Yipes! Stripes! Trivia Quiz

Answer: swimming

The different species of tigers vary in size, with large, male Siberian tigers being twice the weight (up to 306 kg or 675 lb) of the smallest, the Sumatran tiger (up to 140 kg or 309 lb). The difference is attributed to habitat, with Siberian tigers being large to better conserve body heat while the Sumatran tiger is smaller to navigate the thick forests of Sumatra.

"White tigers" have a recessive coloration in Bengal tigers. It is not albinism as they have pigmented stripes and blue eyes. Breeding white tigers is now discouraged, as the animals develop health problems and have a shorter life span.

Answer: quagga

Quaggas were mostly brown, with brown and white stripes on the head and front of the body. They went extinct in 1883. Because quaggas were a subspecies of plains zebras, in 1987 the Quagga Project was started to breed an animal that at least looked like a quagga.

While the appearance may eventually look like a quagga, they will not be true quaggas, and are called Rau quaggas, after Reinhold Rau (1932-2006), the founder of the Quagga Project. The first Rau quagga foal was born in 2005.

Answer: solitary

Some solitary wasps will nest close to each other, but each wasp operates independently, and not as a community. Some wasps may even steal their neighbor's food or take advantage of a vacant nest built by another wasp.

While most people associate wasps with being stung, and many are dangerous, wasps can be beneficial as well. Wasps can feed on other insects and some species are pollinators.

Answer: okapi

Male okapi have short horns covered in hair called ossicones, while females have hair whorls instead. Both male and female giraffes have ossicones.

Okapi are native to the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and several wildlife parks and reserves have wild populations of the animals.

Answer: mutualistic

The anemone provides protection, shelter, and food for the clownfish. The clownfish protects and helps feed the anemone. Recent studies have shown that the clownfish takes an active role in directing water to flow over different parts of the anemone.

Answer: cheek pouches

Chipmunks are rodents closely related to squirrels. Unlike many similar species, chipmunks do not store multiple small stores of food. Instead, they store a single large supply of food in their burrows.

Most chipmunks are found in North America. Only one species, the Siberian chipmunk, is found outside of North America, in Asia.

Answer: North America

Coral snakes are venomous, but prefer to flee from humans and rarely bite them. Unfortunately, this means that producing the anti-venom is not profitable, and production has stopped. As of 2016, US supplies of the anti-venom were supposed to expire in 2008, but the expiration date was moved to 2016. Foreign supplies could be made available, but are currently too costly to license in the US.

Other solutions, such as synthetic anti-venom, are being researched.

Answer: omnivorous

Skunks are one of the few animals that eats honeybees. They scratch at a hive and eat the bees that come out. The thick fur of the skunk provides protection from the stinging insects.

Answer: moths

The most common woolly bear in North America is the Isabella tiger moth's caterpillar. Folklore suggests that the amount of black coloration on these caterpillars can predict the severity of upcoming winters.

In warm/temperate regions, the caterpillars transform to moths within a few months after hatching. In colder areas, the caterpillars freeze solid over the winter and thaw when the weather warms up, sometimes surviving multiple cycles before metamorphosis.

Answer: Madagascar

88 million years ago Madagascar split from the mainland, allowing its creatures and plants to evolve in (relative) isolation. As a result, 90% of the wildlife of Madagascar is found nowhere else on the planet.

Despite being completely diurnal, ring-tailed lemurs have a reflective layer behind their retinas which enhances night vision.