Moose Trivia
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7correct to beat the crowd
This moose trivia quiz has 43 free questions with answers and covers the largest deer alive: how tall and heavy they get, why their antlers are shaped like open hands and how fast they grow, the dewlap under the chin, the hollow hairs that keep them afloat, and the surprising fact that they dive more than five metres for lake-bottom plants. It also ranges across the animal's history and culture: Julius Caesar's description, the Algonquian origin of the word, why Britons say 'elk', the four moose that founded Newfoundland's herd, the Russian farm that milks them, Sweden's enormous annual hunt, the car-industry 'moose test', Bullwinkle, the Loyal Order of Moose and Moose Jaw. Easy questions suit kids and family quiz nights; the harder ones will stretch wildlife buffs. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 43 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The moose is the largest living member of which animal family?
Deer
Deer is the moose's family, and it is the largest living member; unlike the fawns of most of its relatives, a moose calf is born plain reddish-brown, with no spots.
Q 02What is the animal Americans call a moose called in British English?
Elk
Elk is the moose's name in British English; North Americans gave that word to the wapiti instead, so one name means two different animals on either side of the Atlantic.
Q 03The word 'moose' came into English in the 1600s from which language family?
Algonquian
Algonquian languages of the Northeast supplied the word, probably Narragansett or Abenaki; it is said to have meant 'he strips off', for the way the animal strips bark.
Q 04How are a mature bull moose's broad antlers usually described?
Palmate, like an open hand
Palmate, like an open hand, each antler is a broad plate edged with points, regrown from nothing every summer at up to an inch a day.
Q 05What is the fold of skin hanging under a moose's chin called?
A dewlap or bell
A dewlap or bell hangs larger on bulls, and its purpose is still debated; one idea is scent, since rutting bulls splash urine-soaked mud onto it.
Q 06Moose wade into ponds for water plants in summer to get which mineral?
Sodium
Sodium is scarce in the twigs and leaves moose live on, so they wade and even dive more than five metres for pondweed and lilies, and lick up the salt spread on winter roads.
Q 07What feature of a moose's guard hairs helps it stay afloat when swimming?
They are hollow and filled with air
They are hollow and filled with air, so the same coat that buoys a swimming moose also traps warmth, insulating it through northern winters.
Q 08Which is the moose's only confirmed marine predator?
Orca
Orcas are the moose's only known marine predator, taking animals swimming between islands off North America's Northwest Coast; a Greenland shark has been found with moose remains, most likely scavenged.
Q 09Which of these big cats preys on moose in the wild?
Siberian tiger
Siberian tigers hunt moose where their ranges meet in the forests of the Amur region; elsewhere a healthy adult's main natural enemy is the wolf pack.
Q 10Which of a moose's senses is considered its weakest?
Eyesight
Eyesight is the moose's weak point, extremely poor by most accounts, but a keen nose and acute hearing through its big ears make up for it.
Q 11Which Roman author gave the earliest surviving written description of the moose?
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar described the animal in Book 6 of his Gallic War commentaries, among the beasts of the Hercynian Forest, repeating the odd claim that it had no knee joints and slept leaning against trees.
Q 12Moose were brought to which Canadian island, where a few released by 1904 have since multiplied spectacularly?
Newfoundland
Newfoundland had no native moose; with plenty of food and few predators the newcomers spread until their feeding now stops young forest regrowing in the island's national parks.
Q 13Whose 1912 run for president gave the Progressive Party its nickname, the Bull Moose Party?
Theodore Roosevelt
Q 21What call does a bull moose make when searching for cows during the rut?
A deep grunt
A deep grunt, low and guttural, is how a rutting bull announces himself; cows call back with a long, wailing moan to draw him in.
Q 22What is the Älgtest, better known in English by its animal name?
A vehicle swerving trial
The Älgtest, or moose test, is a vehicle swerving trial that checks whether a car can dodge a sudden obstacle without rolling; the 1997 Mercedes A-Class famously tipped over in it.
Q 23Which parasite, harmless to its usual host, is blamed for moose declines in the south of their range?
Brainworm
Theodore Roosevelt, denied the Republican nomination, boasted he felt as strong as a bull moose, then outpolled President Taft as a third-party candidate while Woodrow Wilson won.
Q 14Moose belong to which order of mammals?
Artiodactyla
Artiodactyla groups the even-toed hoofed mammals, which bear weight on two main toes like cattle and pigs; whales are now placed in the same order, as cousins of the hippos.
Q 15Outside the mating season, how does an adult bull moose usually live?
Alone
Alone is the rule: moose are the least social of their family, and bulls that do meet during the rut come together mainly to fight over cows.
Q 16Which moose subspecies is the largest?
Alaska
The Alaska moose is the giant of the species: its bulls can weigh about twice as much as those at the warm southern edge of the range, the usual pattern of bigger bodies in colder climates.
Q 17Which common livestock feed can be fatal to a moose because it cannot digest it?
Hay
Moose cannot digest hay, and feeding it to them can be fatal; their need for a varied, expensive diet is one reason they were never widely domesticated.
Q 18An experimental farm in which country keeps a tame moose herd mainly for its milk?
Russia
Russia's Kostroma Moose Farm, founded in 1963 near the city of Kostroma, keeps a tame herd whose milk goes to the nearby Ivan Susanin sanatorium.
Q 19In which months does the moose rut, or mating season, take place?
September and October
The moose rut runs through September and October; mature bulls stop feeding almost entirely for about two weeks at its height and spend their energy fighting rivals and courting cows.
Q 20Why do bull moose drop their antlers after the mating season?
To conserve energy for winter
Bulls shed their antlers after the rut to conserve energy for winter, when food is scarce; a new set starts growing in spring, though immature bulls may keep theirs until then.
Brainworm, a nematode that whitetails carry harmlessly, is fatal to moose and is blamed for declines along the southern edge of their range; liver flukes and winter ticks add to the toll.
Q 24Moose released in North Park in 1978 founded the fast-growing herd of which Rocky Mountain state?
Colorado
Colorado had only wandering strays until wildlife officers released a small group from Utah and Wyoming in North Park; the herd has since grown into the thousands.
Q 25How does a moose's hoof help it cross soft ground and snow?
It splays under load
It splays under load, spreading the moose's weight over soft ground and snow much like a snowshoe; the wider foot also helps it paddle when swimming.
Q 26Which is the only North American land animal that outweighs the moose?
Bison
Bison can top a tonne, heavier than any moose, yet the long-legged moose stands taller at the shoulder than any other land animal on the continent.
Q 27Which Michigan island's isolated moose population is studied alongside its wolves?
Isle Royale
Isle Royale's moose arrived in the early 1900s and wolves are thought to have followed over lake ice in the late 1940s; scientists have tracked both since 1958, the longest predator-prey study anywhere.
Q 28Wiped out by early settlers, moose later wandered back from the north into which of these states?
Massachusetts
Massachusetts lost its moose to hunting and forest clearing, but once hunting was controlled and woods regrew they spread south from neighbouring states into its centre and west.
Q 29Bullwinkle J. Moose lives in which fictional Minnesota town?
Frostbite Falls
Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, is said to be modelled on the real border town of International Falls, which calls itself the 'Icebox of the Nation'.
Q 30Bullwinkle and Rocky share the middle initial 'J' in honour of whom?
Producer Jay Ward
Producer Jay Ward's studio made the show; he and partner Alex Anderson had first sketched the moose for an earlier series proposal that was never produced.