Underground Mammals Trivia Quiz

Answer: European mole

European moles are small creatures with extremely strong front legs, but notably poor eyesight. Luckily, since they spend the majority of their life scuttling about in the tunnels they are so adept at digging, their short-sightedness and inability to distinguish colour is not a particular handicap for them. They have a cylindrical body (an ideal shape for life in a tunnel); thick, dark fur; a pointy nose; and very small ears. Their main diet is the earthworm, so they have no need to come to the surface to feed, although they can occasionally be seen peeking out from a molehill - a pile of loose soil covering the entrance to a mole tunnel.

They are often cited for the damage they can cause to the environment. Molehills (as shown in the picture clue) are small piles of loose earth thrown up as a result of a mole's burrowing activities. They are not helpful on agricultural land, nor particularly welcome on most gardeners' grassy lawns. Their tunnels can also undermine the soil and damage plant roots.

The oriental sole spends its life underwater as it is a type of flatfish. The Eurasian water vole is a semi-aquatic rodent. Dholes are an Asian species of wild dog.

Answer: Mediterranean horseshoe bat

'Trogloxene' is a term used to refer to creatures that shelter in caves but do not remain in them all the time. Horseshoe bats, including the Mediterranean horseshoe bat, will often roost in caves and use them for their nurseries - although they can also use trees for this purpose as well.

Not all bat species are capable of echolocation - the process of emitting a call and listening for an echo in order to pinpoint location - but horseshoe bats in general do have this ability. The name 'horseshoe' comes from the shape of the structure on the bat's nose that it uses to produce its echolocation calls.

The incorrect options are all bats of the Pteropodidae family - members of which do not have the ability to echolocate.

Answer: Common rabbit

Rabbits are popular pets around the world and those examples of the species generally tend to be domesticated and selectively bred versions of the common rabbit. Rabbits spend a lot of time in their underground warrens; in particular newborn rabbits, which are born blind and hairless, rely on the safety of those burrows for survival. Hares belong to the same family as rabbits, but are not underground dwellers - they have simple nests on the ground in which their precocial young are born.

Common rabbits were introduced to Britain by the Romans in the first century AD. Their introduction to Australia and New Zealand proved to be disastrous for native species such as the bilby, which were displaced by the influx of rabbits - despite the fact that only 24 of the creatures made the original journey to the southern hemisphere in 1859. Several attempts have been made to restrict the rabbit population in Australia, including the deliberate introduction of myxomatosis (a disease fatal to rabbits) and the building of a giant rabbit-proof fence, which stretched over 3,250 km (2,000 miles) across Western Australia.

The picture clue shows a common rabbit but the incorrect options are all members of the hare family - including the jackrabbit!

Answer: Northern short-tailed shrew

Northern short-tailed shrews can be found across central and eastern areas of North America. If you found yourself close to this particular shrew you'd want to make sure it had been well tamed first, given the fact that it is venomous. The toxin produced by this shrew is not strong enough to kill or seriously harm a human, but you'd still be likely to receive a painful bite. It is however capable of killing the small animals, such as voles and other shrews, that make up a large proportion of the northern short-tailed shrew's diet.

Like moles and other creatures that spend a lot of their life underground, the northern short-tailed shrew has poor eyesight. It is able to compensate somewhat by using echolocation for simple navigation, but its ability in this area is much less well-developed compared to that of a bat. These shrews are also solitary animals and when kept together in captivity have an unfortunate habit of attacking and even killing each other - which, in the females at least, might come under the heading of shrewish behaviour!

The Ceylon spiny mouse is found in Sri Lanka and the greater bandicoot rat is a rodent found across many areas of eastern Asia. The long-tailed chinchilla is from the Andes of South America and is a popular domestic pet - it's definitely not venomous!

Answer: Fennec fox

Vulpes zerda, commonly known as the fennec fox, is native to the Sahara desert in northern Africa, although it can also be found living in the wild in the Arabian Peninsula and other nearby areas of Asia. They are well-adapted to living in an inhospitable desert environment as they need very little water to survive and their large ears (as shown in the picture clue) mean that they have excellent hearing that allows them to locate prey moving underground. Their diet is varied, ranging from insects and small mammals to birds, birds' eggs and vegetation.

Fennec foxes mate for life and produce a litter of between one and four kits on average each year. They dig their burrows in sandy soil, with stable sand dunes being a preferred location. More stable soil means they can dig larger and more intricate burrows that often interconnect with those belonging to other fennec fox families.

