Q 01/05

What is an adult male donkey called?

A) A jack

B) A jenny

C) A colt

D) A hob

Answer · why

A) A jack

A jack. That is the jack in 'jackass', a word that meant nothing ruder than a male donkey when it was first recorded in the 1720s and only became an i...

Q 02/05

Which animal is the direct ancestor of the domestic donkey?

A) The Asiatic wild ass

B) The African wild ass

C) Przewalski's horse

D) The plains zebra

Answer · why

B) The African wild ass

The African wild ass. Its tame descendants number in the tens of millions, yet the wild animal itself is critically endangered, with a few hundred lef...

Q 03/05

Which king did Apollo give a donkey's ears for preferring a rival's music?

A) Minos

B) Tantalus

C) Midas

D) Sisyphus

Answer · why

C) Midas

Midas. In Ovid's telling the rival was Pan; the king hid the ears under a turban, but his barber whispered the secret into a hole in the ground, and t...

Q 04/05

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and what?

A) A female zebra

B) A female donkey

C) A female wild ass

D) A female horse

Answer · why

D) A female horse

A female horse. Breeders pair the two for hybrid vigour: a mule takes strength, patience and sure-footedness from its father and athletic ability and ...

Q 05/05

What is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey called?

A) A hinny

B) A molly

C) A jennet

D) A cob

Answer · why

A) A hinny

A hinny. Swapping which parent is which changes the animal: a hinny usually turns out smaller than its better-known cousin, with a more horse-like hea...