Q 01/05

English speakers call the boa constrictor by the very same two words biologists use as its what?

A) Family name

B) Scientific name

C) Pet-trade nickname

D) Tribal name

Answer · why

B) Scientific name

Scientific name and everyday label are both Boa constrictor, which almost never happens with animals. Most species get a separate common label, as the...

Q 02/05

Researchers monitoring prey in a boa constrictor's coils found the squeeze kills mainly through which effect?

A) Its blood flow stops

B) Its lungs cannot fill

C) Its bones are crushed

D) Its neck is snapped

Answer · why

A) Its blood flow stops

Its blood flow stops within seconds, starving the brain of oxygen, so the prey blacks out far faster than it could ever suffocate.

Q 03/05

In The Little Prince, the narrator's childhood drawing shows a boa constrictor that has swallowed which animal?

A) A giraffe

B) A crocodile

C) An elephant

D) A hippopotamus

Answer · why

C) An elephant

An elephant is inside the snake, but every grown-up who sees the picture takes it for a hat.

Q 04/05

A boa constrictor decides when to release its grip by sensing which sign of life fading in its prey?

A) Its breathing

B) Its body heat

C) Its struggling

D) Its heartbeat

Answer · why

D) Its heartbeat

Its heartbeat tells the snake when the job is done, and letting go early matters: the effort of constricting can push a snake's metabolism up sevenfol...

Q 05/05

The small claw-like spurs beside a boa constrictor's vent are the last visible remains of which ancestral body parts?

A) Front legs

B) Hind legs

C) Tail fins

D) Gill covers

Answer · why

B) Hind legs

Hind legs survive only as these spurs, which a courting male still puts to use, gripping and stroking his partner with them.