Q 01/05

How many compartments does a cow's stomach have?

A) Two

B) Three

C) Four

D) Five

Answer · why

C) Four

The compartments are the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum, and the whole thing counts as a single stomach.

Q 02/05

Which compartment of a cow's stomach is known as the "true stomach", the equivalent of a human's?

A) Rumen

B) Omasum

C) Reticulum

D) Abomasum

Answer · why

D) Abomasum

The rumen does the heavy lifting as a fermentation vat full of microbes, but only the abomasum works like a monogastric stomach.

Q 03/05

The smallest compartment of a cow's stomach is nicknamed the "honeycomb". Which one is it?

A) Omasum

B) Reticulum

C) Rumen

D) Abomasum

Answer · why

B) Reticulum

Its lining really does look like honeycomb, and it is where swallowed nails and wire tend to end up.

Q 04/05

Domestic cattle descend from which extinct wild animal?

A) Aurochs

B) Wisent

C) Gaur

D) Steppe bison

Answer · why

A) Aurochs

Mitochondrial DNA suggests the taurine line may trace back to as few as 80 wild animals tamed in upper Mesopotamia.

Q 05/05

The wild ancestor of cattle survived in Europe until its last cow died in a Polish forest. In what year?

A) 1627

B) 1703

C) 1789

D) 1850

Answer · why

A) 1627

The final herd in Jaktorów Forest had dwindled to just four animals by 1601, and the species was gone a generation later.