National Park of American Samoa Trivia
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35 free National Park of American Samoa trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The National Park of American Samoa is the only US national park south of the equator, the only one the government could not buy, and the only one where the visitor centre was flattened by a tsunami. This quiz covers the whole story: the 1984 bill to protect flying foxes, the 1988 law and the 1993 lease from village councils, the three units on Tutuila, Ofu and Taʻū, Mount Alava's ladders and old cable car, Pola Island's seabird cliffs, the Old Vatia ridge village, the Toʻaga site and 3,000 years of settlement, Margaret Mead on Taʻū, the Tui Manuʻa who would not cede his land, Lata Mountain and the sea cliffs, the Samoa hotspot and the Vailuluʻu seamount with its 'Eel City', the 2009 earthquake and tsunami, and the fruit bat that made it onto a US quarter. Early questions suit anyone who has snorkelled Ofu Beach; later ones are for travellers who know their Amalau Valley from their Tāfeu Cove: how wide the Āsaga Strait is, which explorer named the Navigator Islands, what 'Olosega' means, and which reptile is found only on Taʻū. Good for a national-parks quiz night or a Pacific trivia round. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the park, its islands and its wildlife, and each question shows its source.
30 of 35 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Some trails on village land in American Samoa's national park close on which day?
Sunday
Sunday is kept for church and rest in Samoan culture, so some park trails on village land close that day.
Q 02American Samoa's national park holds which distinction?
It is the only unit south of the equator
It is the only unit south of the equator in the US park system, so its seasons are flipped: the wet summer runs from October to May.
Q 03Ancient Samoan star mounds, like one on a trail in American Samoa's national park, were built for which chiefs' sport?
Catching pigeons
Catching pigeons was a chiefly contest: from huts on the mound, rival chiefs used tame decoy pigeons and long-handled nets to catch the most birds.
Q 04What kept the federal government from buying American Samoa's park land?
Land is held communally under Samoan tradition
Land is held communally under Samoan tradition by families led by chiefs, so the park leases its land and shares management with village leaders.
Q 05Most plants and animals in American Samoa's national park trace their origins to which region?
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is where most species here came from, spreading east island by island, which is why the park has so few kinds of land animals.
Q 06The September 2009 tsunami wrecked which facilities of American Samoa's national park?
The visitor centre and main office
The visitor centre and main office were left unusable, yet only one NPS staff member or volunteer was hurt.
Q 07Humpback whales migrate to the waters of American Samoa's national park mainly to do what?
Mate and give birth
They come to mate and give birth in warm tropical water, then swim back to their feeding grounds around Antarctica.
Q 08American Samoa's national park helps preserve faʻasamoa, a Samoan word meaning what?
The Samoan way of life
The Samoan way of life, faʻasamoa, is why visitors are asked not to eat or drink while walking through a village.
Q 09The Mount Alava Adventure Trail in American Samoa's national park has 56 of what?
Ladders
Ladders, along with 783 steps, take hikers up and down steep ridgelines, which is why the park rates the loop challenging.
Q 10How did visitors once ride to Mount Alava's summit?
An aerial cable tramway across Pago Pago Bay
An aerial cable tramway across Pago Pago Bay ran over a mile from Utulei; in 1980 a US Navy plane hit its cable and crashed at the Rainmaker Hotel.
Q 11The naval gun batteries at Breakers and Blunts Points, near American Samoa's national park, date from which war?
World War II
World War II fears of a Japanese invasion put the guns there, yet no invasion ever came, and they were left in place once the fears faded.
Q 12Pola Island, a basalt sea stack in American Samoa's national park, is also known by what English name?
Cockscomb
Cockscomb is its English name; waves have worn its sheer volcanic cliffs, where boobies and frigatebirds nest.
Q 13Which coral-eating animal threatens the reefs of American Samoa's national park?
Crown-of-thorns starfish
Q 21Lata Mountain, in American Samoa's national park, holds which distinction?
The highest point in American Samoa
The highest point in American Samoa rises to 3,170 feet, high enough to catch about 300 inches of rain a year.
Q 22Taʻū, in American Samoa's national park, is home to some of the world's tallest what?
Sea cliffs
Sea cliffs about 3,000 feet high line Taʻū because part of the island's shield volcano collapsed into the ocean.
Q 23Which anthropologist did 1920s fieldwork on Taʻū, published as 'Coming of Age in Samoa'?
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead's picture of easygoing Samoan adolescence was later attacked by anthropologist Derek Freeman in books published in 1983 and 1998.
Crown-of-thorns starfish push their stomachs out over living coral and digest it outside their bodies.
Q 14Giant clams on the reefs of American Samoa's national park get much of their food from what living inside them?
Algae
Algae live in the clam's colourful mantle, so the clam opens its shell by day to let them soak up the sunlight they use to make food.
Q 15From 1830, the arrival of which newcomers sped the move of Samoans in villages like Vatia from inland to the coast?
Christian missionaries
Christian missionaries led by John Williams landed on Savaiʻi in 1830, and the ruling chief Malietoa welcomed them.
Q 16How do most banyan trees in American Samoa's national park begin life?
As seeds sprouting on another tree
As seeds sprouting on another tree, often left there by birds; the roots grow down around the host, which can die and leave the fig hollow.
Q 17Scientists study corals in Ofu Lagoon, part of American Samoa's national park, because they seem to withstand what?
Unusually hot water
Unusually hot water that stresses corals elsewhere seems to leave these standing, so scientists study them to learn how reefs might cope as oceans warm.
Q 18Plainware pottery found at Toʻaga on Ofu, in American Samoa's national park, descends from which ancient culture's pottery?
Lapita
Lapita potters reached Samoa about 3,000 years ago, and Samoan pottery grew plainer until people stopped making it.
Q 19Bristle-thighed curlews that winter in American Samoa's national park fly there from breeding grounds where?
Alaska
Alaska is where they breed, and like other tuli shorebirds they fly to Samoa to escape the northern winter.
Q 20Which French explorer named Samoa the Navigator Islands in 1768?
Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Louis Antoine de Bougainville's voyage carried the botanist who named the bougainvillea flower after him.
Q 24Samoans traditionally regard Saua, a sacred site in American Samoa's national park, as what?
The birthplace of the Polynesian people
The birthplace of the Polynesian people is how many Samoans see Saua, and oral tradition and archaeology suggest voyagers set out from Samoa to settle other island groups.
Q 25What did the Tui Manuʻa refuse to do when Commander Tilley met him in March 1900?
Cede his own lands on Taʻū
Cede his own lands on Taʻū was the one step he would not take, and Manuʻa signed its own deed of cession only in 1904.
Q 26Unusually for a fruit bat, when is the Samoa flying fox mainly active?
During the day
During the day it soars on rising warm air, while its cousin the white-naped flying fox flies straight to and from its roosts at dawn or dusk.
Q 27Commercial export of the Samoa flying fox as a luxury food ended when it was listed under what in 1990?
CITES Appendix I
CITES Appendix I bars commercial trade, and commercial hunting for export had been the main driver of the bat's steep decline.
Q 28The 2020 America the Beautiful quarter for the park shows what on its reverse?
A fruit bat mother hanging with her pup
Richard Masters of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh designed the bats; the coin was released in February 2020.
Q 29Which reptile survives in American Samoa only on Taʻū?
The Pacific boa
The Pacific boa once lived on Tutuila too, where its bones have been found, but that population died out.
Q 30What is the only amphibian known in American Samoa, found there only on Tutuila?
The cane toad
The cane toad was brought in deliberately to fight insect pests, and it then spread across all of Tutuila.