Yes, They're After You Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

If it's a domestic animal, the first thing to do is find out about it. If the owner or guardian is available, ask if it is okay to approach and pet the animal, and if not, back off. Many animals do not like the direct approach and looking them in the eye is often taken as a challenge. An extended hand may appear as a weapon or an offering of food.

If it's a wild animal, your best behavior is to give it a wide berth and avoid eye contact unless you happen to be an expert with the knowledge and tools to interact correctly.
Animals have protocol and hierarchy when meeting, and the safest thing for humans is to observe it. Otherwise it may go after you.

Answer: Alpha male

He will be the most confident member of the pack and other males will show subservience to him with submissive behavior such as belly crawling or lying down to expose the vulnerable underside. Young upstarts will quickly be put in their place by a nip or a growl. As the alpha male gets preferential treatment, he is generally the only one to mate, and his litter is raised and protected by the pack.

In declining years and with failing health, the leader will be challenged by a younger, stronger male and if he does not survive the contest he will crawl away to die. This is considered to be natural selection in nature and ensures survival of the fittest. That new male may be more dangerous than the old one as he yet has to prove his ability as a leader, so don't let him go after you!

Answer: Hippo

Although all can easily kill a human, the hippo is usually more feared because of its ability to attack as proficiently on land as in water, with running speeds of around 20 mph on land. In spite of its great size, the hippo is quite agile on its feet, as well as being fiercely territorial in its water range. It can easily overturn a boatload of men up and out of the water or chase its prey down on land. The hippo is able to open its mouth to almost a 180 degree angle, which is a formidable entry to its digestive tract. About 150 deaths a year are attributed to hippos.

The Cape buffalo is also considered extremely dangerous on land. It weighs in at about 1500 pounds, and has strong curved horns. It is also usually in a herd. The elephant tends to avoid humans or ignore them unless it has been trained and cared for by one, such as a mahout. Some elephants take much abuse because they are thought to be almost invulnerable, but when struck behind the ears or other tender spots an elephant will sometimes turn rogue and lose its temper running down anything and anyone in its path. Elephants account for about 300 to 500 deaths a year worldwide. The African elephant is considerably larger than the Indian.

The rhino, is also best left alone as most are considered endangered and all can be dangerous when annoyed. Did we forget the lion? The lion sleeps tonight. The Big Cats, in all, account for about 800 deaths worldwide every year. You probably can't outrun a cheetah, in fact you wouldn't want any peckish ferocious feline going after you.

Answer: Poison dart frog

Poison dart frogs are intensely colored with very vivid hues, but the slimy neurotoxin on their skin is strong enough to kill ten grown men. So, take a picture, take a gander but don't touch it! This toxin is used by natives to coat their darts, which are usually shot out of a blowgun, and death to the victim is rapid.

The frog is highly unlikely to chase you or even be capable of catching you, but you have to be careful not to inadvertently touch it.

Answer: Spectacled cobra

Any of these snakes can kill, but the spectacled cobra has more opportunity than the others as it lives in populated areas, has very large fangs, delivers a high amount of venom (a neuro/cyto toxin), and can cause death within an hour. Many thousands of people are killed every year from these snakes.

The Eastern green mamba is a smaller and less aggressive snake, has less toxin, and is arboreal. The boomslang is shy of people, has a slower-acting hemotoxin, which may take as long as 24 hours to attack the circulatory system and then produces bleeding from all orifices.
The blue coral snake is unique in that there has so far been no known antivenom developed for its bite. It also has the longest venom glands of all snakes. But, this lovely creature is rare, so bites are infrequent.

Remember, all snakes can bite, whether or not they're venomous, and some of the extremely large snakes are constrictors who squeeze the life out of their prey - crocodiles, deer, some so large that when swallowed they often kill the snake because of punctures from their horns, hooves, bones or teeth. Constrictors must remain dormant while their digestive fluids dissolve the meal, so they are very vulnerable at that stage. Leave snakes alone. They rid the earth of large amounts of vermin that are far more dangerous to humans, and seldom invade homes. All continents but Antarctica have snakes.

Answer: Quick generation turnover

Rats require the same care that all other animals do. They are fairly inexpensive compared to larger animals, but they are excellent for use in genetic studies because they reproduce so rapidly. Rats die from several diseases and carry fleas that carry even more. For many years they were blamed for the outbreaks of bubonic plague, but because of the enormous death rate in humans, some scientists now believe it was not solely rats that carried the flea-borne plague. Humans often had fleas and they were able to get to places that rats could not, so it is entirely possible that some plague victims were infected by other humans.

