Q 01/05

Which extinct animals were closer relatives of the Asian elephant than living African elephants are?

A) Mastodons

B) Mammoths

C) Giant sloths

D) Woolly rhinos

Answer · why

B) Mammoths

Mammoths sit inside the living elephant family tree, nearer to Asian elephants than African ones; the last of them survived on Wrangel Island until ab...

Q 02/05

The tusks of a bull Asian elephant are greatly enlarged versions of which teeth in the upper jaw?

A) Canines

B) Molars

C) Incisors

D) Premolars

Answer · why

C) Incisors

Incisors, not canines, grow into an elephant's tusks: they are the second pair in the upper jaw, and most cow Asian elephants have only tiny ones or n...

Q 03/05

Which country, once Lan Xang, the 'Land of a Million Elephants', has the Asian elephant as its national animal?

A) Cambodia

B) Vietnam

C) Myanmar

D) Laos

Answer · why

D) Laos

Laos shares the honour with Thailand, and its forerunner Lan Xang, founded by Fa Ngum in 1353, lasted for three and a half centuries.

Q 04/05

What is the yearly period called when a bull Asian elephant's testosterone soars and he turns aggressive?

A) Musth

B) Rutting

C) Oestrus

D) Torpor

Answer · why

A) Musth

Musth comes from an Urdu term for intoxication: testosterone can reach up to 100 times its usual level, and a tar-like fluid seeps from glands on the ...

Q 05/05

Hansken, an Asian elephant that toured 17th-century Europe doing tricks, was sketched by which Dutch artist?

A) Vermeer

B) Frans Hals

C) Rembrandt

D) Jan Steen

Answer · why

C) Rembrandt

Rembrandt drew Hansken in chalk after seeing her in Amsterdam in 1637; a skeleton in Florence thought to be hers is the reference specimen for the who...