The Odd Animal Out Trivia Quiz

Answer: whale

Whales are mammals. This means they feed their young with milk from special glands called mammary glands. They also have lungs and breathe air to obtain oxygen, whereas fish have gills and obtain oxygen from the water. Sharks, whale sharks and stingrays are fish.

Despite their name, whale sharks are sharks, not whales. The "whale" part of their name is because of their size - they are the largest of the group of animals we call fish.

Answer: spider

Bees, ladybirds (also known as ladybugs) and butterflies are insects. Insects have three main body parts (head, thorax and abdomen) and six legs. Spiders belong to a group of animals called arachnids. Arachnids are like insects but they have eight legs and two main body parts (abdomen and a cephalothorax, which is a combined head and thorax).

The word cephalothorax comes from two Greek words which mean head (cephalo) and chest (thorax).

Answer: tiger

Lions, elephants and giraffes are found in Africa. Tigers, however, are found only in Asia and eastern Russia. Most of the wild tigers in the world live in India. They are the largest members of the cat family and are bigger than lions. Tigers are an endangered species.

Answer: zebra

Australia has lots of unique animals which aren't found anywhere else in the world, such as the platypus and the echidna. Other uniquely Australian animals include the quokka and the wombat. Kangaroos, however, are not unique to Australia because they are also found in New Guinea (a large island north of Australia). You won't find zebras in Australia unless they are in a zoo. Zebras are African animals.

Answer: ostrich

Like most birds, swallows, seagulls and eagles can fly. The ostrich cannot fly. It belongs to a group of birds which scientists call ratites. Ratites cannot fly because of the shape of their breastbone. Other ratites include emus, cassowaries and kiwis. Penguins are also birds which cannot fly, although they are not ratites.

Answer: prairie dog

Scientists organise animals with similar characteristics into groups. Wolves, foxes and coyotes, as well as dogs, belong to the group called Canidae (the Latin word for dog). Despite their name, prairie dogs are not dogs; they are a type of squirrel that is native to North America. Prairie dogs belong to a group of animals we call rodents.

As well as squirrels, rodents include rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and beavers.

Answer: silverfish

Despite the fact that all their names contain the word "fish", only the goldfish is actually a fish. Goldfish, cuttlefish and jellyfish live in water. The silverfish, however, lives on land. The silverfish is an insect which gets its name because it is a silvery-grey in colour and is fishlike in shape. Silverfish are a pest because they like to eat things such as paper, photos, carpet, clothing, wallpaper, glue, and even hair, so they can cause a lot of damage in people's houses.

Answer: python

Pythons are not venomous. This means that if a python bites you, it does not inject any poison (although it can give you a nasty infection). Cobras, vipers and rattlesnakes, however, are venomous. This means they can kill you if they bite you and inject their venom. Sometimes people refer to snakes (and other animals) as being "poisonous".

However, there is a difference between the words venomous and poisonous. An animal is venomous if it injects its poison into you when it bites or stings.

It is poisonous if it can kill you when you eat it or if you touch it. An animal can be both venomous and poisonous!

Answer: Manx

Almost all cats have tails. The Manx cat is a breed of cat which does not have a tail or has a very short tail. They also have very round heads. The name "Manx" means that they come from the Isle of Man (an island in the Irish Sea which lies between Northern Ireland, England and Scotland). If Manx cats have no tail at all, they are called "rumpies". If they have a very short tail, they are called "stumpies".

Answer: orangutan

The most obvious difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys almost always have a tail whereas apes do not. (There are a few monkeys that don't have tails). Baboons, tamarins and macaques are monkeys. Orangutans are apes. The group we call apes also includes gorillas, chimpanzees and gibbons. Orangutans are native to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra (Indonesia).