Who's Your Baby? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lamb

After a gestation period in the ewe (mother sheep) of around 21 weeks on average, lambs are born usually in late winter and spring time. They are born with wool already on their body. Most of the time, a ewe will give birth to a single lamb or perhaps twins. Larger litter sizes are possible too, but much rarer.

Some lambs develop horns, and depending on the breed, both males and females are horned, or only the males. Sheep breeds that don't have horns are called 'polled'. The horns are made from a hard substance called keratin (the same as human finger and toe nails) which covers a bony structure.

The shape of the horns also depends on the breed of sheep.

Answer: Cria

A cria (pronounced cree-a, not cry-a) is the baby of any of the South American animals in the Camelid family (alpaca, llama, guanaco, vicuņa) but not used for camels. A baby camel is usually called a calf. Cria comes from the Spanish word for raising a baby, and variations around that meaning.

The gestation period for both llamas and alpacas is around 11 months. Llamas are generally much bigger than alpacas. Llamas have been used for many centuries as beasts of burden and for meat and fiber production. Alpacas are also bred mainly for their fiber (wool). Just like with sheep, cows and pigs, there are different breeds of alpacas and llamas, each with their own color.

Herds of these animals range from the Atacama desert region, through the high plateaus of the Andes Mountains and down into Tierra Del Fuego.

Answer: Eyas

A tricky one! A baby hawk or falcon is called an eyas (sometimes spelt eyass). It is pronounced 'eye-ass'. These babies are also commonly called 'chicks', like other birds. Hawks and falcons are raptors, meaning they are birds of prey. Raptor comes from the Latin word rapere, meaning 'to seize or take by force'.

But not every raptor baby is called an eyas. A baby eagle is an eaglet for example. The unusual word 'eyas' came about from a mistake! In the 15th century, misinterpretation of the French "a neias" (fresh from the nest), became "an eias" and then "an eyas".

Answer: Puggle

A platypus is one of just two animals (the other is the echidna) that are monotremes. Both are native to Australia. A monotreme is a very unusual mammal because it lays eggs rather than giving birth to live young. The use of 'puggle' for a baby platypus came from using this name for the other baby monotremes (the four species of echidnas).

The platypus puggle hatches from the egg and then crawls onto the mother to get milk. Unlike the echidna the platypus does not have a pouch, nor does it have nipples.

The milk seeps through the fur from mammary glands. With its duck-like bill, no wonder scientists thought that the first specimens taken overseas from Australia were hoaxes. How could an animal possibly look and function like that! It is believed that baby platypuses (sometimes, but not strictly correctly called platypi) and baby echidnas are called puggles because they 'pug' (or poke around) looking for the milk in their mother's fur.

Answer: Calf

Cows are pregnant for around 40-41 weeks before giving birth to their babies, called calves. Typically only one calf is born each time. For the first few days of a calf's life, it drinks 'special' milk, called colostrum, from its mother (the same as human babies do).

This colostrum is highly enriched in nutrients, antibodies (to fight infections), vitamins, carbohydrates, fats and minerals, all required to ensure the baby calf has the best possible start to a healthy life. The word calf (and plural, calves) refers to a baby of a wide range of animals including cattle, giraffes, whales, buffaloes, elephants, hippos, rhinos, yaks, moose, manatees and antelopes (and several other mammals too).

Answer: Cygnet

Hans Christian Andersen wrote a fairytale called 'The Ugly Duckling', about a baby bird who looked different to the other ducklings. Why? Because it turned out this duckling was actually a cygnet - a baby swan! Swans are related to geese and ducks as they are all in the same biological family (Anatidae).

The female swan (called a pen) usually lays up to seven eggs in a clutch (the name for a group of eggs). Both the mother and the father (a cob) share the incubation of the eggs, which takes about 7 weeks before hatching.

