60 Fun Facts About Zoo Animals Trivia for Kids

A group of lions is called what?

A pride is built around related females, who usually stay for life, while young males are driven out once they are big enough to rival the adult males.

Outside Africa, which is the only country where lions still live in the wild?

India's Gir Forest holds the last wild lions outside Africa, after centuries of hunting and habitat loss wiped them out across the rest of Asia.

Which two kinds of tiger are the largest?

Bengal and Siberian tigers are the biggest, and the Siberian grows the longest, thickest coat of any living tiger to get through Russia's snowy winters.

What is special about every zebra's stripes?

They are unique to each animal, as distinct as fingerprints, and scientists think the stripes may also help keep biting flies away.

Which animals are the hippo's closest living relatives?

Whales and dolphins are the hippo's closest living relatives, yet hippos barely swim: they get around rivers by walking or bouncing along the bottom.

When do hippos usually set off to graze?

At dusk hippos head out to graze, because their sensitive skin can burn or dry out in the hot daytime sun.

A rhino's horn is made of the same stuff as what?

Hair and fingernails are made of keratin, just like rhino horn, yet poachers still kill rhinos for horns sold as traditional medicine.

What is the leader of a gorilla troop called?

A silverback makes his troop's decisions, settling fights and leading the group to places to feed and rest.

Which foods do chimpanzees use sticks to get?

Termites and honey can both be fished out with sticks, and when Jane Goodall saw a chimp fish for termites with stalks of grass, it challenged the belief that only humans made tools.

Wild orangutans live on which two islands?

Borneo and Sumatra are the orangutan's only wild homes, and each ape usually builds itself a fresh sleeping nest of branches every night.

What do giant pandas eat almost all day long?

Bamboo is nearly all a giant panda eats, but its gut is built like a meat-eater's, so it must eat huge amounts to get enough energy.

Which is the only country where giant pandas live in the wild?

China is the only wild home of giant pandas, and even cubs born in foreign zoos belong to China and are sent there under its loan deals.

Which animals are the red panda's closest living relatives?

Raccoons and weasels are thought to be its closest kin, and although red and giant pandas share a name and a 'false thumb', the two aren't closely related.

Which is the biggest species in the kangaroo family?

The red kangaroo is the largest of all, and it can go long spells without drinking, getting most of the water it needs from the plants it eats.

Which leaves give koalas so little energy they sleep most of the day?

Eucalyptus leaves carry toxins that put most other mammals off eating them, yet koalas eat almost nothing else.

Which is the only penguin that lives north of the equator?

The Galápagos penguin survives in the tropics because cold ocean currents keep its waters cool and full of the small fish it eats.

Which is the largest kind of penguin alive today?

The emperor is the only penguin that breeds through the Antarctic winter, when birds huddle together and take turns moving into the warm middle.

Which penguin parent keeps the egg on its feet all through the Antarctic winter?

The father balances the egg on his feet for about two months without eating, while the mother heads out to sea to feed.

What colour is a polar bear's skin under its fur?

Black skin under a polar bear's thick fur helps it soak up the sun's warmth in the freezing Arctic.

Meerkats are a small kind of which animal?

Mongoose family members, meerkats forage in groups while one adult climbs to a high spot and stands guard.

Why are flamingos pink?

Colours in the food they eat, pigments from algae and tiny crustaceans, turn flamingos pink, so zoos add pigment to their feed to keep them from fading.

What is a group of flamingos called?

A flamboyance is the name, and scientists still aren't sure why flamingos often stand on one leg, though tucking one up may help them keep warm.

What is a female peacock called?

A peahen lacks the male's famous train, which isn't really his tail: it's made of long feathers that cover the base of the tail.

Which part still shows on a crocodile with its mouth shut, while an alligator's stays hidden?

Its lower teeth still show on a crocodile, while a socket in an alligator's upper jaw hides its big fourth lower tooth.

Which scientist was said to have collected Harriet, a giant tortoise who died in 2006?

Darwin was credited with collecting Harriet in 1835, but she appears to have come from an island he never visited.

Where is the only place ring-tailed lemurs live in the wild?

Madagascar is their only wild home, and there rival male ring-tailed lemurs hold 'stink fights', waving scent-soaked tails at each other.

What do sea otters use rocks for?

To open shellfish, a sea otter floats on its back and bangs them against a rock resting on its chest.

What is one easy way to tell a sea lion from a seal?

Sea lions have ear flaps and can turn their back flippers forward to 'walk' on land, while true seals wriggle along on their bellies.

Instead of water, what does a camel's hump really store?

Fat fills the hump as an energy store, so when food runs short and the camel uses it up, the hump shrinks and leans over.

