Question 10: the correct answer is 22 months. Did you get it? Score 1 point.
Your round
Add up the points from the 10 answers.
Animals hold many surprises. Reread the explanations and try again another day.
You got the basics right. The classification and record questions are the ones that trip people up most.
You know the animal kingdom well. Only the hardest details slipped past you.
Almost everything right. It's worth reading the curiosities to discover even more.
Just for fun. The bands describe how this round went, not you.
Why, for question 10: How long, on average, does an African elephant's pregnancy last?
The answer is 22 months, almost two years. It is the longest gestation among land mammals. The calf is born weighing about 100 kilos and stands up shortly after birth.
A family led by females
Elephants live in family groups led by the eldest female, the matriarch. She remembers the route to water sources and feeding areas, and this experience helps the group get through droughts.
The calves are cared for not only by their mother but also by aunts, sisters and cousins. Elephants also communicate with sounds too low for the human ear to hear, which travel for kilometres.
The trunk is the nose and upper lip joined together, with tens of thousands of muscle bundles. With it the elephant breathes, smells, drinks, picks up small objects and even bathes in water or dust.
There are three elephant species: the African savanna elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. The ears help tell them apart: African ears are much larger and also serve to dissipate the body's heat.
What this quiz covered
Questions 1, 5, 7 and 9 were about records: the largest animal, the fastest on land, the largest bird and the largest cat in the Americas. For a record question, pay attention to the criterion, such as on land or at sea, top speed or long distance.
Questions 2, 3 and 6 were about classification. Knowing what defines a mammal, a bird or an insect resolves many doubts, even when the animal looks like something else at first glance, like the dolphin and the bat.
Questions 4, 8 and 10 were about the bodies and lives of animals: the octopus's three hearts, the giraffe's neck and the elephant's long pregnancy. Anyone who wants to go further will find more facts like these in the list of curiosities about animals.
Where this information comes from: National Geographic, Smithsonian and zoology textbooks; Live Science (octopus).
