🦁 Animal trivia for kids

Every answer checked 31 October 2026. Free, no sign-up, nothing to download.

Ten animal questions for each age, with two from the sea to finish: why a flamingo is pink, what colour a beaver's teeth are, how fast a bison runs, what a panda's extra thumb is made of. Each one was checked against the animal's page at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, the Fish and Wildlife Service or the Park Service.

🐣 Little round: ages 6–8 (grades K–2)

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1.What covers a porcupine's body?
- A soft feathers
- B sharp quills
- C hard scales
2.What pulls on the ocean to make the tides?
- A the moon and the sun
- B big whales swimming
- C the wind and the rain
3.How does a sloth spend most of its life?
- A hanging upside down
- B running on the ground
- C digging tunnels
4.How many hearts does an octopus have?
- A one
- B three
- C eight
5.What color are a beaver's big front teeth?
- A white
- B orange
- C black
6.What does a skunk spray to keep other animals away?
- A a stinky liquid
- B cold water
- C sticky honey
7.What shape is the dark middle of a goat's eye?
- A a circle
- B a star
- C a rectangle
8.What do we call a grown-up girl chicken?
- A a chick
- B a rooster
- C a hen
9.What plant do monarch caterpillars eat?
- A milkweed
- B grass
- C clover
10.What gives a flamingo its pink color?
- A the food it eats
- B bathing in mud
- C the warm sunshine

🔑 Show the answers

B: sharp quills. A porcupine cannot shoot its quills, but they come loose easily. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A: the moon and the sun. Tides are so regular that people can predict them far ahead of time. Source: NOAA Ocean Service
A: hanging upside down. Sloths even eat and sleep while hanging from tree branches. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
B: three. Two of its hearts pump blood to the gills, and one pumps it to the rest of the body. Source: NOAA Ocean Service
B: orange. A beaver's front teeth keep growing its whole life. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A: a stinky liquid. Before it sprays, a skunk stomps its feet and lifts its tail as a warning. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
C: a rectangle. That dark middle part of the eye is called the pupil. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
C: a hen. Hens do not crow, but they cluck to talk to their chicks. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A: milkweed. Grown-up monarch butterflies sip sweet nectar from many kinds of flowers. Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A: the food it eats. Flamingo chicks hatch with white fluffy feathers and take years to turn pink. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo

🦊 Middle round: ages 9–11 (grades 3–5)

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1.Besides hearing prey under the sand, what do a fennec fox's giant ears help it do?
- A stay warm
- B stay cool
- C dig burrows
2.Where are the highest tides in the world?
- A the Bay of Fundy in Canada
- B the Red Sea
- C the Caribbean Sea
3.How far away can a male wild turkey's gobble be heard?
- A up to 100 miles
- B up to 10 feet
- C up to one mile
4.Some humpback whales swim about how far between warm and cold waters?
- A about 50,000 miles
- B about 5,000 miles
- C about 50 miles
5.In a group of meerkats, what job does one meerkat take on?
- A carrying water to the group
- B keeping watch for danger
- C building a nest of sticks
6.What is a big group of prairie dog burrows called?
- A a flock
- B a town
- C a hive
7.The wild relatives of pet guinea pigs come from which mountains?
- A the Andes
- B the Alps
- C the Rocky Mountains
8.An elephant's trunk is its nose joined together with what?
- A its front teeth
- B its tongue
- C its upper lip
9.How fast can a bison run?
- A up to 100 miles per hour
- B up to 5 miles per hour
- C up to 35 miles per hour
10.Which parts of a grown-up bald eagle are snowy white?
- A its head, neck and tail
- B its chest and legs
- C its wings and back

🔑 Show the answers

B: stay cool. For its body size, the fennec fox has the biggest ears of any kind of dog or fox. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A: the Bay of Fundy in Canada. In the United States, the highest tides are near Anchorage, Alaska. Source: NOAA Ocean Service
C: up to one mile. Wild turkeys can fly up to 54 miles per hour, though only for short trips. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
B: about 5,000 miles. Humpbacks have one of the longest migrations of any mammal. Source: NOAA Fisheries
B: keeping watch for danger. The lookout often stands up on its back legs, using its tail for support. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
B: a town. Prairie dogs trim plants taller than about 6 inches so they can see far across their home. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A: the Andes. Guinea pigs were first tamed by people in South America. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
C: its upper lip. A trunk has no bones; it is made mostly of muscle. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
C: up to 35 miles per hour. A grown male bison can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds. Source: National Park Service
A: its head, neck and tail. Both male and female bald eagles have mostly brown bodies. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo

🦉 Big round: ages 12 and up (grades 6 and up)

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1.Ninety-five percent of alpacas belong to which type, known for crimpy, woolly fiber?
- A vicuna
- B suri
- C huacaya
2.What is the deepest known part of the ocean called?
- A the Challenger Deep
- B the Java Trench
- C the Puerto Rico Trench
3.A giant panda grips bamboo with a 'pseudo thumb.' What is it made from?
- A a hardened claw
- B an enlarged wrist bone
- C a curled toe
4.Stony coral polyps build reefs from skeletons made of what?
- A silica
- B keratin
- C calcium carbonate
5.What grows in grooves on a two-toed sloth's hairs and can turn its fur green?
- A moss
- B mold
- C algae
6.Cattle digest plants using a four-compartment stomach. What group of animals does that make them?
- A rodents
- B marsupials
- C ruminants
7.In naked mole-rat colonies only one female breeds while the rest work. What is this way of living called?
- A hibernation
- B symbiosis
- C eusociality
8.Monarchs get protective toxins from the milkweed they eat. What are these toxins called?
- A enzymes
- B cardenolides
- C antibodies
9.When red pandas were first described in 1825, scientists placed them in which family?
- A the raccoon family
- B the deer family
- C the squirrel family
10.How many alternating black and white bands are on a ring-tailed lemur's tail?
- A 13
- B 5
- C 30

🔑 Show the answers

C: huacaya. The other type, the suri, has straight fiber that hangs down in long locks. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A: the Challenger Deep. It lies at the southern end of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. Source: NOAA Ocean Service
B: an enlarged wrist bone. Red pandas have the same kind of pseudo thumb and also use it to hold bamboo. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
C: calcium carbonate. Most stony coral polyps are only one to three millimeters across. Source: NOAA Ocean Service
C: algae. The grooves run from the top to the bottom of each brownish-gray hair. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
C: ruminants. Their complex stomach turns tough plants into energy and building blocks for the body. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
C: eusociality. The breeding female, called the queen, is the largest member of the colony. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
B: cardenolides. These toxins help keep monarchs safe from animals that might eat them. Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A: the raccoon family. Scientists linked them to raccoons partly because both have ringed tails. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A: 13. Unlike most lemurs, ringtails spend about 40 percent of their time on the ground. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo

For the host

Read the note after each answer aloud: it is usually the part kids remember and repeat at dinner.

Read each question and its three answers aloud, or press ▶ Play and Peabody reads them; a tap shows the answer, a line about it and where it comes from.
On a phone, pass it round: one question per team, a star for each right answer. On a laptop or a TV, press 📺 Big screen.
On paper, print the cards, one answer sheet per team and the key on its own page.

Where these questions come from

Each question was written by Peabody in its own words and checked against one page, named under its answer. The pages we used for these rounds:

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