Q 01/05

Guinea pigs were first domesticated around 5000 BC, as food, in which part of the world?

A) The Andes of South America

B) The savannas of West Africa

C) The islands of Southeast Asia

D) The plains of central Europe

Answer · why

A) The Andes of South America

Regionally they are called cuy, from the Quechua quwi, and Peruvians still eat an estimated 65 million a year.

Q 02/05

Which of these is true of the animal's name?

A) South American rodent, not a pig

B) West African, but a rodent

C) West African, and related to pigs

D) A pig species from Peru

Answer · why

A) South American rodent, not a pig

One theory is that they reached Europe via Guinea; another that 'guinea' was slang for anything foreign. The 'pig' half survives in the Latin porcellu...

Q 03/05

The guinea pig's scientific name is Cavia porcellus. What does porcellus mean in Latin?

A) Little squeaker

B) Little pig

C) Little grazer

D) Little furball

Answer · why

B) Little pig

Cavia comes from the same Tupi-Guarani root that gives us 'cavy', the other common name for the animal.

Q 04/05

Like humans, guinea pigs cannot make one essential nutrient and must get it from food. Which?

A) Vitamin A

B) Vitamin B12

C) Vitamin D

D) Vitamin C

Answer · why

D) Vitamin C

That quirk is why two Norwegian doctors accidentally gave guinea pigs scurvy in 1907, an animal model that has been called the most important piece of...

Q 05/05

What disease appeared when Holst and Frølich fed guinea pigs a 1907 grain diet meant to cause beriberi?

A) Scurvy

B) Rickets

C) Pellagra

D) Anaemia

Answer · why

A) Scurvy

Until then scurvy had been thought an exclusively human disease; they could cure it with fresh foods, years before the word 'vitamin' existed.