Q 01/05

Which amphibian of North America's boreal forest spends winter frozen solid, with no heartbeat?

A) Wood frog

B) Bullfrog

C) Mudpuppy

D) Hellbender

Answer · why

A) Wood frog

Wood frog blood floods with glucose as ice forms, which works like antifreeze inside the cells. It is the only North American frog found north of the ...

Q 02/05

Which 1908 blast, blamed on an exploding space rock, flattened 2,150 square km of Siberian taiga?

A) Carrington Event

B) Krakatoa eruption

C) Chelyabinsk meteor

D) Tunguska event

Answer · why

D) Tunguska event

The Tunguska event is thought to have been a meteoroid 50 to 60 metres wide bursting in mid-air, which is why trees right at the centre were stripped ...

Q 03/05

Which conifer, forming vast forests in eastern Siberia's taiga, sheds all its needles every autumn?

A) Spruce

B) Hemlock

C) Larch

D) Cedar

Answer · why

C) Larch

Larch is one of the few deciduous conifers, and one Siberian species grows farther north than any other tree in the world.

Q 04/05

Which taiga-ringed lake, Earth's deepest, holds more water than all five Great Lakes combined?

A) Tanganyika

B) Baikal

C) Ladoga

D) Great Slave

Answer · why

B) Baikal

Baikal is also the world's oldest lake, at 25 to 30 million years, and the only home of the nerpa, a seal found nowhere else.

Q 05/05

Which taiga browser, the largest living deer, is called an elk in British English?

A) Wapiti

B) Moose

C) Red deer

D) Sambar

Answer · why

B) Moose

Moose are strong swimmers that have been known to dive more than 5.5 metres to reach plants growing on lake bottoms.