What is the two-humped camel called?

The Bactrian camel of Central Asia's steppes grows a shaggy coat for freezing winters, then sheds it in big chunks as summer comes.

Llamas come from which part of the world?

South America is the llama's home, but no wild llamas exist: people there bred them from wild guanacos to carry loads.

What is the largest rodent in the world?

The capybara spends the hottest part of the day cooling off in water and can hold its breath under it for up to five minutes.

What unusual feature do tapirs have on their faces?

A short bendy trunk lets a tapir pull leaves into its mouth, and its closest living relatives are horses and rhinos.

Where do toucans make their nests?

In tree holes, where a sleeping toucan flips its tail up over its head and curls into a neat ball of feathers.

Macaws are big colourful members of which bird family?

They come from the Americas and have long tails.

How does a green anaconda kill its prey?

By squeezing it, then swallowing it whole: big green anacondas occasionally take prey as large as deer, caimans and even jaguars.

What does a chameleon use to catch insects?

A shooting tongue, longer than the body in some chameleons, fires out in a fraction of a second and grabs insects with its sticky tip.

How does a warthog often lower itself to eat short grass?

It kneels down on its front legs and shuffles along on tough, padded knees, and it also digs up roots with its snout.

Sloths spend most of their lives doing what?

Hanging upside down is how sloths eat, sleep and even give birth, and algae growing in their fur tints them green for camouflage.

What do an elephant's huge ears help it do on a hot day?

An elephant's ears help it lose body heat: warm blood flows through their many vessels, and flapping the ears cools it, like a radiator.

What is the bony bump on top of the head of the world's tallest animal called?

An ossicone is used by males in 'necking' fights, when rivals swing their long necks and heads at each other.

Which flightless bird has only two toes on each foot and can sprint at about 70 km/h?

The ostrich doesn't really bury its head in sand: the myth likely comes from birds lying low with their necks pressed flat to the ground.

What is the fastest land animal?

The cheetah's tear marks may help shield its eyes from the sun's glare.

The Komodo dragon is the biggest what in the world?

The Komodo dragon is the world's biggest lizard, with venom glands in its lower jaw that may stop a bitten victim's blood from clotting.

The okapi has zebra-like stripes on its legs, but which animal is its closest living relative?

The giraffe is the okapi's only close living relative, and those bold leg stripes help it vanish in the dappled light of its rainforest home.

Bats are the only mammals that can do what?

Bats truly fly because their wings are really hands, with a thin membrane of skin stretched across long, flexible finger bones.

What is a group of owls called?

A parliament of owls can't roll their eyes, which are fixed in their sockets, so each owl turns its whole head, up to about 270 degrees, to look around.

Which North American bird builds the biggest nests on the continent?

The bald eagle pair returns to the same nest year after year, adding sticks until it can weigh about a tonne.

Burmese pythons have become a big problem in which US state after pet snakes got loose?

Florida's Everglades now hold wild Burmese pythons from released or escaped pets, and research links them to sharp declines in the park's mammals.

Which is the world's oldest scientific zoo, opened in 1828?

London Zoo is said to have given English the word zoo, as a short name for its Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park.

The San Diego Zoo was a pioneer of what kind of animal exhibit?

Open-air, cage-free habitats became its trademark, and the zoo itself began with animals left over from San Diego's 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition.

Which animals did the Bronx Zoo ship by train to Oklahoma to save their species?

Bison had been hunted nearly to extinction, and the 15 the zoo sent in 1907 started a new herd at Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains refuge.

Which activity do tigers seek out that most other cats avoid?

Swimming comes naturally to tigers, which often rest in ponds and streams and readily cross rivers.

Which bear is the polar bear's closest living relative?

The brown bear is the polar bear's closest relative, yet most polar bears stay active all winter: only pregnant females hole up in dens.

Why do snow leopards have such wide paws?

Wide paws work like snowshoes to stop them sinking as they walk on snow, and a snow leopard wraps its long, thick tail around itself like a blanket for warmth.

Which of these animals has no teeth at all?

The giant anteater has no teeth, and it takes only a small share of the insects in each nest before moving on to raid another.

What is a group of kangaroos called?

A mob, and the male kangaroos in a mob often box, pawing, wrestling and kicking at each other.

Where do little blue penguins, the world's smallest penguins, live in the wild?

Australia and New Zealand, where little blue penguins fish at sea all day and waddle ashore to their burrows after sunset.

What colour are a zebra foal's stripes when it is born?

Brown and white is usual at first, and the brown darkens with age; early on, a zebra mother also keeps other zebras away from her new foal.

What is a baby hippo called?

A calf, and a mother hippo with a calf is especially dangerous, because she guards her young fiercely.