Q 01/05

What is a pelican's throat pouch actually used for?

A) Storing fish to eat later on

B) Carrying chicks between nests

C) Inflating to impress a mate

D) Catching prey and draining off water

Answer · why

D) Catching prey and draining off water

Contrary to folklore, food is never stored in it; the bird presses the pouch to its chest to empty it.

Q 02/05

How many living species of pelican are there?

A) Three

B) Eight

C) Fifteen

D) Twenty

Answer · why

B) Eight

Four white ground-nesters and four grey or brown tree-nesters, though DNA splits them into Old World and New World lines instead.

Q 03/05

Which two pelican species are not predominantly pale?

A) The Dalmatian and great white

B) The brown and Peruvian pelicans

C) The Australian and American white

D) The pink-backed and spot-billed

Answer · why

B) The brown and Peruvian pelicans

Once thought to be one species, the two dark coastal divers are sometimes placed in their own subgenus, Leptopelecanus.

Q 04/05

Pelicans' closest relatives turn out to be which two odd birds?

A) Cormorants and gannets

B) Frigatebirds and tropicbirds

C) Storks and cranes

D) The shoebill and the hamerkop

Answer · why

D) The shoebill and the hamerkop

Neither is a true stork, but they share the order Pelecaniformes with herons, ibises and spoonbills.

Q 05/05

The name 'pelican' comes from a Greek word derived from 'pelekys', meaning what?

A) Sea

B) Axe

C) Bag

D) Fisher

Answer · why

B) Axe

In classical times the same word was applied to the woodpecker as well.