Q 01/05

Which radio-collared animal was found inside a 22-foot reticulated python that scientists captured in Indonesia?

A) Orangutan

B) Clouded leopard

C) Sun bear

D) Proboscis monkey

Answer · why

C) Sun bear

A sun bear weighing about 23 kg was the meal, and the python needed some ten weeks to digest it before surgeons took the tracking collar out of its gu...

Q 02/05

Which US president first offered a $1,000 reward, never claimed, for a live snake over 30 feet long?

A) Theodore Roosevelt

B) William Howard Taft

C) Woodrow Wilson

D) Calvin Coolidge

Answer · why

A) Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt put up the first $1,000 in the early 1900s; the New York Zoological Society raised the prize to $50,000 by 1980, and no reticulated...

Q 03/05

Which snake outweighs the reticulated python, the world's longest, to rank as the heaviest snake species alive?

A) Burmese python

B) King cobra

C) African rock python

D) Green anaconda

Answer · why

D) Green anaconda

The green anaconda is the heavyweight: the reticulated python is longer but more slender, and ranks only third for weight, behind the Burmese python a...

Q 04/05

Which unlikely name belonged to the 24-foot reticulated python that drew crowds at Ohio's Columbus Zoo until 2010?

A) Fluffy

B) Cuddles

C) Tiny

D) Princess

Answer · why

A) Fluffy

Fluffy held the Guinness record for the longest snake in captivity at 24 feet; the zoo bought her from her owner in 2007 and kept her on permanent dis...

Q 05/05

The reticulated python takes its name from a Latin word that compares its colour pattern to which object?

A) A chain

B) A ladder

C) A net

D) A braid

Answer · why

C) A net

A net is the image: reticulatus is Latin for net-like, a nod to the criss-crossing dark lines that run the length of the snake's back.