The incorrect options are all other species that belong to the Vulpes genus of true foxes, although none are native to Africa.

Answer: Groundhog

The groundhog (also known as a woodchuck or whistle-pig) is a species of ground squirrel native to North America. Groundhogs generally hibernate from about October to March each year, but 'Groundhog Day', a festival associated with the end of a groundhog's hibernation period, takes places on 2nd February. The story goes that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on 2nd February to be greeted by a cloudy sky, then spring will start early; however, if it's sunny and the groundhog sees its own shadow it will retreat underground and six more weeks of winter will ensue.

Groundhogs are generally herbivorous creatures but will also eat small grubs and insects. They, in turn, are often preyed on by a range of creatures such as wolves, foxes and bears and their underground burrow provides them with an essential safe retreat. However, they are also at risk from snakes that can easily slither into the burrow and prey on the young groundhogs in particular.

The incorrect options are all other members of the squirrel family.

Answer: Kodiak bear

Kodiak bears, Ursus arctos middendorffi, are only found in the wild on various islands of the Kodiak Archipelago of southern Alaska. However, the term 'Kodiak bear' is sometimes applied more widely to mean any species of brown bear living around the Alaskan coastline.

Most Kodiak bears spend the harsh winter months safely tucked away in their dens. Males will likely remain underground from around October to April, while females with cubs will stay down until around the end of June. However, some hardier individuals don't bother denning for the winter and simply remain active above ground.

Glacier bears are also found in Alaska, but are a subspecies of American black bear. The Baluchistan bear is a subspecies of Asian black bear named after a mountain range of Pakistan and Iran. The Kamchatka brown bear is named after a peninsula in eastern Russia and is believed to be an ancestor of the Kodiak bear.

Answer: Warthog

Warthogs are, as the name suggests, members of the pig family and are commonly found in the grasslands and woodlands of central Africa. They have excellent digging skills but often choose to cheat and use abandoned aardvark burrows instead of digging their own. In the dry season (when grass to graze on is hard to come by) they also find dinner by digging down to forage for roots, insects and bulbs or rhizomes.

The warthog backs into its burrow as a defence mechanism - not because it doesn't want to turn its back on potential predators, but so that it can get its head, complete with vicious looking tusks, facing the entranceway.

A warthog named Pumbaa is one of the main characters in Disney's 1994 film 'The Lion King'. In that movie Pumbaa's best friend is a meerkat called Timon; a herd of wildebeest and several hyenas also make an appearance.

Answer: European otter

The European otter is a freshwater otter, generally found around the rivers and streams of Europe, Asia and North Africa - although they can hang out in salt water as well. They are highly territorial creatures, with both males and females ruling over lengthy stretches of water. It has a range of alternative names including Eurasian otter, common otter and Old World otter. The term 'holt' is simply a fancy name for an otter's den, which is usually an underground burrow but can sometimes be a hole in a riverside tree.

European otters feed primarily on fish but, in the winter particularly, they can turn to other food sources such as insects, frogs, birds and other small mammals. They generally hunt underwater, seeking their prey by sight and touch - although some research has been conducted suggesting that they may also have the ability to smell underwater.

The 13 species of otter found worldwide are members of the weasel family (Mustelidae). The incorrect options are all other species included in that family.

Answer: Screaming hairy armadillo

The Dasypodidae family includes over 20 species of armadillos, all of which are native to South America - although some species have also spread through Central and North America. Armadillos are unusual mammals because of the armour that protects their upper bodies, heads and tails. It is formed from dermal bone, in a similar way to the carapaces of tortoises and turtles, but the bone is covered with scales (made of bone and horn) and separated with bands of skin to allow flexibility of movement.

The screaming hairy armadillo is one of the smallest species of armadillo but has much more hair than its relatives. The 'screaming' part of the name is believed to derive from the loud noise they make if captured or otherwise threatened. It is found in areas of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, where it is often considered to be a pest. It is also likely to run screaming if it comes across anyone playing a charango (a musical instrument resembling a lute)...since charangos are often made from the armoured shell of the screaming hairy armadillo.

The scaly anteater (or pangolin) is a member of the Manidae family and the African ant bear is also known as the aardvark (another often underground animal), a member of the Orycteropodidae family. The maned sloth belongs to the Bradypodidae family and does not particularly resemble an armadillo (although the animal in the picture clue appears to be resting rather slothfully).