Help! Whence Came Those Drooling Dogs? Quiz

Answer: Denali

Alaska is the home of Denali Mountain (previously known as Mount McKinley), the highest peak in the whole of the USA and even in North America. Denali reaches a peak at 6 190 m for the south summit. The north summit is considerably lower.
This mountain has always been named Denali ("The High One" or "Tall Mountain") in the local languages and dialects. From 1896 until 2015, it was named Mount McKinley in honour of the 1896 candidate for the US presidency. The first fully documented successful ascent was in 1913.
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the highest African peak, at 5 895 m. Aconcagua in Argentina has a summit at 6 960 m, and Kanchenjunga (the third highest peak on earth, in elevation from sea level) surpasses all previously mentioned mountains, reaching a summit of 8 586 m. Kanchenjunga is exactly on the border between India and Nepal.

Answer: Belgium

Belgium is a multilingual and multicultural country. The northern part (Flanders) has Dutch as official language, while the southern part (Wallonie) speaks officially French. But in the east there is also a small part that officially speaks German. And each of these linguistic different divisions has their own government.

The highest peaks in Belgium are in the Ardennes, which stretch over Wallonie and the German speaking region of Belgium. The Alps are nowhere near Belgium. Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein occupy most of the Alpine region, while parts are also in France, Italy, Germany, Monaco and Slovenia.

Answer: England

That's odd, that drooling dog is named the American Staffordshire but there is no Staffordshire in the United States of America. Some people can really drive quizzers (and their cats) barking mad.
The original Staffordshire is an English county in the West Midlands. It includes cities as Stoke-on-Trent (the county capital), Tamworth and Lichfield. Places of interest are the Lichfield Cathedral, the Wedgwood museum and Tamworth Castle.

Answer: Gironde

The Gironde is only 75 km long but on average 3 to 12 km wide. It is formed by the confluence of the Garonne (that flows to the north) and the Dordogne (that flows to the west). Directly southwest of the Garonne river lies the former province Gascogne, After the French Revolution, the provinces were abolished and instead came the departments, and Gascony was merged with most of the wine region near Bordeaux in the department Gironde. The Loire is the longest French river at a length of 1 012 km and is known for the many magnificent castles.

The Seine flows through the capital Paris and is about 777 km long. The Rhône starts in Switzerland and flows for about 545 km through the eastern part of France, turning to the south near Lyon.

Answer: Finsteraarhorn

Well, seeing the correct answer would give you the same sensation as a fully grown Bernese Mountain Dog greeting you: you'll be overwhelmed. Finsteraarhorn is the highest peak in the canton Bern, with a top reaching to 4 274 m. But the three other options are far better known: Jungfrau sits at 4 158 m; Mönch tips at just 4 107 m and Eiger reaches 3 967 m. All these 179 503 km² peaks can be found in the south-eastern part of the Swiss canton Bern, named the district Interlaken-Oberhasli.

Answer: Yes

This oxymoron can drive me barking mad: Chihuahua is the largest Mexican state, and home to the tiniest dog breed in the world. Imagine every state has the same volume of dogs, then Chihuahua is literally overcrowded by those pestering midgets. Mexico is divided in 32 federal states, of which Chihuahua is by far the largest.

At 247 455 km², it is slightly larger than the UK (including Northern Ireland). Chihuahua borders the three other larger states in Mexico: Sonora (179 503 km², which is slightly more than Uruguay) to the west, Coahuila (151 563 km², a bit more than Bangladesh) to the east, and Durango (123 451 km², comparable to North Korea) to the south.

Answer: Split

Dalmatia consists of four counties on the Adriatic shore. From north to south these are Zadar, Sibenik - Knin, Split - Dalmatia and Dubrovnik - Neretva, and each of these counties shares (the first part of) its name with the county capital. Rijeka lies further to the north, and is the county capital of Primorje-Gorski Kotar. Tourists can visit the Roman Forum in Zadar, the medieval fortresses Lovrijenac and Bokar in Dubrovnik, or Diocletian's Palace in Split.

The Roman Emperor Diocletian (who ruled between 284 and 305 AD) had ordered a vast palace to be built over there, and the palace now forms a larger part of the city of Split.

Answer: Belarus

The geographical centre of Europe can vary according to the method of calculation, but mostly by inclusion or exclusion of certain areas. First of all, do we limit Europe to the European Union or all countries which are geographically included in Europe (with the land borders in the Ural and in the southern part of the Caucasus mountains)? Second question: do we include overseas possessions such as French Polynesia, Greenland (a highly autonomous possession of Denmark) or Queen Maud Land (part of Antarctica claimed by Norway)?
Various studies have shown several possible centres of Europe: Suchowola in Poland, Krahule in Slovakia, Dilove in Ukraine, Eger in the Czech Republic, Girya in Lithuania or Saaremaa in Estonia. But one of the best candidates (according to calculations from 2000, quite later than the other suggestions) is Polotsk in Belarus.
When limiting the calculations to the European Union, each entry of new members (such as Croatia in 2013) or exit of existing members (such as the UK, that voted for exiting the European Union in 2016) relocated the geographic centre. The geographic centre of the European Union thus has shifted from France in 1987 to Germany in 2004.

Answer: Finland

Karelian Bear Dogs are known to hunt big animals such as moose and bears. If their owner frequently is around a cat, the dogs must be socialized not to attack the cat. The Karelian Bear Dog was named after the region Karelia. This region used to be part of Finland, but since the First World War most of Karelia is incorporated in Russia. A small part of Karelia still lies within the Finnish borders.
Canada is known for bears, but has no "bear"ing on Karelia. Neither has Japan. And Ethiopia is not a bear country at all.

Answer: Comino

Malta lies in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, about 50 km south of Sicily. Gozo lies to the northwest of the main island, and Comino (the smallest of the three islands) lies in between these.
Malta became a republic in 1974, after some centuries of British ownership. In 2004 Malta joined the European Union.
Lampedusa is a small Italian island, a bit to the southwest of Malta. Formentera is one of the Balearic islands and thus belongs to Spain. Patmos is one of the Dodecanese islands, a group of fifteen major Greek islands (although the name indicates "twelve" islands).