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Animal Trivia Questions
Record holders, collective nouns and the biology that surprises people. Play the animal round, then read every question and answer below.
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Animal trivia is the friendliest round in any quiz, because everyone has a fact they are itching to use. The blue whale, the cheetah, the octopus — these come up so often that a good set has to go further, into narwhal teeth, koala fingerprints and which mammals lay eggs.
The questions below are split between record holders, collective nouns and biology that catches people out. Superlatives are the danger area: "fastest" and "largest" depend entirely on how you measure, so each question here specifies the terms. The cheetah is the fastest over a sprint, the peregrine falcon is fastest in a dive, and both answers are correct because the questions say which they mean.
Record holders: animal trivia questions
Which is the largest animal on Earth?
Answer: Blue whale EasyA blue whale can reach 30 metres and outweigh 30 elephants.Why?
Which is the fastest land animal over a short sprint?
Answer: Cheetah EasyIt can hit around 100 km/h but only holds it for about twenty seconds.Why?
Which is the tallest living land animal?
Answer: Giraffe EasyA bull giraffe can stand around 5.5 metres tall.Why?
Which is the largest land animal?
Answer: African elephant EasyBulls can weigh six tonnes or more.Why?
Which is the largest species of big cat?
Answer: Tiger EasySiberian tigers can exceed 300 kg.Why?
Which mammal has the longest pregnancy?
Answer: Elephant MediumAn elephant carries its calf for around 22 months.Why?
Which is the only bird able to fly backwards?
Answer: Hummingbird MediumIts wings rotate at the shoulder, tracing a figure of eight.Why?
Which animal has the largest eyes of any living creature?
Answer: Giant squid MediumThey can be the size of a dinner plate, for spotting predators in the dark.Why?
Which bird reaches over 300 km/h in a hunting dive?
Answer: Peregrine falcon MediumThat stoop makes it the fastest animal on the planet.Why?
Which is the largest species of shark?
Answer: Whale shark MediumIt grows past 12 metres and eats plankton, not swimmers.Why?
Which is the largest living reptile?
Answer: Saltwater crocodile MediumLarge males exceed six metres and can be found far out at sea.Why?
Which is the slowest-moving mammal?
Answer: Sloth HardIts low-energy leaf diet cannot support faster movement; tortoises are reptiles.Why?
Baby names and collectives: animal trivia questions
A baby kangaroo is called a what?
Answer: Joey EasyIt is born about the size of a jellybean and finishes developing in the pouch.
A group of lions is called a what?
Answer: Pride EasyLions are the only truly social big cats.
A group of fish swimming together is called a what?
Answer: School EasyA loose gathering is a shoal; a school is one moving in unison.
An adult female horse is called a what?
Answer: Mare MediumA filly is a young female; a colt is a young male.
A group of geese in flight is called a what?
Answer: Skein MediumOn the ground the same birds are a gaggle.
A group of rhinoceroses is known as a what?
Answer: Crash HardFitting for an animal that can charge at 50 km/h.
A baby rabbit is properly called a what?
Answer: Kit HardA leveret is a young hare, which is a different animal entirely.
A group of crocodiles basking together is called a what?
Answer: Bask HardA group in the water is instead called a float.
Birds, bugs and creepy-crawlies: animal trivia questions
How many legs does a spider have?
Answer: Eight EasyEight legs is what separates arachnids from six-legged insects.Why?
Which flightless bird lives in Antarctica?
Answer: Penguin EasyTheir wings evolved into flippers for swimming instead.Why?
Honey is produced by which insect?
Answer: Bees EasyWorkers reduce nectar's water content until it will not spoil.
Ornithology is the study of what?
Answer: Birds HardFrom the Greek ornis, meaning bird.
Which of these has blue blood, because it carries oxygen with copper rather than iron?
Answer: Horseshoe crab HardIts copper-based haemocyanin turns blue when oxygenated.
Tardigrades are better known by which nickname?
Answer: Water bears HardThe half-millimetre animals can survive boiling, freezing and even vacuum.
Beetles belong to which insect order?
Answer: Coleoptera HardThe name means sheath-wing, after their hardened forewings.
Body and biology: animal trivia questions
Which mammal is capable of true powered flight?
Answer: Bat EasyThe others glide; only bats flap and generate lift.Why?
What makes up almost the entire diet of a giant panda?
Answer: Bamboo EasyIt still has a carnivore's gut, so it must eat for many hours a day.Why?
Which reptile is famous for changing colour?
Answer: Chameleon EasyThe change signals mood and temperature as much as it hides them.Why?
Which animal has fingerprints so similar to ours that they can be confused at a crime scene?
Answer: Koala MediumKoala prints evolved separately but look almost identical under a lens.Why?
Which animal can sleep standing up by locking its leg joints?
