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 of the following species are known to sometimes kill other marine mammals?

Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)

False killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens)

Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)

Orca (Orcinus orca)

2.

Feeding cetaceans in the wild can:

Have a negative impact on their feeding behaviour

Help them survive

Negatively alter their social behaviour and interactions, for example with males harassing females for a longer time, which they should rather spend searching for food

Help genuine friendship between cetaceans and humans

3.

Which of the following countries has formalised a moral opposition to whaling and prohibits killing and harassing of cetaceans to its citizens anywhere in the world?

Australia

Japan

Norway

Iceland

4.

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)

5.

All cetaceans are:

Warm-blooded mammals

Air-breathing animals

Filter feeders

Fish eaters

6.

Resident Orcas in British Columbia are:

Fish eaters

Marine mammal eaters

Omnivorous

Filter feeders

7.

Which of the following baleen whales have typical callosities on its head?

Humpback whale

Right whale

Gray whale

Bryde's whale

8.

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

It is the most acrobatic of all baleen whales (Mysticeti)

It only inhabits the Northern Hemisphere

It has unusually long, very distinctive flippers (pectoral fins)

Its songs (only males sing) are well known for their complexity and variety

9.

Cetaceans, compared to humans, have:

A higher concentration of myoglobin in muscles

A bigger lung volume relative to total body volume

A higher amount of blood in their circulatory system, relative to total body weight

More efficient biochemical pathways, which enhance their tolerance towards lactic acid

10.

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