Trivia time: 20 questions on animals!

Welcome to Trivia Thursday, Expat Living’s weekly 20-question quiz where you get the chance to test out your grey matter! How about challenging a friend or family member to see who gets the most questions right? You can get together with them over Zoom, Houseparty or Google Hangouts.

Each week, we’ll put together a new quiz, covering trivia topics relating to pop culture, geography, history, language and more. This one is all about animals!

Let’s start!

#1 What breed of dog is Scooby-Doo?

#2 What colour are the spots on a common ladybug or lady beetle? 

#3 What was the name of the sheep who, in 1996, became the first successfully cloned mammal from an adult cell?

#4 Which of the five senses do dolphins lack?

#5 Taurophobia is the fear of which animal?

#6 The offspring of a male tiger and a female lion is known as what? (Hint: it’s not a liger.)

#7 What animal’s name translates to “river horse”?

#8 Australia’s platypus and echidna are both members of which animal group starting with “m”?

#9 The animal you can see on the Firefox icon is a fox: true or false?

#10 Equine relates to horses; bovine relates to cows; what does ovine relate to?

#11 What’s the name for a baby beaver: buck, kit or brave?

#12 Which American state is the only place in the world where you can find both alligators and crocodiles?

#13 What animals hold each other’s paws when they sleep so they don’t float apart?

#14 What colour is a polar bear’s skin?

#15 What’s notable about the animal-themed sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog”?

#16 How many times a minute does a whale’s heart beat: 9 times, 28 times or once?

#17 What animal’s sound is “wang wang” in Chinese, “haw haw” in Arabic and “bau bau” in Italian?

#18 The so-called “Big Five” in Africa consists of the lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and what other animal? (Hint: it’s not another cat and it’s not a hippo.)

#19 What two animals make up a Merlion?

#20 What is the world’s deadliest animal?

BONUS: Who am I?

(If you can answer correctly after the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require to identify the person.)

I was born in England in 1934 (10 points).
A stuffed toy I received as a child helped inspire my animal-related career (9).
In my early 20s, I spent time in Kenya and Tanzania (8).
I then went on to study primatology (7).
My PhD thesis was based on five years of research at the Gombe Reserve (6).
People are often surprised when they hear that dogs are my favourite animal (5).
In 2002, I was named a UN Messenger of Peace (4).
I’m best known for my work with chimpanzees (3).
I am female (2).
I am Jane who? (1)

All the answers (no cheating!)

#1 Great Dane
#2 Black
#3 Dolly
#4 Smell
#5 Bull
#6 Tigon
#7 Hippopotamus
#8 Monotreme
#9 False, it’s a red panda
#10 Sheep
#11 Kit
#12 Florida
#13 Sea otters
#14 Black
#15 It contains all 26 letters of the alphabet
#16 Nine
#17 Dog
#18 Cape buffalo
#19 Lion and fish
#20 Mosquito

BONUS: Jane Goodall

Looking for something else to do? See our Things to Do section!

Shamus Sillar

While he has worked as a magazine editor since 2003, Shamus also has a PhD in Roman History (useful!) and is a published author. He writes mostly on travel but also covers food, history, sport, trivia and more, across Expat Living’s publications and websites in Singapore and Hong Kong.