Answer: Horse MediumThe stay apparatus holds the legs rigid with almost no muscle effort.Why?
A narwhal's long tusk is actually what?
Answer: An elongated tooth MediumIt is a canine tooth that grows out through the upper lip, packed with nerves.
The word "marsupial" refers to animals that do what?
Answer: Carry young in a pouch MediumYoung are born tiny and continue developing attached to a teat.
Which of these mammals lays eggs?
Answer: Platypus HardIt and the echidna are the only egg-laying mammals, called monotremes.
How many chambers does a bird's heart have?
Answer: Four HardLike mammals, birds fully separate oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.Why?
Which of these is shed and regrown every year?
Answer: Antlers HardAntlers are bone that drops off annually; horns are permanent.
Homelands and relatives: animal trivia questions
Koalas are native to which country?
Answer: Australia MediumThey are marsupials, not bears, despite the old nickname.
Which continent has no native snakes?
Answer: Antarctica MediumNo reptile can survive the Antarctic winter without shelter.Why?
The axolotl is native to which country?
Answer: Mexico HardIt survives in the wild only in the lake system around Mexico City.
The dodo lived on which island?
Answer: Mauritius HardIt was extinct within about a century of sailors reaching the island.
The okapi is most closely related to which animal?
Answer: Giraffe HardThe striped legs are camouflage; the long neck and tongue give the family away.
Answer key
- Blue whale
- Cheetah
- Eight
- Giraffe
- Joey
- Penguin
- African elephant
- Bat
- Bamboo
- Pride
- Tiger
- Chameleon
- Bees
- School
- Elephant
- Hummingbird
- Giant squid
- Mare
- Peregrine falcon
- Australia
- Whale shark
- Koala
- Skein
- Horse
- An elongated tooth
- Antarctica
- Saltwater crocodile
- Carry young in a pouch
- Birds
- Crash
- Horseshoe crab
- Mexico
- Platypus
- Sloth
- Water bears
- Four
- Kit
- Coleoptera
- Antlers
- Mauritius
- Giraffe
- Bask
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full animal list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
Tiebreaker questions
Closest guess wins. Read one out when two tables finish level.
In what year did Linnaeus publish the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, the starting point of zoological naming?
Answer: 1758 This is the edition in which Homo sapiens and thousands of other animals were formally named.
In what year was Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species first published?
Answer: 1859 The first print run of 1,250 copies sold out on the day it went on sale.
How many bones are in a giraffe's neck?
Answer: 7 bones The same seven cervical vertebrae as a human, each one stretched to around 25 centimetres.
Common mistakes in animal trivia
- Bats are blind.
All bats can see, and many fruit bats have excellent eyesight. Echolocation supplements vision in the dark rather than replacing it.
- Camels store water in their humps.
The hump is fat, a food reserve for lean times. Camels tolerate dehydration through their blood and kidneys, not through a water tank.
- Ostriches bury their heads in the sand.
They lower their heads to turn eggs or to lie flat and blend in. From a distance the head can look buried, which started the story.
- Touching a baby bird makes its mother reject it.
Most birds have a poor sense of smell and will keep feeding a chick that has been handled. Returning a fallen nestling to the nest is fine.
- Sharks must keep swimming or they die.
Some fast species do rely on forward motion to breathe, but nurse sharks and many others pump water over their gills while resting on the seabed.
Running this round at a quiz night
Animal rounds are popular because everyone has a pet or a favourite documentary, so expect confident wrong answers. Mix record holders with two collective nouns and a couple of biology questions, and save the creepy-crawlies for the end when teams are loosened up. Keep the pace brisk on easy questions and give a beat longer on the hard ones. Disputes come from superlatives: say "largest by weight" or "fastest over a sprint" when you read the question, and state that hybrids and extinct species do not count. Collective nouns have variants, so announce that the sheet is final. For tiebreakers use a fixed year or a count like neck bones, never a record that a new measurement could overturn.
Frequently asked questions
Are the animal collective nouns real?
They are real in the sense that they appear in established lists going back to medieval books of terms, and dictionaries record them. Many are literary rather than scientific, so biologists will happily just say "a group of rhinos".
Why do superlative questions sometimes have more than one right answer elsewhere?
Because "fastest" or "biggest" depends on the measure. A cheetah is fastest on land, a peregrine falcon fastest in a dive, and a sailfish fastest in water. Each question here states the measure so only one answer fits.
Which animal questions work best for children?
Use the easy fourteen. They cover famous animals and simple counts, need no background reading, and every answer comes with a one-line explanation that gives children something to repeat afterwards.
Not in a quiz mood?
The question games are a different kind of round: no right answers, just prompts you read out and argue about. Would You RatherNever Have I EverTruth or DareThis or That