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.

What baleen whales are mostly seen in Peninsula Valdes (Argentina)?

Orcas, which hunt seal and sea lion pups right up the beach

Southern Right whales

Blue whales

None of the above

2.

Herman Melville's white whale in the novel Moby Dick was actually:

A Great White Shark

A Whale Shark

A Sperm whale

A Blue whale

3.

Some tourists tell you they have seen a mother and calf Gray whale pair in Patagonia:

It could be, but only during the Southern Hemisphere winter

It is impossible, because the Gray whale only inhabits the West coast of South America

It is impossible, because the Gray whale only inhabits the Northern Hemisphere

It is very possible, since the Gray whale is the most sighted cetacean in Patagonia

4.

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

It performs the longest seasonal migrations between breeding and feeding grounds

It has a higher than average number of parasites

Its scientific name is Eschrichtius robustus

Females are larger than males

5.

What is the smallest rorqual (whale with throat grooves)?

The Common dolphin

The Bryde's whale

The Dugong

The Minke whale

6.

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

7.

Strandings of cetaceans can be caused by:

Military sonar systems

Infections and other diseases

Local changes of the Earth's magnetic field

Ancestral desire of cetaceans to come back to land

8.

The so-called melon in Odontoceti plays a crucial role in:

Focusing the sounds used in echolocation

Excreting

Feeding

Mating

9.

The number of blowholes in Mysticeti is:

Two

One or two, depending on the species

One

Always two, except for the Bowhead whale which has only one

10.

The number of blowholes in Odontoceti is:

Two

One or two, depending on the species

One

Always one, except the Sperm whale which has two