Q 01/05

Which European country governs part of the Amazon rainforest?

A) Portugal

B) Spain

C) France

D) The Netherlands

Answer · why

C) France

France governs French Guiana as an overseas department, so a corner of Amazonia sits inside the European Union and uses the euro.

Q 02/05

Despite its name, the Amazon's electric eel belongs to which group of fish?

A) Moray eels

B) Knifefishes

C) Lampreys

D) Lungfishes

Answer · why

B) Knifefishes

Knifefishes include the electric eel, and its shocks so intrigued early scientists that they helped inspire Alessandro Volta's first battery in 1800.

Q 03/05

Roughly how many individual trees are estimated to grow in the Amazon rainforest?

A) 3.9 billion

B) 39 billion

C) 390 billion

D) 3.9 trillion

Answer · why

C) 390 billion

390 billion trees grow in Amazonia, a 2013 survey estimated, yet just 227 of its roughly 16,000 tree species make up half of them.

Q 04/05

Which giant Amazon fish must come to the surface to breathe air?

A) Peacock bass

B) Red-bellied piranha

C) Arapaima

D) Piraíba catfish

Answer · why

C) Arapaima

Arapaima breathe air through a lung-like swim bladder, which lets these giants, up to 3 metres long, live in oxygen-poor backwaters.

Q 05/05

After the Amazon, which region holds the world's second-largest tropical rainforest?

A) Borneo

B) New Guinea

C) The Congo Basin

D) The Mekong Basin

Answer · why

C) The Congo Basin

The Congo Basin's forest elephants eat and trample small trees, leaving room for fewer, bigger ones, which helps its rainforest store more carbon.