Q 01/05

Which Renaissance artist painted Lady with an Ermine, a portrait whose animal looks more like an albino ferret?

A) Sandro Botticelli

B) Piero della Francesca

C) Leonardo da Vinci

D) Giovanni Bellini

Answer · why

C) Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci painted the sitter, Cecilia Gallerani, around 1490, and the creature in her arms is too big for a real ermine. Poland bought the pic...

Q 02/05

Which Hogwarts student does Mad-Eye Moody turn into a ferret in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?

A) Draco Malfoy

B) Vincent Crabbe

C) Neville Longbottom

D) Cedric Diggory

Answer · why

A) Draco Malfoy

Draco Malfoy is slammed against the ground as a ferret after trying to curse Harry from behind. The teacher punishing him is really Barty Crouch Jr, d...

Q 03/05

Ferret-legging champion Reg Mellor wore trousers of which color, to better show the blood from ferret bites?

A) Yellow

B) Pale blue

C) Khaki

D) White

Answer · why

D) White

White trousers were Mellor's own addition to the stunt. In 1981 he set a record of five hours and twenty-six minutes, and said the trick was to feed t...

Q 04/05

Which burrowing animals make up as much as 90% of the diet of North America's black-footed ferret?

A) Pocket gophers

B) Prairie dogs

C) Ground squirrels

D) Kangaroo rats

Answer · why

B) Prairie dogs

Prairie dogs supply the ferret's bedroom as well as its dinner: it hunts them asleep underground at night, then raises its young in their burrows.

Q 05/05

The word 'ferret' traces back to a Latin word with which literal meaning?

A) Little digger

B) Little hoarder

C) Little thief

D) Little hunter

Answer · why

C) Little thief

Little thief is the literal sense. The name grew from fur, the Latin for a thief, which is also thought to lie behind the English word furtive.