Fun Trivia » Animals » Animals by Region » Africa

The web-footed tenrec (Microgale mergulus) is a mammal of about 25 to 40 cm, with bristly fur (especially when wet). Different photos indicate that the fur is dark-grey to black on the back, with a lighter (sometimes bright yellow) belly. The webbed hind feet allow it to hunt in the rivers or streams of the eastern part of Madagascar, where it hunts at night on aquatic insects and their larvae (such as dragonflies), crayfish and small fish or small frogs. The front feet display sharp claws to assist in the hunting and killing of prey. When swimming, the long tail is used as a rudder. Web-footed tenrecs locate their prey by using their long whiskers: they detect even the smallest vibrations a possible prey causes in the water. Their senses of sight and hearing are less developed.

Because the web-footed tenrec has a quite small habitat, the species is classified as "vulnerable". The main threat is water pollution.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

High branches of treetops, Desert plains, Deep sea

Sahara means desert, or Greatest Desert, so there is no need to call it the Sahara desert, as that means desert desert. Sahara camels (Arabian camels) are one-hump dromedaries native to Northern Africa and the Middle East. Although nearly all camels are now domesticated and human-fed, wild camels must search vast areas for bits of twig, leaves, plant stems or tumbleweed. Because of their tough, thick lips, and a hard palate inside the mouth, these herbivores can eat the "saltbush" and even thorny plants, including spiky cacti, that other animals cannot. The camel's upper lip is split, so that each half can move independently, grabbing at short grass like fingers. They can also sit comfortably on hot sand owing to their thick skin. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Superior eyesight, A flattened nose, Pointed teeth

Firefinches are endemic to most regions of sub-Saharan Africa and are generally small birds with a mix of bright red, brown and black plumage. The red-billed firefinch is one of the most common species and despite also being known as the Senegal firefinch, it can be found across western, eastern and southern Africa. There are 11 species of firefinch in total, the others not mentioned in the question being the African, bar-breasted, black-bellied, brown, Jameson's and Landana. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Munias, Crimsonwings, Seedcrackers

The most abundant of the rhinoceros, the southern white rhinoceros makes it home in the KwaZulu-Natal parks of South Africa. They have two horns and very little body hair. This animal breeds readily in zoos as well as in the wild. The other three animals are found in Egypt. Difficulty: Average.

 

Pallid gerbil, Aoudad, Dorcas gazelle

The oryx favors the dry plains of Namibia. These large gazelles are hunted by lions, hyenas and African wild dogs. They are not hunted by cheetahs or leopards because of their size. These herbivorous mammals are decreasing in number due to habitat loss and hunting. Their long horns are sought by local tribesman as charms. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Desert, Jungle, Wetlands

The aardwolf has a hyena-like appearance, but is much smaller than a hyena. It has dark vertical stripes and long pointed ears.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Carrion, Small mammals and birds, Antelope

The name 'leopard' came from the mistaken belief that they were a hybrid between a lion and a panther. A recessive gene causes melanism in some leopards, which people call panthers, but they are really just black leopards. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Lion, Cheetah, Ocelot

In the language of the Masai people, Serengeti means 'endless plain'. The Serengeti stretches for endless miles across the East African landscape. A world where over two million animals play out a daily drama of life and death. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Wild Animals, God's creature, Spaghetti

The order of the Sirenia includes three species of manatees and the dugong. Manatees live in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean (the West Indian manatee), on the west coast of Africa (African manatee) or in the Amazon basin (Amazonian manatee), while the dugong lives in the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. Madagascar is only one of the almost 40 countries where dugongs can be found.

Dugongs have quite large, almost cylindrical-shaped, bodies, typically 3m long and weighing about 420 kg. Females are usually slightly larger than males. The front paws have evolved to short flippers, while they lack hind flippers. Their tail is a large horizontal fluke.

They feed on seagrass in the coastal areas of their habitat, which they typically graze on a depth of 10m. There is evidence that dugongs can dive to 37m to get to more protected beds of sea grass. Occasionally they also ingest algae or even small shellfish.

Contrary to the belief that all manatees need to dwell at least part of their lives in freshwater, the dugongs live at sea and rarely come to feed in the brackish estuaries.

Although the dugong has very few natural enemies and thus can reach a quite long lifespan, the status of the dugong is vulnerable. Their rate of procreation is rather low, and the pollution of their coastal habitat poses a risk.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Large game, Eucalyptus, Bird eggs

The pale and deceptively fragile-looking deathstalker scorpion (Leiurus quinquestriatus) is of the class Arachnida--that of spiders, ticks, mites and some crabs. The most poisonous scorpion on earth, a deathstalker injects neurotoxins that cause excruciating pain in humans, though a healthy adult often survives. Those who die succumb to respiratory failure.

