Q 01/05

Horns, found on cattle and sheep, are covered in a sheath made of what?

A) Ivory

B) Enamel

C) Cartilage

D) Keratin

Answer · why

D) Keratin

Keratin is the same stuff as human fingernails, which is why horns keep growing for life while an antler is dead bone by the time it is fully grown.

Q 02/05

What are wild reindeer called in North America?

A) Wapiti

B) Moose

C) Marals

D) Caribou

Answer · why

D) Caribou

Same species, two names: the US FDA even rules that in North American English the animal is caribou if wild and reindeer if domesticated.

Q 03/05

What is the largest living species of deer?

A) Elk

B) Sambar

C) Red deer

D) Moose

Answer · why

D) Moose

It stands nearly 2.6 metres tall and weighs up to 800 kg; confusingly, in Europe the same animal is called an elk.

Q 04/05

The world's smallest deer, standing about 32 to 35 cm at the shoulder, is which South American animal?

A) Brocket

B) Taruca

C) Pudu

D) Huemul

Answer · why

C) Pudu

Its name is a loanword from Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina.

Q 05/05

Which continent has only one native deer, a subspecies of red deer confined to the Atlas Mountains?

A) South America

B) Australia

C) Africa

D) Antarctica

Answer · why

C) Africa

That lone native is the Barbary stag; Australia has no native deer at all, only introduced ones.