Puppies and Goslings and Lambs, Oh My! The Baby Animals Quiz

Estimated Completion Time
2 min
Puppies and Goslings and Lambs, Oh My! The Baby Animals Quiz
Image: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images News/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Are you ready to overdose on adorable animal trivia? And we’re not talking just any adorable animals -- we’re talking about fuzzy-wuzzy baby animals. How much do you know about their names, care, habits and literary counterparts?
The baby of which common wild mammal is called a joey?
armadillo
opossum
raccoon
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Raccoons have cubs and armadillos have pups, but opossums have joeys -- they're marsupials, like kangaroos.

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In the Woody Guthrie song “Get Along Little Dogies,” what type of baby animal is he referring to?
cow
sheep
dog
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Woody was using a popular cowboy term for a motherless calf in a range herd. The orphaned cattle are called dogies.

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What do you call a group of non-species-specific young animals that stay together for protection?
creche
cackle
gaggle
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A cackle and a gaggle are indeed groups of animals -- hyenas and geese, respectively. But those refer to a group of specific animals of varying ages. A creche is a term used to describe a variety of animal types that huddle together for protection, including penguins and flamingos. Another interesting tidbit about this unusual word: It is also used by Catholics as a term for the Nativity scene.

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What’s the term for the stage where caterpillars change into butterflies?
transmutation
pupation
gross
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The concept of completely changing your body into an entirely different form is a little gross, but in the butterfly world it’s called pupation. This is the stage when a caterpillar enters a resting state while inside of a chrysalis, and the baby’s body is broken down and rearranged into a beautiful butterfly. That’s a lot of work, but totally worth it!

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Why do baby Komodo dragons spend so much time living in trees?
they’re shy
they can see their prey better
their parents might eat them
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

And you thought your parents were a pain while you were growing up! Komodo dragons are known to be cannibalistic, so the babies tend to stay tree bound until they are big enough to keep their parents from eating them. Also, Komodo dragon babies get no help from their parents once they’ve hatched. The kids are actually ready to hunt from day one and dine on delicious baby food like snakes, lizards and rodents.

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Which infant animal falls nearly 6 feet (1.8 meters) to the ground when born?
chimpanzee
giraffe
eagle
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A baby giraffe, called a calf, is a tall order (sorry, we couldn't resist) and often drops six feet to the ground when born. Like horses, giraffe moms get their calves up and walking around within minutes of birth.

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How long does it take for a baby elephant to gestate?
10 months
22 months
28 months
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When you're creating a baby that could weigh up to 250 pounds (113.4 kilograms)and stand 3 feet (9.1 decimeters) tall, it’s gonna take some time. Elephant gestation time averages around 22 months -- one of the longest pregnancies in the animal kingdom.

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Which baby sea creature has a name that sounds like something you'd do if you discovered you'd accidentally swallowed a mouthful of them while swimming?
mussels
oysters
both
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The fertilized eggs of mussels, oysters, scallops and other sea life start out as larvae until they find a suitable place to attach themselves, like to another animal’s shell. At that point they’re called spat.

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If you give your kids this baby animal, you’re going to need a brooder.
bunnies
chicks
lambs
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Every Easter, newborn bunnies and chicks fill pet shops and are often bought as gifts for children. Be careful before buying a baby animal because they usually require special care. For example, chicks require a brooder, which is an enclosure that will keep them warm and safe from predators. Remember, little animals grow up to be big animals, so do your homework before you invest in creature that your child may soon lose interest in or be unable to care for properly.

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I saw a leveret running across the lawn yesterday. What young animal did I see?
deer
hare
fox
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Leveret is an Anglo-French word for a hare that is under a year old. Also known as a fancy way to say bunny rabbit. Go ahead, impress your friends.

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What percentage of pygmy marmosets give birth to twins?
5 percent
48 percent
70 percent
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If you are a pygmy marmoset, then you probably have a twin brother or sister. Seventy percent of the time, these tiny creatures give birth to twins.

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Are baby hedgehogs born with or without quills?
with
without
both
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is a bit of a trick question. Hedgehogs are born with soft, white baby quills that are hidden under a membrane at first and appear a few hours after birth. Like teeth in humans, hedgehogs shed their baby quills and grow sharp, dark adult ones in a process called quilling.

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In the famous book by Beatrix Potter, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” which rabbit was NOT one of Peter’s sisters?
Popsy
Flopsy
Mopsy
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail were Peter’s siblings. Some sources claim that Flopsy had a baby bunny of her own named Popsy, but most folks know her children simply as the Flopsy Bunnies.

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Are Bengal tigers' eyes always golden?
yes
no
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Nope. Bengal tigers' eyes are blue when they are born and change to their classic golden hue as they age.

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Which animal’s newborns are called puggles?
the pug
the penguin
the platypus
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A baby platypus is called a puggle -- not to be confused with beagle-pug crossbreeds.

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In the story “The Ugly Duckling,” what type of animal did the duckling in question grow up to be?
a duck
a swan
a platypus
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This story by Hans Christian Andersen was published in 1843, and like the ugly duckling, it grew into a beautiful work of literary art. But what kind of bird did the ugly duckling grow into? A majestic swan. Technically he should have been called a cygnet -- the term for a baby swan.

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What do you call a baby panda?
cub
sow
boar
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Adult male pandas are called boars, adult female pandas are called sows and their babies are called cubs. Pandas have a very slow reproductive rate, so having a baby at all is a big deal. Pandas are also typically solitary creatures, which is probably another reason why they don’t have many kids.

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How many days old must a baby kangaroo be before he can leave his mother’s pouch?
37
190
235
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Baby kangaroos, or joeys, must be 190 days old before they can first venture out of their mother’s pouch. By day 235, they are out of the pouch for good and hopping around on their own.

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The book and movie titled “Born Free” chronicled a couple who took in and raised a wild baby animal. What kind of animal was it?
orangutan
elephant
lion
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The 1960 book by Joy Adamson, which was released as a movie in 1966, tells the story of how Joy and her husband raised an orphaned lion cub named Elsa and transitioned her from captivity to life in the wild.

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Why do humans find baby animals are so irresistibly cute?
they remind us of human babies
they’re soft and furry
they have silly names
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

According to a CNN report, human beings are programmed to fall in love with the big, watery eyes and wobbly first steps of other animals' young because they remind us of human babies, who experience many of the same growth stages. This human-animal connection is one of the reasons that zoos (and animal videos on YouTube, and pictures of kittens all over the Internet) are so popular.

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You Got:
/20
Robert Cianflone/Getty Images News/Getty Images