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49 free Tundra trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This tundra trivia quiz covers the coldest biome on Earth, from the Arctic plains of Siberia and Canada to the alpine tundra above the tree line and the mossy fringes of Antarctica. The easy questions are the ones from a school geography lesson: what stops trees growing, what the frozen ground is called, which language the word comes from, and which big animals wander the barrens. From there it moves into the numbers behind the biome: how little precipitation falls, how cold winter gets, how few mammal species live there and how much of the Northern Hemisphere sits on frozen soil. The harder end is for people who like the details: the two Russian cities built on continuous permafrost, the fossil relatives of the muskox, the Inuktitut name for 'the bearded one', how many pups an Arctic fox can have, why lemmings never really jump off cliffs and which Disney film faked it, the Gaelic origin of the word ptarmigan, and the only two flowering plants on the Antarctic continent. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the tundra, permafrost and its animals before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Arctic, polar bear and rainforest quizzes next.
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Q 01What prevents trees from growing in a tundra?
Cold and a very short summer
Cold and a very short summer keep trees out: the growing season lasts only about 50 to 60 days, so only dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses, mosses and lichens survive.
Q 02From which language does the word 'tundra' come?
Russian
English borrowed 'tundra' from Russian, which took it from the Kildin Sámi word tūndâr, meaning a treeless upland or marshy plain.
Q 03Which three regions and types of tundra are recognised?
Arctic, Alpine and Antarctic
The three recognised types are Arctic, Alpine and Antarctic tundra; alpine tundra forms on high mountains at any latitude, even near the equator.
Q 04What is the name for the boundary between tundra and forest?
Tree line
Tree line (or timberline) is the boundary beyond which cold and wind prevent trees from growing; the open tundra lies past it.
Q 05Which lichen species, nicknamed 'reindeer moss', is a staple winter food of tundra herds?
Cladonia rangiferina
Cladonia rangiferina, the reindeer lichen or 'reindeer moss', is a pale, branching fruticose lichen that reindeer dig out from under the snow as their main winter food.
Q 06Arctic tundra lies north of which forest belt?
The taiga
The taiga, or boreal forest, is the conifer belt lying south of the Arctic tundra, which stretches across northern Russia, Canada and Alaska.
Q 07What grows in permafrost cracks each winter to build the tundra's large polygon networks?
Ice wedges
Ice wedges form when intense cold cracks the permafrost and spring meltwater refreezes in the fissure; repeated for centuries, they outline the polygons seen from the air across Arctic lowlands.
Q 08Roughly how much precipitation does Arctic tundra receive per year, qualifying it as a polar desert?
150-250 mm
Arctic tundra receives only about 150-250 mm of precipitation a year, mostly as snow, yet evaporation is so low that the ground turns to marsh and bog in summer.
Q 09How many species of land mammals live in the tundra, according to standard biodiversity counts?
48
Only 48 species of land mammals are found across the tundra, though millions of migratory birds arrive each summer to nest in its marshes.
Q 10Which class of cold-blooded animals is almost entirely absent from the tundra?
Frogs and lizards
The mosquito, by contrast, is one of its most notorious residents.
Q 11Labrador tea, a notable Arctic tundra plant, belongs to which genus?
Rhododendron
Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum, once placed in Ledum) now sits in the genus Rhododendron; blueberry and crowberry grow alongside it on the tundra.
Q 12Which largely tundra region of Siberia has produced most of Russia's natural gas?
Yamalo-Nenets
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, home to giant fields such as Urengoy and Yamburg, has produced the bulk of Russia's natural gas for decades.
Q 13Under the Köppen climate system, what code denotes a tundra climate?
ET
ET is the Köppen code for tundra: at least one month averages above freezing, but no month is warm enough for trees, while EF denotes a permanent ice cap.
Q 21The deepest permafrost extends to greater than what depth?
1,500 m
The deepest permafrost, in northern Siberia, reaches more than 1,500 m down, while the shallowest is less than a metre thick.
Q 22What is the name for the seasonally thawing ground above permafrost in which plant roots can grow?
Active layer
Active layer is the name for the top of the ground that thaws each summer and refreezes in winter; only there can plant roots take hold above the permafrost.
Q 23Which two large cities are the only ones in the world built on continuous permafrost?
Norilsk and Yakutsk
Norilsk and Yakutsk, both in Russia, are the only large cities built on continuous permafrost; their buildings stand on piles so heat from them does not thaw the ground.
Q 14Above what monthly average temperature does a climate stop counting as tundra under the Köppen system?
10 °C
Under Köppen, a tundra climate requires every month to average below 10 °C; once the warmest month reaches 10 °C it counts as subarctic or temperate instead, roughly the poleward limit of trees.
Q 15How many flowering plant species are native to the Antarctic continent?
Two
Two flowering plants are native to Antarctica: Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort, both confined to the milder Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands.
Q 16Why does the Antarctic tundra lack large land mammals, unlike the Arctic?
Isolation from the other continents
Isolation from the other continents, with Antarctica cut off by the Southern Ocean for tens of millions of years, kept land mammals from reaching it; seals and penguins use only the shore.
Q 17What is the name for the stunted, wind-twisted forest found at the edge of alpine tundra?
Krummholz
Krummholz, German for 'crooked wood', names the belt of stunted, wind-twisted trees in the forest-tundra ecotone where upright growth becomes impossible.
Q 18At its upper edge, alpine tundra ends at which boundary?
The snow line
The snow line is the upper limit of alpine tundra; above it, snow and ice persist right through the summer and plant cover gives way to bare rock and ice.
Q 19For how long must ground stay below 0 °C to count as permafrost?
Two years or more
Two years or more at or below 0 °C is the definition of permafrost; the oldest known permafrost has stayed continuously frozen for around 700,000 years.
Q 20Roughly what share of the exposed land surface of the Northern Hemisphere is underlain by permafrost?
15%
About 15% of the Northern Hemisphere's exposed land surface is underlain by permafrost, including much of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia.
Q 24What are the large ice-cored mounds, up to 70 m high, that form in permafrost regions called?
Pingos
Pingos are ice-cored hills that grow as groundwater freezes and heaves the surface upward; smaller peaty mounds called palsas form in a similar way in bogs.
Q 25Which two greenhouse gases does decomposing biomass release as permafrost thaws?
Carbon dioxide and methane
Carbon dioxide and methane escape as the biomass rots, a climate feedback loop, though not one thought large enough to cause runaway warming.
Q 26The muskox is most closely related to which animals?
Sheep and goats
Sheep and goats are the muskox's nearest kin, hence its genus name Ovibos, Latin for 'sheep-ox'.
Q 27What does the muskox's Inuktitut name, umingmak, mean?
The bearded one
The bearded one is the meaning of umingmak, a reference to the muskox's long, shaggy guard hairs; the English name refers instead to the strong odour of rutting males.
Q 28Muskoxen introduced to which European country wandered over the border to found a small herd in Sweden?
Norway
Norway received muskoxen from Greenland in the Dovrefjell mountains; in 1971 a few wandered across the border into Sweden's Härjedalen and founded a small herd there.
Q 29The Arctic fox's tail makes up roughly what fraction of its total length?
One third
One third of the Arctic fox's total length is tail: about 30 cm of brush on a 55 cm body, which the fox curls over its face for warmth when sleeping in snow.
Q 30What is the maximum litter size recorded for the Arctic fox, the largest in the order Carnivora?
25
A litter of 25 is the record for the Arctic fox, the largest in the order Carnivora; litter sizes track the lemming population, which peaks every three to five years.