Fun with Quizzes

Are you a Cetacean expert?

Instructions
To pass the test you must answer correctly at least 7 questions out of 10. For each question, one or more answers can be correct and you need to select all the correct options to score a point. Test evaluation is immediate and does not require you to provide any personal data.

1.

Which members of the Balaenopteridae family are known to prefer warm waters year round?

Blue whale

Minke whale

Bryde's whale

Fin whale

2.

The diet of Mysticeti (toothless whales) includes:

Copepods

Krill

Small fish

Marine mammals

3.

Talking about the ability of some cetaceans to make sounds and process the echoes bouncing back:

Echolocating cetaceans can recognise a woman being pregnant and may be therefore particularly careful and cautious in her presence

Echolocating cetaceans can see air in our lungs and therefore understand we cannot breathe underwater

Being echolocated by a cetacean is a guarantee the animal will not bump into you by mistake

Echolocation is the use of sound (and relative echoes) to locate objects, estimate their distance, shape and density

4.

Which of the following assertions are true?

Cetaceans evolved from land mammals

The ancestors of cetaceans always inhabited the sea

Cetaceans evolved from a now extinct warm-blooded fish

Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are believed to have evolved from reptiles

5.

In presence of a stranded cetacean, the following actions should be taken:

Gently try to drag the whale or dolphin back to the water

Immediately call the local authorities and experts

Keep the skin of the animal wet

Carefully try to keep the blowhole (or blowholes) free of sand or other materials

6.

What is the biggest animal that has ever lived on Earth?

The Sperm whale

The Fin whale

Some dinosaur

The Blue whale

7.

Why is a stranded cetacean in a highly life-threatening condition?

Because it cannot breathe

Because its body design was not conceived by Nature to fully cope with gravity out of the water

Because it cannot efficiently dissipate heat on land (overheating)

Because it quickly gets dehydrated and its skin is also sensitive to the ultraviolet radiations of the sun

8.

Which of the following assertions about the Sperm whale are true?

Its blow is unique in being projected forward and on the left

It belongs to the suborder Odontoceti

It can dive as deep as 2000 metres (6000 feet)

There is an organ in its head called Spermaceti, containing huge amounts of a waxy substance (which has nothing to do with sperm, though)

9.

Talking about evolution, the reason(s) why Cetaceans have almost completely lost their body hair since the time they were land mammals is (are):

Life in the ocean is so psychologically stressful

A fur is not as effective to keep a body warm in the water as it is on land

To increase streamlining

To avoid looking like seals and being hunted

10.

Who is the current record holder for deep diving among Marine Mammals?

Blue whale

Sperm whale

Elephant Seal

Cuvier's beaked whale