The Wonderful World of Animals Quiz

Answer: Anhinga

Like cormorants, the anhinga is an expert diver and hunts fish underwater. It is alternatively called a darter or 'snake bird' and is found in Australia, Asia and South America. The agouti is a rodent from Central and South America. The most common species of assassin bug is called the kissing bug as it bites human beings and rodents close to their mouths.

Answer: Bird-eating spider

This hairy spider can live up to 30 years and can be kept as a pet. It has a venom as potent as that of a bee and is quite capable of having a hummingbird as its prey as well as arthropods (insects, crustaceans and centipedes) and vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds).

The bristlehead is a rare bird that lives in the rainforests of Borneo. The booby is a large oceanic seabird and the bee-eater is a bird which can be found in Europe, Africa and Australia.

Answer: Cuscus

From its appearance, the cuscus is often thought to be a monkey but is related to the kangaroo. It feeds at night and does have a repulsive odour which may be its defense mechanism. A chickadee is a small bird of North America. The crane and cormorant are also birds.

Answer: Dab

The dab is a small flatfish and feeds on the seabed for crustaceans, worms and molluscs. The dikdik is a small, shy, dainty antelope located in Africa. Discus fish have a compressed body and can be found in tributaries of the Amazon river. Dragonfish are deepwater fish and have a slender body and hinged teeth.

Answer: Electric eel

The electric eel can put together a charge of about 500 volts which kill smaller fish easily and can give a human being a severe shock. The eland is the largest living antelope. Esparto is coarse, needlegrass, native to Spain and North Africa. Euonymus is a privet-like shrub or small tree.

Answer: Fossa

The fossa resembles a cat having a cat-like head, but with a longer muzzle. It is an agile climber of trees and is active at dusk and at night. It lives alone and its prey includes birds, lizards, snakes, insects and mammals up to the size of lemurs. The falanouc is located in the rainforests of Madagascar and is a mongoose-like animal. The flounder is a marine flatfish.

Answer: Gopher

The gopher is a burrowing rodent of North and Central America and lives underground for shelter and for food storage. They resemble hamsters as they are equipped with food pouches in their cheeks and have long incisor teeth. The gyrfalcon is the largest species of falcon and inhabits arctic tundra regions of North America, Greenland, Iceland also the mountains of central Asia.

The genet is a slender-bodied, cat-like carnivore with grey to brown spotted fur. The gerbil is native to arid areas of Africa and Asia.

Answer: Hellbender

Despite its horrific name, the hellbender is a harmless creature which feeds on worms, snails and crayfish. This giant salamander with a broad flat head and small eyes even hides under rocks in the water during the day. The hellbender of eastern USA can reach a length of 18 inches and lives in torrential streams.

The harvestman is also known as a daddy-longlegs. Both the hoopoe and the hobby are birds.

Answer: Iiwi

The iiwi is a bird found exclusively on the Hawaiian Islands and is named after the squeaky sound of its call. It has a scarlet and black plumage and has a long down-curved bill to enable it to feed on insects and nectar. The iguana is a lizard and the impala is an African antelope. The Indri is a large, black and white, lemur which inhabits the rainforest of Madagascar.

Answer: Jack Dempsey

The Jack Dempsey is a very aggressive fish and will eat any fish smaller than itself. It is located in the River Amazon and is named after a former boxing heavyweight champion. The John Dory has a large head and steeply sloping jaws. It keeps its flattened body head-on as it is more difficult to spot and engulfs small fish and crustaceans in its huge mouth.

The jaguarundi is a small cat of Central and South America and the jerboa is a burrowing rodent of African and Eurasian deserts.

Answer: Krait

The krait is not aggressive although highly venomous resulting in many human fatalities and is found in Southeast Asia. The knifefish is an elongated, eel-like fish which has an anal fin running much of the length of its body. The kouprey is a rare wild cow which is close to extinction and exists in hilly, forested regions of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

The Komodo dragon is a very large monitor lizard.

Answer: Lovebird

The lovebird feeds on fruit and seeds and often is kept as a cage bird. They can be seen sitting and preening in pairs. Lorikeets are also parrots but are found only in Australia. A lemur is a small, tree-dwelling primate that lives in Madagascar.

Answer: Magpie

The magpie has the reputation of collecting glittering objects, such as spectacles, rings and spoons, which it conceals in various places. They can be found in Europe, Asia, North America and northwestern Africa. The magpies of Australia, while having black and white plumage, are not related to the European magpies. The Australian magpies are members of the butcherbird family.

