Endangered African Animals Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elephant

The African elephant is the largest living terrestrial mammal on earth. Scientists have documented their complex social relationships, including how they jointly care for the babies in their herds, or parades. They use their trunks for smelling, breathing, detecting vibrations, touching their young or each other affectionately, slurping up water, and grasping objects.

Answer: Hippopotamus

The pygmy hippopotamus is about half the size of his big cousin, weighing "only" 400-600 pounds as an adult. Its range is Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. This water-and-mud-loving mammal lives a mostly solitary life in West Africa and is critically endangered due to poachers for bushmeat.

Answer: Tortoise

The African spurred tortoise can burrow into the ground to spend the heat of the day in a cool pit about 2-3 feet deep. They've been known to live 50-150 years and possibly much longer. They can be very determined and those in captivity have moved posts, large rocks, and other obstacles in their way.

Answer: Dog

The African Wild dog lives in large packs and hunts antelopes. Although sparse, they live all over Africa in their highly social packs. Unlike other canines, they have no undercoat and lose their fur as they age; the oldest are practically furless.

Answer: Zebra

Wild Grévy's zebras live primarily in protected parks in eastern Africa. Due to a ban on hunting, their population has stabilized, though they are still preyed upon by poachers as well lions, hyenas, wild dogs, cheetahs, and leopards.

Answer: Cheetah

The South African cheetah population has been greatly reduced by poaching, habitat loss, and lack of prey. Its habitat is down 75% due to the growing human population in the African plains. They're also at risk when farmers kill them to protect their livestock. As a group, they're known as coalitions.

Answer: Penguin

The wild African Penguin lives only on the southwestern coast of Africa, living on about two dozen islands off Port Elizabeth. They have decreased 95% in population since the early 1900s. Their habitat is susceptible to oil spills. They mate for life and can live up to 27 years. This subspecies is also known as the Jackass Penguin, because its loud honk resembles the bray of a donkey.

Answer: Giraffe

Rothschild's giraffes are only found in the wild in small areas of Uganda and Kenya. Most giraffes have just two of the distinct bumps on their heads versus Rothschild's five. They're named after Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a private zoologist in the United Kingdom. Rothschild's are distinguished by their lower legs which don't have markings on them, making them look as if they're wearing white stockings.

Answer: Rhinoceros

The black rhinoceros is critically endangered; several of its subspecies are already extinct, and its white-hued cousins are down to a population of three in captivity, all too old to reproduce. The black rhinos live in south and west Africa, and their powerful, rotating ears make up somewhat for their poor eyesight.

They use scent-marking to communicate, and a group of them is called a crash.

Answer: Lion

Southwest African lions are found in small numbers in Namibia, Angola, Zaire, western Zambia, western Zimbabwe, and northern Botswana. Cecil the Lion (c. 2002 - 1 July 2015) was a Southwest African lion; his death at the hands of an American game hunter and his Botswana guides who lured Cecil out of the lion sanctuary caused an international uproar about trophy hunting.