Hunting in the dark to conceal and ambush, these bad-tempered scorpions like live food such as earthworms, centipedes, crickets, ants, beetles and each other. They often grab and crush parts of prey with pincers. They have pairs of eyes on the sides of the head as well as on top. Despite this they don't see well, using touch organs near the legs to sense prey.

Increasingly people keep them as pets, though in many places that is illegal. I saw an advertisement selling a deathstalker for $70.00, but you must first sign a waiver saying you realize it's "potentially lethal". In the USA and other countries the antidote is not approved for the public, and therefore is not available. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Mammalia, Reptilia, Aves

The suni is a type of small antelope. Only the males have horns and both sexes have dark ringed eyes. They rarely drink, getting all their water from their herbivorous diet. This is one of South Africa's animals that are not threatened. Difficulty: Average.

 

Tortoise, Wild cat, Large rodent

Warthogs live in family groups that are made of related females and their children. A herd of ten or more warthogs is called a sounder. These omnivores are found all over Namibia providing local carnivores with food. They also tear up the ground with their digging enabling it to soak up rainwater. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Ram, Clamshower, Woof

Aardvark means "earth pig" in Afrikaans. It has a distinctive shape, having a long narrow snout and short legs, with strong claws. They use these claws to dig into anthills and termite mounds, and then use their long tongues to penetrate further. Their very sticky saliva enables them to capture insects on their tongues, before pulling them back to eat their meal. Difficulty: Very Easy.

 

Grass, Antelope, Small mammals (rats and mice)

Bushbabies have large forward facing eyes, and large thin ears. They make a unnerving, loud, shrill cry which sounds very much like a human baby. The two types found in South Africa are the thick-tailed bushbaby and the Southern lesser bushbaby.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

The western Cape coast, The semi-desert areas, The Drakensburg mountains

Bushbucks are small antelope, commonly standing only two to three feet tall at the shoulder. They are great jumpers, able to jump on average at least twice their height, and they enjoy swimming. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Madagascar, Northern Africa, only in the Sahara desert

It is called lilytrotter because of its ability to walk over waterlilies and other aquatic plants using its very long toes. It is also called "Jesus bird" because it appears as if it is walking on the surface of the water. The strange thing about this extraordinary bird is that the female mates with up to four different males and then the males incubate the egss when they are hatched. The best place to see an African jacana is in the Okavango region of Botswana. Difficulty: Hard.

 

froghopper, thunderflyer, wormdigger

Warthogs enter their burrows backwards so that they can use their tusks to defend themselves when attacked or to run out quickly and flee. Usually warthogs live in disused aardvark burrows or burrows dug beneath termite mounds. Difficulty: Easy.

 

sideways, by jumping in them, by digging a new entrance each time

Giraffes are the tallest living mammal. They are able to go for over a month without drinking water if necessary, as an adaptation to the drought-prone areas where they live. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Thompson's Gazelle, Antelope, Zebra

Elephant skin lacks sweat glands, therefore body heat is released by other means. Elephants stay cool by flapping their ears. Blood entering the heavily veined ear is cooled by breezes caused by flapping and return to the body 9 degrees cooler.When elephants arrive at a water hole they will often wet their ears before they drink. Difficulty: Easy.

 

By sweating, By opening its mouth, By drinking a cold one

The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) was quite difficult to classify. It finally ended up in the order of the primates and the superfamily of the lemurs. The aye-aye is about 90cm long, including the tail (which is longer than the actual body). The most striking part of its appearance is not the very long tail of the aye-aye, but its very long fingers. The front paws typically have a thin third finger and an extremely long fourth finger (even longer than the third finger). Aye-ayes are omnivores feeding on fruit, fungi and insect larvae, and they prefer insect grubs that live under the bark of a tree.

The aye-aye has a habit of tapping wood with its third finger to locate worms and grubs living under the bark. As soon as the aye-aye has located some grubs, it gnaws through the bark using its long incisor teeth, and then grabs the grubs with its fourth finger. Aye-ayes spend most of their time in the trees, and come down to the ground only rarely.

In my opinion the appearance of an aye-aye has influenced the artwork on the movie character "E.T".