The mandrill is a large baboon that is found in dense rainforests of central Africa. The mara is a long-legged relative of the Guinea pig and runs at speeds of 20mph in Argentinian scrubland. The moloch is a desert-dwelling, spiny lizard which is native to Australia.

Not all magpies are strictly black and white in colour. The Green Magpie, for instance, has a vivid green plumage. It is located around the lower Himalayas in China, India, Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.

Answer: Nighthawk

The nighthawk is camouflaged with an intricate brown plumage and does not make a nest but lays its eggs on the ground or on flat roofs. Flying insects are solely its prey which are caught in its bristle-fringed mouth. The numbat is an Australian marsupial with distinctive white bars across its back and feeds principally on termites.

The nautilus is a mollusc found in the Pacific and Indian oceans. The nuthatch is a small woodland bird.

Answer: Oilbird

The oilbird lives in totally dark caves. Young oilbirds become enormously fat and cannot fly until they are about 4 months old. The bird is so called as locals use to capture the young oilbirds and render down their fat for use as cooking oil. The olingo lives in the forests of Central America and is a member of the raccoon family.

The oribi is a dwarf antelope which can be found on the grassy plains of South Africa.

Answer: Potto

The potto hunts at night for insects and snails. It also eats leaves and fruit but is content to sleep up in the trees during the day. The pronghorn is related to the antelope, being horned, hoofed and herbivorous. It is the swiftest North American mammal attaining speeds of up to 50mph over short distances.

Answer: Quokka

Quokkas use to be abundant in numbers in the southwest of Australia but the so-called sport of shooting, quickly reduced their numbers. The quetzal is a rare perching bird which inhabits tropical rainforests between southern Mexico to Costa Rica. The quoll is a marsupial cat native to Tasmania, New Guinea and Australia.

Answer: Robber crab

The robber crab uses its sharp claws to climb and spends a lot of its time on land. The roller of Africa is a brightly coloured crow-like bird which acquires its name from its somersaulting courtship displays. The rudd is a European freshwater fish.

Answer: Siamese fighting fish

The male Siamese Fighting fish fight for dominance or to maintain its territory. Because of their aggressive nature, the male fighting fish are kept in captivity in order to take part in staged fights from which observers often bet on the outcome. These fish are colourful, freshwater fish of Southeast Asia with distinctive large fins.

The skink is a lizard and the skipper is an insect related to the butterfly and moth which acquires its name by its darting or skipping flight.

Answer: Takin

The Takin inhabit some of some of the most rugged country in the world around China and Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Most of their time is spent undercover in dense thickets as they are shy animals. The tapir is a stocky, hoofed mammal with a trunk-like nose and is related to the horse. The tarsier has large eyes and ears which it uses to locate insects in Southeast Asian forests.

Answer: Umbrellabird

These strange birds live in the South American forest canopy and have a distinctive wattle which is a loose fold of skin hanging from its throat. Its erect crest of long, silky feathers, spread out like an umbrella when they make their loud booming noises.

A urial is a wild sheep of central Asia, the males of which have massive horns. An ungulate is a hoofed animal such as a pig, deer, cow or sheep.

Answer: Viperfish

Viperfish have long, fang-like teeth and feed on smaller fish. Its mouth opens extremely wide to utilise the efficiency of its predatory teeth. It is approximately one foot long and inhabits both temperate and tropical areas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The vole is a plant-eating rodent that often lives in shallow tunnels. The Virginia creeper is also known as American ivy or woodbine and is a climbing plant native to North America. A vortex is a whirlpool.

Answer: Wryneck

The wryneck stretches its neck out and hisses like a snake when it is disturbed while on the nest and this has the desired effect of frightening away the intruder. This contorted position also occurs while feeding. The wrasse is a marine fish and the woodcock is a woodland bird of Eurasia and North America.

Answer: Yapok

The Yapok is a water opossum and is located in Central and South America. Its webbed feet make it a strong swimmer. Its body length of 11 to 16 inches is approximately the same length as its tail. Its diet consists of fish, frogs, insects and crustaceans. The ylang-ylang is a fast growing tree from Asia and yellowlegs is a North American wading bird.

Answer: Zebra

Zebrafish are striped freshwater minnows. The zander is a predatory fish, a type of pike perch found in fresh waters of Central and Eastern Europe. The zokor inhabits China and is a rodent which lives in long burrows and digs with amazing speed leaving a trail of 'mole hills' on the surface.

It only surfaces at night when it runs the risk of being attacked by an owl. This completes the (A) to (Z) of the animal world excluding the letter (X). Hope you learned something new and didn't find it too beastly.