Fascinating Animals of the UK Seashores Quiz

Answer: Use a specialized tongue and a ridged upper jaw to lock fish in place

The Atlantic puffin (known as the "sea parrot" because of its brightly colored, triangular beak and black and white feathers) is one of the UK's most famous coastal birds. These small, endearing seabirds spend most of their lives out on the open ocean, but they return to British cliffs and islands every spring to nest in underground burrows. They are incredible swimmers, using their wings to practically fly underwater down to depths of 200 feet (60 m) to catch small fish like sand eels.

To hold all the fish as they fly back to the nest, the puffin uses its powerful, rough tongue to press that fish upward and backward against ridges on the upper jaw. Because the spines slant backward toward the throat, they act like little hooks that lock the slippery fish securely in place. This lets them hold onto the fish they've already caught while they open their beak underwater to catch even more.

Answer: Extremely sensitive whiskers to detect the underwater vibrations

The UK boasts roughly 40% of the entire world's population of grey seals. These large marine mammals are distinguished by their long, sloping profiles that give them the scientific name "hooked-nosed sea pig". They spend their time foraging in the chilly coastal waters for fish, squid, and crustaceans. While they are agile, powerful hunters that can dive for up to 20 minutes at a time, they frequently haul themselves onto rocky shores and sandy beaches to rest, digest their food, and shed their old fur.

A grey seal's whiskers are called vibrissae and are incredibly advanced. Each individual whisker has up to 1,500 nerve endings. They can detect the tiny wave (a kind of wake) left behind by a swimming fish up to several hundred feet (60 m) away, allowing a seal in black water to hunt just as successfully with clear visibility.

Answer: On rims on hundreds of suction cups on its arms

The common octopus is a visitor to the rocky reefs, kelp forests, and tidal pools of the UK's southern coastlines. They are skillful mimics who possess highly developed brains and an uncanny ability to instantly alter their skin color and texture to blend in perfectly with surrounding rocks and seaweed. As nocturnal predators, they hunt for crabs, lobsters, and bivalves, using their eight powerful arms to explore tight crevices before bringing prey back to a hidden underwater den.

An octopus literally tastes the world by touching it. The edges of their suckers are packed with highly sensitive chemoreceptors or taste buds. As they probe dark, narrow rock crevices along the coast, they can instantly taste whether a hidden object is a rock, a predator, or a delicious snack before they can even see it.

Answer: It has four distinct, horseshoe shaped rings right in the center

The moon jellyfish is the most common jellyfish found around the UK coastline, especially during the warm summer months. Easily recognized by their translucent, dome shaped bells, they feature four distinct, horseshoe-shaped markings in the center. These simple creatures have no brain, bones, or heart, and are composed of about 95% water. They drift with the ocean currents, using a fringe of delicate, short tentacles around the edge of their bell to trap tiny plankton, which they then sweep into their mouths using four central trailing arms.

Those four central rings are actually the jellyfish's gonads, the reproductive organs located at the bottom of the stomach, and they are normally purple in color.

Answer: They have no external nostrils on the outside of their beak

The UK coastline is home to up to 70% of the world's breeding population of Northern gannets, with massive colonies gathering on Scottish cliffs and rocky islands like Bass Rock. These birds are legendary for their spectacular hunting technique; they soar high above the sea looking for fish like mackerel, then fold their wings back tightly to steeply dive into the ocean from heights of up to 130 feet (40 m), hitting the water at speeds around 60 mph (96 kph).

To survive hitting the water like a bullet, gannets evolved to breathe entirely through their mouth, meaning they have no external nose holes to flood. Additionally, they have an internal network of inflatable air sacs under the skin of their face and chest. This acts like a shock absorbing airbag to protect their brain and organs from the intense impact.

Answer: High powered stinging cells used to wage territorial wars

When submerged underwater, the beadlet anemone looks like a beautiful reddish orange flower, spreading out up to 192 stinging tentacles to catch passing shrimp and small fish. However, it is frequently left completely exposed to the air when the tide goes out. To survive and prevent itself from drying out, the anemone retracts its tentacles completely into its body, shrinking down into a smooth and shiny blob that looks exactly like a red plum on a rock.

Those bright blue beads are called acrorhagi. Beadlet anemones are fiercely territorial about their rock space. If another anemone creeps too close, they will inflate these blue beads, lean over, and physically strike the intruder with them. The specialized stinging cells inside cause severe tissue damage to the rival, eventually forcing it to detach from the rock.

Answer: Puffing pig

The harbour porpoise is the smallest and most common cetacean (the family of whales, dolphins, and porpoises) found in UK waters. It is often spotted close to beaches, estuaries, and shallow coastal bays. Measuring just over 6 feet long (2 m), they have a dark grey back, a pale belly, and a triangular dorsal fin that briefly cuts through the water when they surface. Unlike their highly playful dolphin cousins, harbour porpoises are famously shy and elusive creatures that rarely jump out of the water or ride the bow waves of boats.

On a quiet, calm day along the British coast, people can hear a harbour porpoise before they see it. Their quick, powerful exhale of air sounds just like a sharp, sudden sneeze or puff of air. This unique sound is so recognizable to fishers and coastal residents that it led to the traditional maritime nickname "puffing pig".

Answer: Five sharp, teeth like jagged points on either side of its eyes

The common shore crab is found abundantly on almost every rocky shore, sandy beach, and estuary in the UK. Highly adaptable and incredibly tough, these crabs can cope with massive changes in temperature and water salinity as the tides rise and fall. While adults are typically a dark, mottled green color, their shells feature five distinct ridges on either side of their eyes to help identify them. They use their claws to feast on everything from small mussels and barnacles to worms and dead fish.

While shore crabs can vary wildly in color, from deep green and red to orange or grey when they are young, the count of those five jagged teeth on the front rim of their shell never changes. It's a good way to tell them apart from the swimming crab (which has flat legs) or the edible velvet crab which has bright red eyes and a furry shell.

Answer: They can launch their bodies entirely out of the water

The basking shark is the giant of the British coastline, holding the title of the second largest fish in the entire world. Reaching lengths of up to 40 feet (12 m), these gentle giants migrate to the western coasts of the UK, especially around Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and western Scotland, during the summer months. Despite their huge mouths and gigantic size, they are completely harmless filter feeders. They cruise slowly along the surface of the water at around two miles per hour (3.2 kmh) as they filter thousands of gallons of seawater every hour to trap tiny plankton.

Marine biologists have recorded these giants swimming rapidly upward from the depths to break the surface, launching themselves entirely into the air before crashing back down. Scientists believe they do this acrobatic feat to shake off irritating parasites, like lampreys, that latch onto their skin.

Answer: Leaping off the cliff edge to the ocean below

The razorbill is a striking seabird belonging to the auk family and is recognizable by its black back, white underbelly, and a distinctively thick, sideways flattened beak marked with a bright white vertical stripe. They spend the harsh winter months entirely out at sea, but during the spring, thousands gather to breed on the sheer, rocky cliffs of the UK coast. They are incredible underwater specialists, using their compact wings to swim through the ocean currents down to great depths to hunt for prey.

In a true leap of faith, the tiny, flightless chicks call out to their fathers waiting in the water below under the cover of twilight. They then throw themselves off the massive cliffs, fluttering their tiny undeveloped wings furiously to break their fall before splashing into the sea, or sometimes bouncing off the rocks.