The most common rats are the black rat and the brown rat. Ships carried many rats in their holds and cargo which allowed generations of migrant rats to spread disease to new areas of land. Rats can carry and transmit Lassa fever, Hanta virus, and Leptosporosis, among other deadly viruses. These are serious level four diseases, and do not all have treatment readily available.

In India, a phenomenon has been noted that armies of bamboo rats are prepared to spring up at the end of the bamboo life cycle, about every fifty years, and eat and reproduce voraciously, destroying everything in their way.

Answer: Rhinoceros

The hippo is not on the Big Five list, nor is it endangered. Of the Big Five: those endangered are lions, bush elephants, and leopards; black rhinos are extinct in some areas and may not be hunted anywhere, as the few remaining ones are critically endangered. Programs to introduce or reintroduce some species have showed promise, as with the white rhino. The Cape buffalo is listed as 'of least concern'. It is also considered one of the most dangerous animals to hunt, has never been domesticated, and is considered to have a nasty and unpredictable temper. The long curved horns of the adult buffalo are about three feet across from tip to tip and are formidable. The hooves are also used in fighting. The local nicknames for these huge bovines are 'Black Death' and 'Widowmaker'.

Many formerly acceptable hunting methods are no longer considered ethical by the Safari Club International. Former methods include baiting, hounding, drugging, and night hunting with electric light. A license is required for all hunting now and the most difficult to get is for leopard, probably also the most elusive prey because of size and secretive habits.

Bloodhounds and ridgebacks were used to hunt down the animal till it was exhausted and climbed a tree to be safe. The hunter would then come after the dogs and kill it in the tree. This is no longer considered sporting, not that it ever was.

Answer: Lip shape

Neither one is completely black or white. In fact, the word white, similar to the Afrikaans for 'wide', is an indication of the shape of the upper lip. The black rhino has a hooked upper lip, while the white has a wider square one. Rhino color varies from shades of grey to brown. The horns are formed of keratin, and some rhinos have a protuberant front horn with another one half that size behind it, and occasionally a third small one. Unfortunately for the rhino, it is his horn that is considered a medicinal or aphrodisiac and the rhino has been hunted to extinction and near extinction in many areas of Africa just for that. Of the eight subspecies of rhino three are extinct, one may have a single living member (in Botswana); in Uganda they are probably extinct except for those living in the Kenyan reserves.

Rhinos have poor eyesight but keen hearing, especially with ears that can rotate toward sound. Rhinos were thought to have a symbiotic relationship with oxpeckers and egrets, the birds that eat mites and ticks off the rhino hide, but a fairly new theory suggests that the oxpecker also takes blood from the rhino.

Answer: Yes

Vampire bats are just one species but they have three subspecies: common vampire bat, hairy-legged vampire bat and white-winged vampire bat. They inhabit regions from Mexico to most of South America. Bats have infrared radiation to locate hotspots of blood on potential donors, somewhat like boas, pythons and pit vipers sensing heat. Being nocturnal feeders, bats will often drink from any warm blooded animal; the common vampire bat has thermoreceptors in its nose and usually goes for cattle or other large mammals. They usually feed while the donor is asleep and seldom cause any pain.

A female bat weighing 40 grams may drink as much as 20 grams of blood (about one ounce) in 20 minutes, and then have to launch herself into the air again because of the added weight. Humans are seldom bitten, but there have been cases, and in the rare bat that carries rabies (about 0.5% of vampire bats), it may be transmitted to the victim. Rabies has no known cure. Bat saliva is being studied for medicinal use in creating an anticoagulant for stroke victims.

Answer: Mosquito

None of the above is a pleasant visitor, but most of us know the call of the wild mosquito. There are many types, and though only the females bite both genders buzz. They are responsible for 2 to 5 million deaths a year worldwide, and, yes, they do go after you. Among the many diseases they carry are malaria, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, at least five types of encephalitis, both East and West Nile virus which also affects horses and birds, yellow fever, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, chikunynuga, epidemic polyarthritis, and elephantiasis which causes disfiguring and affects about forty million people a year. Some diseases, such as dengue fever, have migrated from Africa to areas near the Texas-Mexico border. So when you hear that familiar buzz approaching you, use whatever means necessary to prevent being bitten. They are after you. And if anyone tells you not to scratch, nod vigorously in agreement and then tear into that mosquito bite as soon as you're alone. Seriously, clean the bite with peroxide and try really, really hard not to scratch. Mosquitoes don't just draw blood, they inject anticoagulants that cause itching.

Flies are almost as bad as mosquitoes and without eradication, we would probably be knee-deep in them. Flies live on filth and carry it around with them. So swat them, spray them but don't handle them. The exception is the beautiful and beneficial dragonfly which eats other insects and does no harm to other animals.