Big Cat Trivia
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6correct to beat the crowd
This big cat trivia quiz has 55 free questions with answers and covers all five Panthera species and the honorary big cats beside them: the lion and its pride, the tiger and its stripes and rivers, the leopard in its tree, the jaguar with its skull-crushing bite, the cheetah at full sprint, the snow leopard that cannot roar, the cougar with forty names, the clouded leopard that climbs down head-first, and the liger that outweighs both its parents. Easy questions ask which cat is fastest and what a group of lions is called. Medium ones ask how far a roar carries, which two big cats are sister species and how many hours a lion sleeps. The hard ones want the origin of the word jaguar, the Greek root of 'ounce', the year the Captive Wildlife Safety Act was signed and the exact weight of Hercules the liger. Good for classrooms, zoo trips and animal-themed pub quizzes. Every answer has been checked against the encyclopaedia entry for each species, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 55 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which animal, the fastest land mammal of the New World, would still lose a sprint to a cheetah?
Pronghorn
The pronghorn is slower than a cheetah over a sprint, but it can hold high speeds for kilometres, while a cheetah's chase averages under 40 seconds.
Q 02What is a group of lions called?
A pride
A pride centres on related females, and males who take one over often kill the young cubs, likely so the mothers breed again sooner.
Q 03Which Indian ruler commissioned a mechanical organ shaped like a tiger mauling a European?
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan: after he was killed as British troops stormed his capital in 1799, it was shipped to London and put on public display.
Q 04Which coat feature tells a jaguar apart from a leopard?
Spots inside its rosettes
Spots inside its rosettes: a leopard's rosettes lack them, and in both cats the broken pattern helps break up the body's outline.
Q 05What is a 'black panther'?
A melanistic leopard or jaguar
A melanistic leopard or jaguar still has its rosettes: the dark coat hides them, but they show through in the right light.
Q 06Which Los Angeles park did P-22, the mountain lion who crossed two freeways, make his home?
Griffith Park
Griffith Park: P-22 crossed the 101 and 405 freeways to reach it, and his fame helped fund the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101.
Q 07What stops the snow leopard from roaring like the other Panthera cats?
Its vocal folds are too short
Its vocal folds are too short: it still has the partly ossified hyoid bone that was long credited with letting big cats roar.
Q 08In which country did scientists report five wild lionesses that had grown manes?
Botswana
Botswana: high testosterone likely grew their manes, and though some were seen mating, none became pregnant, suggesting infertility.
Q 09What is a liger?
The offspring of a male lion and a tigress
The offspring of a male lion and a tigress usually outgrows both parents, likely because of how growth genes from the two species interact; tigons don't.
Q 10Which habit is the tiger famous for, unlike most cats?
Swimming across wide rivers
Swimming across wide rivers comes naturally: tigers seek out water while most cats avoid it, and they often immerse themselves in water on hot days.
Q 11In which state do Asia's last wild lions survive?
Gujarat
Gujarat: Asiatic lions once roamed as far west as Greece, but now survive only in and around its Gir forest.
Q 12What do the cheetah's black tear streaks connect?
The eyes and the mouth
The eyes and the mouth: the black streaks may help cut the sun's glare as a cheetah fixes its eyes on prey.
Q 13On which two islands did wild tigers die out during the 20th century?
Java and Bali
Java and Bali: across Asia, tigers now occupy under 7% of their historic range, as people cleared forests and hunted them.
Q 21Which two predators prey on cheetah cubs and routinely steal adult cheetahs' kills?
Lions and hyenas
Lions and hyenas: that's why a cheetah eats its catch as quickly as it can, before these bigger rivals bully it away.
Q 22The Asiatic cheetah, long gone from India, survives in the wild in only which country?
Iran
Iran, where only a small population survives in the wild; India's 2022 reintroduction used African cheetahs flown in from Namibia.
Q 23Besides helping it balance, what does a snow leopard use its long, thick tail as?
A blanket
A blanket: it wraps the tail around its body to cover sensitive parts against the cold, while its wide, furry paws are the ones that work like snowshoes.
Q 14Where is a leopard famous for hauling its kill to keep it from rivals?
Up a tree
Up a tree: leopards are strong enough to haul carcasses heavier than themselves up into the branches before feeding.
Q 15Which extinct cat did Ice Age artists paint on the walls at France's Chauvet-Pont d'Arc?
The cave lion
The cave lion: Chauvet has been closed to the public since its discovery to protect its fragile art, so visitors see its lions in a replica cave nearby.
Q 16Why may a tiger's orange coat look green to the deer it hunts?
They can't see red
They can't see red, so to deer the orange blends into the greenery, while the stripes break up the tiger's outline in tall grass.
Q 17What is one reason lions hunt as a team?
Much of their prey is faster than they are
One reason is that much of their prey is faster than they are; lionesses split roles, with some chasing prey toward the centre of the group, where others make the catch.
Q 18What is the jaguar's unusual killing method for mammal prey?
Biting through the skull between the ears
Biting through the skull between the ears delivers a fatal blow to the brain, and the same crushing bite lets it crack turtle shells.
Q 19Where does the jaguar rank among the world's cat species by size?
Third, after the tiger and lion
Third, after the tiger and lion: stocky and short-legged, the jaguar ambushes its prey rather than chasing it down.
Q 20A cheetah's most famous adaptation for speed apart from its legs is which body part?
A flexible spine
A flexible spine coils and extends like a spring, stretching the front legs far forward so each stride covers more ground.
Q 24What is the main wild prey of the snow leopard?
Ibex and blue sheep
Ibex and blue sheep: snow leopards follow their prey's seasonal migrations, often moving down to lower elevations in winter.
Q 25In Kipling's The Jungle Book, which character is a black panther?
Bagheera
Bagheera: he buys the man-cub Mowgli's place in the wolf pack at the price of a freshly killed bull.
Q 26Which state was the only place eastern cougars survived the hunting of the early 1900s?
Florida
Florida: its inbred panthers were rescued in 1995 when eight female pumas from Texas were released there, and by 2017 their numbers had risen more than fivefold.
Q 27Which Kenyan region's man-eating lions killed workers building the Uganda Railway?
Tsavo
Tsavo: isotopes in the two lions' bones and hair show one leaned increasingly on human prey, and dental injuries may have pushed them to softer food.
Q 28Which pigment condition gives white lions their pale coats, though they aren't albino?
Leucism
Leucism: white lions vanished from the wild through human pressure, until some were later reintroduced near South Africa's Kruger Park.
Q 29What is the IUCN Red List status of the tiger?
Endangered
Endangered: tigers are mainly threatened by poaching for their fur and body parts, and by the loss of the forests they live in.
Q 30What does a cougar usually do with a large kill it can't finish in one meal?
Covers it with brush
Covers it with brush: a cougar drags the carcass to a chosen spot, buries it under leaves and debris, and returns to feed over several days.