Q 01/05

Which famous thinker, as a young student, dissected hundreds of eels in a failed hunt for their male sex organs?

A) Ivan Pavlov

B) Sigmund Freud

C) Gregor Mendel

D) Charles Darwin

Answer · why

B) Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud conceded failure in his first major research paper and turned to other subjects. The organs were not seen until some 20 years later, in ...

Q 02/05

Wels, the giant fish introduced to France's River Tarn, have been filmed lunging onto the bank to snatch which birds?

A) Ducklings

B) Moorhens

C) Wagtails

D) Pigeons

Answer · why

D) Pigeons

Pigeons bathing at the water's edge were caught in 28% of the lunges that Toulouse researchers filmed. The trick has never been reported in the native...

Q 03/05

In the American South, 'noodling' means catching which fish with bare hands by reaching into its underwater hole?

A) Catfish

B) Bowfin

C) Eels

D) Suckers

Answer · why

A) Catfish

Catfish guarding eggs in a hole will latch onto a hand pushed inside, and the noodler hauls the fish out by it. The sport is now illegal in some state...

Q 04/05

In much of Central Europe, which fish is the traditional Christmas Eve dish, often kept in the bathtub for days first?

A) Trout

B) Eel

C) Carp

D) Zander

Answer · why

C) Carp

Carp is kept in the bathtub to flush out its muddy taste, then usually breaded and fried. Czechs and Slovaks slip one of its scales under a plate or i...

Q 05/05

Which sharp-toothed South American river fish has a plant-eating relative, the pacu, with squarer, straighter teeth?

A) Payara

B) Piranha

C) Arapaima

D) Peacock bass

Answer · why

B) Piranha

Piranha have razor-sharp teeth set in a pronounced underbite, while the pacu's are built for a diet of plants. The pacu is also the bigger fish by far...