The other options are also primates, but do not have any tail, nor do they live in Madagascar. Pottos live in the western part of mainland Africa, the red slender loris can only be found in the wild on Sri Lanka, and the orangutan is native to Indonesia (more specifically the islands of Borneo and Sumatra).
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Potto, Red slender loris, Orangutan

Porcupines are large rodents with a coat of sharp spines or quills. Their name comes from the concatenation of the Latin for pig and spine (porcus + spina). The spines are actually modified hair coated with keratin (as are fingernails). They are used as defence against predators. The initial prick may be enough to deter the predator, but then the backward-facing barbs on the quills act like anchors and make it more painful to remove a quill that has struck into the skin. It is not true that they can "fire" their quills but can drop them on contact and more will grow back.
Although porcupines exist in both Africa and America and look similar, the two groups are not closely related. They are not related to similar prickly animals such as the hedgehog or echidna.
The aardvark, armadillo and pangolin are also nocturnal insect eaters, but have no spines. Difficulty: Very Easy.

 

Aardvark, Armadillo, Pangolin

The civet looks like a bandit, with a white muzzle, light grey forehead, and a black horizontal band between the forehead and muzzle, covering the eye area. They are about the size of a medium-sized dog, and are related to mongooses and genets. They are solitary animals or found in pairs, and can be found in Africa and Asia.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Civets are members of the cat family, Civets are similar in size to a mongoose, Civets live in Australia

The black mamba is the longest venomous snake in Africa and can reach up to 3.5 metres in length. It a much feared snake, mostly because of its exceptional speed. It is not black, as the name suggests, but has a grey-brownish colour. Another remarkable ability of this snake is that it can rear up the front third of its body almost to shoulder height. The venom is neurotoxic and causes death through paralysis unless treated immediately. Difficulty: Hard.

 

black, white, dark green

A male lion will sometimes kill the cubs so that the females will come back into oestrus and mate with him. He never lets anyone eat before him, although he does help the pride to bring down a larger prey but that doesn't have anything to do with establishing authority. Lions first topple their prey and then close their jaws over the muzzle or the windpipe. As a consequence the animal chokes to death. This does not happen however when it comes to smaller prey like baboons. However, lions are often killed or badly injured when hunting animals like buffaloes and giraffes. Difficulty: Easy.

 

he kills the lionesses, he lets the other members of the pride eat first, he hunts together with the pride

Tarzan's chimp was named 'Cheetah'! There are more than 200 living species of primates. Chimpanzees weigh about 5 pounds at birth and can live to around 40 years of age. Difficulty: Average.

 

Giraffe, Rhino, Baboon

There are two species of voalavo: the eastern voalavo (Voalavo antsahabensis) and the northern voalavo (Voalavo gymnocaudus). Both are rodents endemic to Madagascar and have a mousy appearance.

The eastern voalavo lives in the central highlands of Madagascar. It has a body length of about 9 cm and a tail length of about 10-11 cm. As its habitat is subject to the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture (even though it is a protected region), the eastern voalavo is listed as endangered.

More to the northern tip of Madagascar lives the northern voalavo. Its appearance is quite similar, although its tail might be slightly longer than the eastern voalavo's. The northern voalavo's tail is hairless, while the eastern voalavo's tail is furry. The northern voalavo is listed as least concern for extinction, because its habitat is quite efficiently protected.

Lagomorphs are hares and rabbits. They typically have very short tails.

Cingulates are the armoured mammals such as armadillos. Their habitat is limited to South-America. Bats have wings but almost no tails.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Lagomorphs , Bats, Cingulates

Fabulous for insect control, fertilization and spreading seeds, dung beetles ("turd weevils") have special mouth parts designed to extract essential moisture and nutrients from animal droppings, affectionately called poop. These beetles are picky eaters, consuming only plant-eating animal excrement, preferably fresh. Able to navigate by the sun and stars, special dung beetles called "rollers" skillfully roll balls of dung up to 50 times their weight in a perfectly straight line, often coordinating as a team. Ancient Egyptians recognized their amazing ability to navigate, and honored them as sacred. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Eggs, Sand fleas, Cacti

The civet was for many years called a civet cat but is not a cat at all. The civet has markings similar to a raccoon - black and white markings on their fur and grey face, and a black band around their eyes. They are solitary and highly territorial animals, marking their boundaries with the scent released by their perineal glands. This scent musk has been used in the manufacturing of perfumes for centuries but is now mostly replaced by synthetic scents. Each animal can secrete up to 4g of musk every week.
The caracal and serval are African cats, both of which are generally nocturnal.
The ocelot is a South American small cat.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Caracal, Serval, Ocelot

Dassies look like rodents, but their evolution lies in the same branch as elephants and dugongs. The other name for dassie is hyrax.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Squirrel, Giraffe, Porcupine

The two categories are the bush duiker (genus: Sylvicapra) and the forest duiker (genus: Cephalophus). Interestingly, the bush duiker is represented by only one species, all the rest of the species are forest dwelling. Difficulty: Hard.

