Elephants Everywhere Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hathi

Rudyard Kipling simply used the Hindi word for elephant to name this character, whose distinguishing characteristic was his unhurried approach to issues. In the story 'Letting in the Jungle', we find that Hathi can act in anger - he once trampled a village in revenge for being captured- and Mowgli enlists his aid in getting revenge on the villagers who had kidnapped his human adoptive parents. Disney's 1967 animated adaptation of the books turns Hathi into a figure of fun, rather than respect. He is portrayed as a pompous and self-important character, disliked by most of the animals, who styles himself as Colonel Hathi.

Answer: The Elephant's Child

Rudyard Kipling wrote his 'Just So Stories' as bedtime stories for his daughter, who insisted they be told 'just so', with no deviations in wording. 'The Elephant's Child' describe a young elephant who was constantly getting scolded for his endless questions, who therefore decided to set off for himself to find some answers.

Investigating the question as to what crocodiles ate for dinner, he found his nose being grabbed, as the crocodile tried to gain his company (as dinner) in the waters of "the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees." After pulling away, he discovered that his stretched nose actually came in quite handy.

The other elephants agreed, and visited the river to get their own nose jobs.

Answer: Tantor

Edgar Rice Burroughs used the generic word for elephant in the fictional language of the great apes who befriended Tarzan as the name for several different elephants during the series of novels written between 1912 and his death in 1950 (although the last two were published posthumously).

The appearance of an elephant in 'Tarzan of the Apes', the first book, is brief, but establishes that they became friends during Tarzan's youth, one of the few friends he made outside of his ape family. In the 1999 Disney animation 'Tarzan', Tantor is portrayed not as an adult bull elephant, but as a playful, albeit incredibly cowardly, youngster - he is, for example, worried about the bacteria lurking in the water, despite his mother's assurance that the water is safe.

Answer: Babar

Jean de Brunhoff wrote 'Histoire de Babar' in 1931, basing it on a story his wife had spun for their children. In the first book (of many), Babar's mother is killed by hunters, but he escapes and reaches the big city, where he becomes civilised before returning to the jungle just as the king dies.

His worldly experience makes him the ideal replacement, so he accepts the position and marries his cousin Celeste. Subsequent books see them raising their family, and ruling the kingdom of the elephants in a benevolent dictatorship. Jean de Brunhoff wrote another six stories before his death in 1937, when his son Jean took up the mantle and wrote nearly 50 more books between 1946 and 2017, when he announced that the character was being retired.

A A Milne, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, translated the original story into English in 1933.

Answer: Horton

Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) first wrote about Horton the elephant in the 1940 book 'Horton Hatches the Egg', in which Horton is tricked into sitting on a bird's egg while its mother heads south. He is faithful in the performance of the task, and eventually hatches out an elephant-bird, having somehow passed on some of his own physical traits during the brooding period.

In 1954's 'Horton Hears a Who', Horton takes great pains to protect the residents of Whoville, a town found on a speck of dust that comes into his possession. (When Whoville features in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', it seems to be normal in size. Don't ask.) The two stories together formed the basis for the 2000 stage musical 'Seussical'.

Although the original show was a flop, it has been widely selected for performance by amateur groups, especially high schools, around the world.

Answer: Dumbo

Walt Disney adapted a short story written by Helen Aberson-Mayer and Harold Pearl into the 1941 animation classic 'Dumbo'. His big ears originally make him the target for ridicule from everyone in the circus, but he gains a best friend in a mouse named Timothy. One morning, after accidentally getting drunk because some champagne had spilled into the water bucket, Dumbo and Timothy find themselves in a treetop. Timothy works out that Dumbo can fly, and (using a bit of trickery in order to convince Dumbo that he can do it) helps Dumbo turn his humiliating clown act into a triumphant flying act.

Answer: Sooki

One of the first books published by Little Golden Books, which was established in 1942, 'The Saggy Baggy Elephant' was written by Kathryn and Byron Jackson, and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren (who also illustrated 'The Poky Little Puppy'). It tells of Sooki's self-doubt when a parrot makes fun of his appearance, which leads him to stop dancing, and start trying to hide himself from the view of others. That is, until he discovers there are a whole lot more elephants who, like him, have long noses, big ears and wrinkly skin.

Answer: Shep

In the 1967 animated television series produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, the gormless George treated Shep like a dog, and bestowed a suitable canine name on his pet. While Shep was happy to consider himself a dog, he was a very large and clumsy one, and often caused significant damage to his surroundings.

Shep also appeared in the 2007 revival of the series, as well as the 1997 live-action movie (in which John Cleese provided the voice of George's best friend, an ape named Ape).

Answer: Snorky

'The Banana Splits Adventure Hour' originally ran on American television on Saturday mornings between 1968 and 1970. It featured four people in large animal costumes, who were members of the band called the Banana Splits: Fleegle (a green/brown dog whose tongue stuck out, making him lisp) played guitar and sang; Bingo (an orange gorilla with a constant grin) was the drummer, who also sang; Drooper (a lion with sunglasses and a southern drawl) played bass and sang; Snorky was the keyboard playing elephant who honked instead of speaking or singing.

The show was composed of a number of segments, a mixture of live action and animation, some of which included the band performing.

Answer: Stampy

'Bart Gets an Elephant' originally aired in 1994, during the fifth season of 'The Simpsons'. When given the choice between money and an elephant in a radio competition, Bart demands the joke prize. Stampy proves to be a bit of a problem, with a voracious appetite and a nasty personality. Homer sells rides in an attempt to cover the costs, but eventually decides to sell Stampy to an ivory dealer.

After Bart and Stampy run away, they are tracked down at the Springfield Tar Pits, where Homer manages to get stuck in a tar pit, from which Stampy rescues him.

In gratitude, Homer agrees to give the elephant away to an animal refuge, where he immediately starts head-butting the other elephants instead of enjoying his new security. The keeper explains to the family that some animals are just jerks, as we see Homer head-butting him.