Q 01/05

Folk rhymes say a North American coral snake is the banded one whose red rings touch which colour?

A) Black

B) Yellow

C) White

D) Orange

Answer · why

B) Yellow

Yellow rings separate the red and black ones on the eastern coral snake, so red always meets yellow. On its harmless mimics, the red rings border blac...

Q 02/05

A rattlesnake adds a new segment to the rattle on its tail each time it does what?

A) Sheds its skin

B) Turns a year older

C) Eats a large meal

D) Survives a winter

Answer · why

A) Sheds its skin

Each time a rattlesnake sheds its skin a segment is added, and that can happen several times a year, so counting the segments does not reveal the anim...

Q 03/05

Which animal, the cobra-killing hero of Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, has cell receptors that resist snake venom?

A) Otter

B) Wolverine

C) Mongoose

D) Weasel

Answer · why

C) Mongoose

The mongoose has acetylcholine receptors altered so that a cobra's toxin cannot bind to them, a mutation known in only a handful of mammal groups.

Q 04/05

Which African snake, whose name Kobe Bryant took as a nickname, can move at up to 16 km/h?

A) Cape cobra

B) Rhinoceros viper

C) Forest cobra

D) Black mamba

Answer · why

D) Black mamba

The black mamba is the longest venomous snake in Africa, and Bryant took the name from an assassin's code name in the Kill Bill films.

Q 05/05

Harmless corn snakes are often killed because they resemble which venomous pit viper of the eastern United States?

A) Copperhead

B) Massasauga

C) Pygmy rattlesnake

D) Timber rattlesnake

Answer · why

A) Copperhead

The copperhead often freezes instead of slithering away when approached, so many bites happen when people unknowingly step on or near one.