Those Marvelous Mammals! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fleet footed

Bengal tigers prefer to live by themselves; the basic social unit is the mother and offspring who stay together for two or three years before the young find their own territory. Unlike most other cats, tigers enjoy swimming. They can be seen cooling off in lakes and streams in the heat of the day. Nocturnal hunters, at some times they must travel many miles to find food.

It is estimated that they can eat 21 kg of meat a night. Although they are fast over short distances, Bengal tigers are not able to outrun prey such as deer.

They must rely on their stealth to attack most of their victims.

Answer: Weasel

The name "civet" is derived from the French "civette" and the Greek "ictis", meaning weasel. Knowledge of the civet's habits is limited due to their nocturnal rhythm, being most active an hour after dark. They spend most of the day sleeping in trees. Interestingly, the musk secreted by their glands has been collected by humans for centuries and used in very expensive perfumes.

Answer: True

Hippos are aggressive animals; the bulls will attack to protect their territories and the females attack to protect their young. There are predators, such as the crocodile or lions, that will hunt the calves, but there are none that are willing to tangle with an adult.

The yawning shown in the picture is considered to be a threat; the teeth of the hippo are its most valuable weapon. Hippos are responsible for thousands of human fatalities and injuries in the wild. They can tip small boats over and bite canoes in half with little or no provocation.

Answer: Omnivore

The vervet monkey eats leaves, bark, roots, bulbs, seeds, fruits, and grasses, but also supplements its diet with insects, eggs, rodents, and birds. As long as the monkey stays in the trees, it is relatively safe, however, it is preyed upon by leopards, servals, and other large cats. If they get too close to the water, python and crocodile may find them tasty.

When in danger, they are known to scream and whistle to alert other members of the troop.

Answer: It is a monogamous animal.

Both monogamous and territorial, the basic social unit is the mated pair, who work together to mark their territory with faeces and urine. Consisting of 1-9 pups, the litter is closely guarded by the mother, while the father provides food. The pups are weaned at 8-9 weeks, and can hunt by themselves by the age of six months. When they are about a year old, some of the pups may leave the family group, while others stay and help their parents raise the next litter.

Jackals are omnivores who conceal themselves during the day and hunt at night.

Answer: Southern elephant seal

The Southern elephant seal gets its name from its large size, the male's huge proboscis, and the loud trumpeting noises made, especially during mating season. Males can be over 20 feet long and weigh up to 8800 pounds. During the breeding season they compete to collect a harem of females.

Not only do they trumpet, but they also use their weight and teeth in competition. Sometimes their battles are quite violent and bloody.

Answer: False

Striping is to a zebra as fingerprints are to humans. While they are in a herd, the stripes merge into a huge mass, making it more difficult for a predator to find the individual animals. Highly social animals, zebras graze together and groom each other. They like to sleep in a group so that there is more of a chance to be warned in case of an attack.

Answer: The American bison is larger.

The European bison, or wisent, is smaller that its American cousin, has shorter hair, and a hairier tail. Unfortunately, many of the bison were killed during World War I, and in 1927 the last wisent living in the wild was killed in southern Russia. Luckily there were some living in zoos. Efforts were made to increase the population, and today there are a number of herds that live in the wild.

Answer: Snorts

An impala will use a variety of communications, including visual, olfactory, and auditory. They lay scent trails and roar. The roaring process includes one to three loud snorts with mouth closed. Then there are two to ten deep grunts with an open mouth.

The chin will be lifted and the tail upraised. When alarmed, the impala can leap over nine feet, and run in a zig-zag pattern at thirty-seven mph.

Answer: They wrestle with their necks.

The giraffe is the tallest animal in the world, with the long neck accounting for much of its height. The long neck enables them to eat food that others cannot reach. It also is the "weapon" males use when fighting. They use their necks to strike at the other's body, and they also wrestle by twining their necks around each other.

This activity rarely results in serious injury. The loser simply loses his balance.