 

savanna duiker and rain-forest duiker, swampland duiker and forest duiker, desert duiker and rain-forest duiker

The horned adder is quite small and often conceals itself in the sand or under rocks to ambush its prey. Difficulty: Hard.

 

a horn of skin projects above the tip of the head, its backbone is lined with horns, a horn of skin projects under the head

African Grey Parrots are highly intelligent and as a domestic pet are the most prolific 'talkers'. All of the other birds mentioned are not African. Difficulty: Average.

 

Budgerigar, Mynah, Cockatiel

The oversized eyes, set to the sides of the head, provide full wide-angle vision for the antelopes. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Brown eyed, British eyed, Buck eyed

The name indicates the correct answer. The western sucker-footed bat (Myzopoda schliemanni) lives only in the (north)western part of Madagascar, while its closest relative, the Madagascan sucker-footed bat (Myzopoda aurita), lives on almost the entire east coast.

Sucker-footed bats differ from other species of bats by the presence of small cuplike knobs on their wrists and ankle. These serve to expel a sticky liquid, which they use to roost within the leaves of the traveller's tree, a Madagascan relative to the South-African strelitzia. Because of this peculiar way of roosting, sucker-footed bats are accustomed to sleep with their heads up, unlike the other bats who usually sleep upside-down.

The diet of the Madagascan sucker-footed bat is not well documented. The western sucker-footed bat thrives on a diet of butterflies and moths, with cockroaches for variation and, rarely, a wasp, bee or beetle. Both species of sucker-footed bat are listed as least concern.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

East, South, Centre

The caracal (Persian or desert lynx) is a strikingly beautiful medium-sized wildcat, found in the Sahara outskirts. Caracal is Turkish, meaning "black ear". They have long thrived in the Middle East, Central Asia and India, and were once tamed for use as bird hunters. They can live indefinitely without water, utilizing liquids from their prey and excreting only highly concentrated drops of urine, and with specialized stiff hairs on their foot pads that make it easier to walk on sand.

Supreme hunters, agile and fierce, they'll eat monkeys and antelopes, rodents and gazelles, and have an astounding jumping skill to take down birds. They also eat reptiles, insects and plants. Although some call it a lynx, there are strong genetic differences. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Kangaroo, Komodo dragon, Desert crocodile

The impala, Aepyceros melampus, is found around the woodlands of eastern and southern Africa and is noted for the distinctive way it leaps to avoid or confuse predators. One approach it uses is leaping up to three metres (10 feet) into the air, while the other is a complex series of lower jumps while kicking out with its hind legs.

The incorrect options are all species of antelope - the bongo is also a type of van produced by both Kia and Mazda; the Singer Gazelle was a British car produced between 1956 and 1970; and Lotus make a sports car called an Elan... Difficulty: Hard.

 

Eland, Bongo, Gazelle

This animal has excellent hearing and smell but very poor vision. They avoid predators with their speed and the use of zig-zag running. Very few predators attempt to prey on these large antelope. These animals are grass eaters and do not drink a lot.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Hearing, Taste, Smell

Bushbabies are very cute and at night they are most easily spotted due to the reflection from their large eyes. They leap within and between trees using their strong hind limbs, and keep their balance by moving their long tails. They eat insects, using large ears to find them on the trees and can also grab them out of the air. For their size they have a loud and distinctive call. Camping close to a family is not a good idea. There are several species, usually grouped by size into greater, lesser and dwarf, and can be found across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Chimpanzees do leap around the trees during the day but at night they bed down in nests which they build from leaves and sleep until dawn.
The sportive lemur is found in trees at night, but only in Madagascar.

Difficulty: Easy.

 

Chimpanzee, Pangolin, Sportive lemur

Large matriarchal herds will split to former smaller herds, which still associate with each other, and remain in the same area. These meetings are like family gatherings. Occasionally they will come together in a large group numbering several hundreds, but family groups still retain their identity, and eventually move off on their own.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

They will try to chase the other herd off, They will ignore the other herd, while moving away, This does not happen. Only male herds travel, matriarchal herds remain in defined areas

Diurnal means that it is active during the daytime and sleeps at night, like most people. Nocturnal animals sleep all day and are active during the night, and crepuscular animals are most active in the times the sun is near the horizon, namely at dusk and dawn. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Nocturnal, Crepuscular, Extinct