Primates
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50 free Primates trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Primates are the order of mammals that takes in lemurs, monkeys, apes and us. They range from animals small enough to sit in a teacup to forest giants heavier than two grown men, and few groups have been studied as closely, because learning about them is a way of learning about ourselves. This quiz covers how living primates are classified, the features that set the main groups apart, where different species are found, and the remarkable variety of diets, calls and habits across the order. It also looks at primatology itself: the field researchers, the famous study animals and the experiments that changed what we know. It suits biology and anthropology students revising primate diversity, zoo and wildlife fans, and anyone who enjoys a good fun fact. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Lemurs are native only to which island, where they evolved in isolation for millions of years?
Madagascar
Madagascar's lemurs descend from a few animals that drifted over from Africa on tangled mats of vegetation. Most kinds are now threatened or endangered.
Q 02Which great ape, the slowest breeder of all, is named from Malay words for 'person of the forest'?
Orangutan
Orangutan mothers raise a single infant for six to nine years before giving birth again, the longest gap of any great ape. They also spend more of their lives in the trees than the others.
Q 03Which small primate of South and Southeast Asian forests is the only one with a toxic bite?
Slow loris
Slow loris venom starts as a secretion from a gland on the upper arm, which the animal licks so that it mixes with saliva. Mothers even groom it onto their young as protection.
Q 04Europe's only wild monkeys live in which territory, where Churchill once had their numbers topped up?
Gibraltar
Gibraltar tradition holds that British rule will last only as long as its Barbary macaques do, so in 1942 Churchill had fresh animals brought over from North Africa when just seven remained.
Q 05Jack, a baboon in 1880s South Africa, earned a wage and a weekly beer ration for operating which equipment?
Railway signals
Railway signals at Uitenhage were worked by Jack for James Wide, a signalman who had lost both legs. In nine years on the job the baboon is said never to have made a mistake.
Q 06Which colorful-faced African primate, the largest monkey, is the species of Rafiki in The Lion King?
Mandrill
Mandrill hordes in Gabon have averaged more than 600 animals, possibly the largest stable groups of any wild primate. No other primate differs more between males and females.
Q 07Snow monkeys, the most northerly of all non-human primates, bathe in hot springs in which country?
Japan
Japan's snow monkeys are macaques that cope with months of snow cover and even roll snowballs for fun. Those at Jigokudani began soaking in the steaming pools in the 1960s.
Q 08Which gorilla, born at San Francisco Zoo, used sign language and kept a pet kitten named All Ball?
Koko
Koko was taught by the psychologist Francine Patterson, and her bond with the kitten became a best-selling children's picture book in 1985. Critics still argue over how much she understood.
Q 09Which tiny Southeast Asian primates eat only animal prey and have eyeballs as big as their brains?
Tarsiers
Tarsiers leap onto insects, lizards and now and then baby birds in the dark. They can turn their heads 180 degrees in either direction to see what is behind them.
Q 10Which nocturnal lemur taps on trees to find grubs, then hooks them out with a thin middle finger?
Aye-aye
Aye-aye front teeth never stop growing, like a rodent's, which led early naturalists to class the animal as a squirrel. It gnaws a hole in the wood before reaching in for its meal.
Q 11Which body part, found on nearly every monkey, do all apes lack because of a gene mutation?
A tail
A tail is missing in gorillas, chimpanzees and humans alike because of a change in a gene called TBXT. The nearly tailless Barbary macaque, a monkey, was long miscalled the Barbary ape.
Q 12Which naturalist created the order Primates, grouping humans with monkeys a century before Darwin?
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus placed humans, monkeys and lemurs in the group in 1758, and at first counted bats as primates too.
Q 13Which traditional name groups lemurs, pottos and other primates that are neither monkeys nor apes?
Prosimians
Prosimians means 'before apes', a label coined in 1811. Biologists now treat it as an informal grouping, since some of its members are closer kin to monkeys than to lemurs.
Q 21The world's smallest primate, a 30-gram animal named after Madame Berthe, belongs to which group?
Mouse lemurs
Mouse lemurs include Madame Berthe's, whose body is only about nine centimeters long. It honors Berthe Rakotosamimanana, a primatologist and conservationist who died in 2005.
