Q 01/05

Lemurs are native only to which island, where they evolved in isolation for millions of years?

A) Sri Lanka

B) New Guinea

C) Madagascar

D) Sumatra

Answer · why

C) Madagascar

Madagascar's lemurs descend from a few animals that drifted over from Africa on tangled mats of vegetation. Most kinds are now threatened or endangere...

Q 02/05

Which great ape, the slowest breeder of all, is named from Malay words for 'person of the forest'?

A) Chimpanzee

B) Orangutan

C) Gorilla

D) Bonobo

Answer · why

B) Orangutan

Orangutan mothers raise a single infant for six to nine years before giving birth again, the longest gap of any great ape. They also spend more of the...

Q 03/05

Which small primate of South and Southeast Asian forests is the only one with a toxic bite?

A) Potto

B) Dusky langur

C) Toque macaque

D) Slow loris

Answer · why

D) Slow loris

Slow loris venom starts as a secretion from a gland on the upper arm, which the animal licks so that it mixes with saliva. Mothers even groom it onto ...

Q 04/05

Europe's only wild monkeys live in which territory, where Churchill once had their numbers topped up?

A) Gibraltar

B) Malta

C) Cyprus

D) Canary Islands

Answer · why

A) Gibraltar

Gibraltar tradition holds that British rule will last only as long as its Barbary macaques do, so in 1942 Churchill had fresh animals brought over fro...

Q 05/05

Jack, a baboon in 1880s South Africa, earned a wage and a weekly beer ration for operating which equipment?

A) Lighthouse lamps

B) Telegraph keys

C) Railway signals

D) Canal lock gates

Answer · why

C) Railway signals

Railway signals at Uitenhage were worked by Jack for James Wide, a signalman who had lost both legs. In nine years on the job the baboon is said never...