The baby cygnets will usually stay with the family group until they are able to fly confidently, which usually happens at the age of around four to five months old. They typically remain within the larger flock of swans until they are fully mature (around 4 years old) when they move away, especially to find a mate. Swans usually mate for life, and will have several clutches of eggs.

The size of the clutch, hence the number of cygnets born, decreases as the pen gets older.

Answer: Hatchling

A hatchling is a baby that has just emerged from its shell. Hence this word applies to a wide range of animals from crocodiles and alligators to turtles, some fish species and birds. Mother crocodiles fiercely guard their eggs, which may be laid in clutches of anywhere from 7-95 eggs in either holes dug in the sand (more common) or in nests.

The sex of the hatchlings depends on the incubation temperature of the eggs; for most crocodile species, warmer temperatures favor males and cooler temperatures favor females. Even before leaving the egg, the hatchling can call out to its mother, and that way she knows hatching is imminent and can assist by uncovering the eggs, and even gently rolling them around to assist the hatching process.

The hatchlings usually grow quickly but remain with the mother for at least a year.

When young, the mother will carry the hatchlings around in her mouth and help them to swim and feed.

Answer: Joey

The babies of all Australian marsupials are called joeys. This includes kangaroos, wombats, wallabies and Tasmanian devils. Australia has about 2/3 of the world's marsupials, with one in North America (the opossum) and the rest in South America. Marsupials are one of three types of mammals, the other two being monotremes (see the question in this quiz!) and 'placentals', where the growing baby is supplied with food within the mother's womb through the placenta.

The word marsupial means 'abdominal pouch'. Marsupials have an extra bone called an epipubic bone, which helps support the pouch.

After conception, baby koalas venture out of the mother at 5 weeks of age to find the pouch. They are extremely small at this age, typically only 2 cm (less than 1 inch) long and many body parts are not yet developed.

They do have fore-arms that allow them to crawl over the mother's fur to find the pouch where they will then remain for the next six months or so. The pouch contains teats for the joey to suckle. During this period, the joey will start venturing out of the pouch and will eventually spend a lot of time clinging to its mother's back.

They joey stays with its mother until about one year old when it will then venture out on its own.

Answer: Kit

A baby fox is called a kit, a short form of kitten, with kitten mostly used when referring to baby cats. A female fox is a vixen while the male fox is known as a tod, a reynard or a dog (which is rather confusing!). Fox kits are born after a gestation period of 7 to 10 weeks depending on the species, with the mother typically having a litter of 4-6 kits. In addition to kit, baby foxes are sometimes called cubs. Foxes are native to most countries of the world except Australia and Antarctica. Foxes typically have pointed ears, a rather flattened head and a bushy tail. The fox is a very efficient hunter of smaller game which can include farm animals (especially poultry and lambs), setting up an antagonistic relationship with farmers as well as posing threats to native animal populations. Foxes are omnivorous, so will also eat insects, eggs and vegetation. Foxes are extremely adaptable and are now found living in significant numbers in urban areas too.

Other baby animals called kits include badgers, weasels, squirrels and rabbits but not hares (a baby hare is also called a leveret).

Answer: Pup

Shark reproduction is fascinating and varies a lot between different shark species. Some sharks give birth to live young pups that develop in a similar way to mammals (including us!). Examples using this 'viviparous' behavior include the lemon shark and the hammerhead shark.

Other sharks lay eggs (oviparous behavior), similar to some fish and birds. These eggs are sometimes called 'mermaid's purses' and contain an egg yolk for sustenance of the growing pup, and the 'shells' can occasionally be found on beaches. Examples include the zebra Shark and the Port Jackson shark. Finally, other sharks, including the great white shark, use a combination of both methods! Eggs are fertilized by the male and grow inside the female's womb.

The eggs then hatch within the womb and much later, live baby pups are born. Gestation can be as long as a year for great white sharks, so longer even than humans.

This very unusual behavior is called ovoviviparity (meaning birthing using both eggs and live young).