Q 22Males of which primate confront rivals in 'stink fights', wafting scent smeared from glands on their arms?
Ring-tailed lemur
Ring-tailed lemur troops are female-dominant, and it falls to the top female to defend the home range. On cold mornings the animals sit upright facing the sun in a pose likened to the lotus position.
Q 23Bushbabies, the leaping nocturnal primates of African forests, are known to scientists by which other name?
Galagos
Q 14Which scientific name, from Greek for 'broad-nosed', covers all the monkeys native to the Americas?
Platyrrhines
Platyrrhines have flatter noses than other monkeys, with nostrils that open out to the sides. Their line split from the monkeys and apes of Africa and Asia about 40 million years ago.
Q 15Humans share which taxonomic family, known as the great apes, with gorillas and chimpanzees?
Hominidae
Hominidae originally covered only humans and their closest extinct relatives. It was later widened, and now holds eight living species in four genera.
Q 16Chimpanzees and bonobos, the closest living relatives of humans, together make up which genus?
Pan
Pan is generally thought to be named after the goat-legged Greek god of the wild, though the naturalist who coined it in 1816 never explained his choice.
Q 17Where most mammals have claws, the fingers and toes of primates usually end in what instead?
Nails
Nails, opposable thumbs and long curling fingers are all legacies of an ancestry spent gripping branches. Lemurs keep one claw-like nail on each foot just for grooming.
Q 18Which long-armed Asian primates swing through trees at up to 34 mph and sing duets with their mates?
Gibbons
Gibbons are known as the lesser apes, and a mated pair's duet can carry for about a kilometer. A single swing can cover 15 meters.
Q 19The word 'primate', also a title for senior bishops, comes from a Latin word with which meaning?
Of the first rank
Of the first rank is what Latin 'primas' meant, and the Church used it for its chief bishops centuries before biology borrowed it for the order of mammals that includes humans.
Q 20Monkeys, apes and humans all lost a working gene for making which nutrient, so must get it from food?
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is made in the body by most animals, but the gene for one step broke in an ancestor of monkeys and apes. Guinea pigs and most bats cannot make it either.
Galagos are champion jumpers: the highest reliably recorded leap is 2.25 meters. The nickname is said to come from either their cries or their looks.
Q 24Which long-limbed primate of Central and South American treetops has hook-like hands with no thumbs?
Spider monkey
Spider monkey hands are long, narrow hooks for swinging beneath branches. The genus name Ateles comes from a Greek word for 'incomplete', a nod to the missing digit.
Q 25Which New World monkeys, named after an order of hooded friars, include Marcel in the sitcom Friends?
Capuchins
Capuchins got the name because the hair on their heads was thought to resemble a friar's cowl. In the wild they are known for using tools to crack open nuts.
Q 26Which monkey of flooded Amazon forests has a hairless head and a bright crimson face?
Uakari
Uakari faces are scarlet because the skin lacks pigment and is rich in tiny blood vessels. Their powerful jaws open unripe fruit that most other primates cannot crack.
Q 27Which endangered monkey of Brazil's coastal rainforest is pictured on the Brazilian 20-real banknote?
Golden lion tamarin
Golden lion tamarin numbers recovered partly through the release of zoo-born animals into the wild. The name comes from the mane of long reddish-orange hair around the face.
Q 28Which much-studied African primates give a distinct alarm call for leopards, eagles and pythons?
Vervet monkeys
Vervet monkeys also pick out family by voice: a mother can recognize her own offspring from a scream alone, and looks toward it faster than the other mothers do.
Q 29Proboscis monkeys, strong swimmers with partly webbed toes, live wild only on which island?
Borneo
Borneo's mangroves and coasts suit what may be the most aquatic of all primates, which can swim 20 meters underwater. The species is shared by Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Q 30Geladas, the grass-eating 'bleeding-heart monkeys', live only in the highlands of which African country?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia's geladas get up to 90 percent of their diet from grass, plucked with small, sturdy fingers. The nickname comes from an hourglass-shaped patch of bare red skin on the chest.