UK Mammals Trivia Quiz

Answer: Roe Deer

As roe deer don't require large areas of woodland, these deer are quite happy to frequent any green spaces in the city, usually at night. Cemeteries are proving popular haunts as there is a constant supply of fresh flowers to go with the grass. The deer are also found in several other cities and this can cause problems as The Deer Initiative estimate that up to 74,000 road traffic accidents are caused annually by the animals.

Answer: Wallaby

In 1970, two red necked wallabies escaped from Curraghs Wildlife Park and their population now numbers over 100. The UK also has populations of the red necked wallaby near Loch Lomond, as well as on Lambay Island and in Ashdown Forest. A walking club has also reported a pair of wallabies in a country park in Birmingham, but this has not been confirmed by authorities at the time of writing this quiz.

Answer: Pine Marten

It must be a heck of a good day/bad day scenario when you can confirm the animal is back after 40 years, but it's dead. Following this confirmation though, 20 pine martens were captured in Scotland and released in mid Wales in the hope of building a thriving community. Pine martens are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Answer: Yellow-Necked Mouse

Although the south of England is certainly not famed for its mountainous terrain, the yellow-necked mouse seems to also like established woodland and is an expert climber, feeding mainly on tree seeds, fruits and invertebrates. Their range extends across Dorset, Kent and Suffolk, and also parts of the Severn basin from Gloucestershire to Staffordshire.

The mouse takes its name from the complete band of yellow fur found across the neck area.

Answer: Red Fox

The red fox started colonising UK cities in the 1930s and by the 1940s there were considerable populations in Bristol, Cambridge, Norwich and London. By 2006, there were an estimated 10,000 red foxes in London, probably due to the many opportunities there are for scavenging food.

Answer: True

Grey seals are found all around the UK with large breeding colonies, especially on the east coast in places such as Donna Nook, Lincolnshire, which can have as many as 300 plus seals in November when the pups are born. The other type of seal found in UK waters is the smaller common seal.

Answer: Bat

The pipistrelle is the most common bat in the UK and is easily identified by its small size and short, wide ears. They are so small that a 13 millimetre (half inch) gap is all they need to gain access to a roosting spot, where they can live in large colonies. Bats are not aggressive, although they may bite if provoked, and they are invaluable to gardeners, with a single pipistrelle eating as many as 3,000 insects in a single night.

Answer: Scottish Wildcat

The Scottish wildcat is also known as the Highlands tiger and is slightly larger than a regular house cat. They were once common throughout England, Wales and the Scottish Lowlands but are now found only in northern Scotland. Many animal scientists are of the opinion that there are no pure Scottish wildcats left, due to their tendency to breed with domesticated cats, but a captive breeding programme has been started to rectify this, with all candidates having to pass strict genetic tests that show a minimum of hybridisation.

Answer: Harbour Porpoise

Harbour porpoises will often remain in the same general area and rarely stray too far, so one would hope that the survey figures are fairly accurate. The harbour porpoise is the one often seen on TV natural history programmes, commonly in rivers, miles from the sea.

The porpoises can be found in all shallow, relatively cold coastal seas, where they feed on mackerel and herring. Bottle nosed dolphins have been observed attacking porpoises off the coast of Scotland presumably in feeding disagreements, while grey seals will attack to eat the flesh of the porpoise, which has a high fat content.

Answer: Shrew

All shrews are active both day and night as they need to consume 200 to 300% of their body weight in food each day, eating every two to three hours just to survive.

Common shrews are found throughout the hedgerows, woodlands and grasslands of the UK while the pygmy shrew prefers undergrowth and leaf litter. The pygmy shrew is also the only shrew native to Ireland.

The water shrew lives close to fresh water, hunting aquatic prey in the water and while the greater and lesser white toothed shrews look very similar apart from size, the greater lives mainly in woodland while the lesser is more of a garden dweller and the only places it is found in UK is the Scilly Isles and the Channel Islands.