Q 01/05

What gives a hyena its distinctive sloping back?

A) A hump of fat on its shoulders

B) A spine that curves downward

C) Front legs longer than its hind legs

D) A mane that stands up in front

Answer · why

C) Front legs longer than its hind legs

Front legs longer than its hind legs: the high shoulders carry a powerful neck, built for tearing a carcass apart and carrying off the pieces.

Q 02/05

Hyenas are more closely related to which animals, despite looking dog-like?

A) Wolves and jackals

B) Bears and raccoons

C) Weasels and badgers

D) Cats and civets

Answer · why

D) Cats and civets

Cats and civets: hyenas sit on the cat side of the carnivore family tree, and only came to look like dogs because they too run prey down and catch it ...

Q 03/05

Spotted hyena cubs are born what colour, only gaining their spots at two to three months?

A) Sandy gold

B) Almost black

C) Pure white

D) Grey with stripes

Answer · why

B) Almost black

Almost black: the dark birth coat lightens into the spotted adult pattern over the first months, and the spots then fade again as the animal ages.

Q 04/05

Roughly how many termites can an aardwolf, the insect-eating hyena, lick up in a single night?

A) 3,000

B) 30,000

C) 300,000

D) 3 million

Answer · why

C) 300,000

300,000: it licks them up with a long, sticky tongue and never wrecks the mound or eats the whole colony, so the termites rebuild and it can come back...

Q 05/05

The aardwolf, a small termite-eating hyena, takes its name from Afrikaans words meaning what?

A) Night-wolf

B) Ant-wolf

C) Little wolf

D) Earth-wolf

Answer · why

D) Earth-wolf

Earth-wolf, from aarde and wolf: it sleeps the day away in burrows underground and only comes out at night to feed.