assist with the control of its dinner, relying instead on pushing the food around with its nose to find the tastiest bits to begin with. The only exception to this is when it needs to chomp on vegetation that is higher than head level - in that case it uses its paws to pull the stalks down to a level where it can get its teeth into them. You certainly will never see one lounging around and showing off its teeth while casually holding a carrot in one paw.

The desert cottontail, Sylvilagus audubonii, is found in the western US and northern and central areas of Mexico. Like its name suggests, it tends to live in desert regions and as a result its food supply is perhaps more important to it than other rabbits as it also tends to be one of its key sources of water. Thanks to fluids from plant matter and any dew lying around, the desert cottontail has very little need to actually go and get a drink of water. Its Latin name is derived from the famous American ornithologist John James Audubon. However, he was also the co-author of an important 19th century book on America's mammals called 'Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America', which included several of his illustrations of hares and rabbits.

Answer: Africa

The scrub hare is endemic to southern Africa and is particularly populous in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and parts of southern Namibia. It is a generally nocturnal creature, spending the day lying flat and still in an indentation or depression in the ground. Its fur allows it to blend into its surroundings - the back, head and the top half of its tail (the main bits on show while lying on the ground) tend to be grey with mottled darker patches, while its front and the underside of its tail are white.

Scrub hares only tend to congregate together during the mating season and are otherwise solitary creatures. The female hares don't tend to spend much time with their offspring either as the young leverets are born fully furred and almost fully independent. However, the lack of parental care - along with the fact that these hares are common prey for cheetahs, jackals and various birds - means that is probably not surprising that the majority of scrub hares don't survive their first year.

Answer: Ochotona curzoniae

Members of Ochotona curzoniae, otherwise known as plateau pikas, are small furry creatures that are mostly a sandy-brown colour, but have distinctive black noses and lips - hence also being known as black-lipped pikas. They belong to the Ochotona genus, as one of around 30 species of pika that have been identified worldwide. The curzoniae part of the name comes from Lord Curzon, the British Viceroy and Governor-General of India from 1899 to 1905.

Plateau pikas live in the mountainous regions of central Asia, usually at altitudes of between 3,000 and 5,000 metres (10,000 to 16,000 feet) above sea level. Despite the fact that their habitat becomes extremely cold in winter, they do not hibernate and survive thanks to thick fur, a high resting metabolic rate and the ability to efficiently produce body heat through non-shivering thermogenesis. They are generally considered to be a keystone species (one that is of crucial importance to its ecosystem) as they maintain soil health by aerating it through burrowing and provide food for a range of predators.

The incorrect options - Brown bear (Ursus arctos), Tibetan sand fox (Vulpes ferrilata) and mountain weasel (Mustela altaica) - are all animals that enjoy turning plateau pikas into tasty meals.

Answer: Faeces

Of the (frankly distinctly unappealing) options, the only one that hares and rabbits eat on a regular basis is faeces - specifically, their own. The first digestion process of their diet of various plant materials does not absorb all the nutrients available, so these animals eat their initial droppings so that their digestive system can have a second go at obtaining them. The process is analogous to (but quite a bit more disgusting than) the rumination process used by cattle and sheep.

African savanna hares are found across much of sub-Saharan Africa and tend to be solitary. They have greyish-brown fur on their upper head and back, reddish-brown fur on their legs, white fur on their front and undersides and black-tipped ears. This might be useful information if they refuse to open their mouths to allow you to identify them by their grooved teeth.

Eating blood is known as haematophagy, eating the placenta or afterbirth is called placentophagy and eating bones is referred to as osteophagy.

Answer: They have a low reproduction rate

There are lots of stereotypes surrounding rabbits and hares, but they often include the ideas that they have big teeth and like carrots; can run very quickly (much faster than a tortoise for example); and "breed like rabbits", i.e. constantly. There is no doubt that riverine rabbits have big teeth and can move at a fair speed, but the one thing they don't do is breed quickly or constantly. Generally speaking females will only produce a single baby each year, which is hairless, blind and initially entirely dependent on its mother.

The low reproductive rate of the riverine rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis) is one of the factors for why the species needed to be placed on the critically endangered list. They live in a very restricted area of the river basins and surrounding scrubland of the Karoo Desert in South Africa (although they are not great swimmers and don't spend much time in the river itself). Hunting, trapping and attacks by domestic animals have sadly led to a population loss that the riverine rabbit's low reproductive rate is incapable of replacing.