About This Quiz
Generally speaking, a carnivore is any animal that gets most if not all of its nutrients from eating meat. Sure they can supplement their diet with the odd vegetable or a Hawaiian pizza, but for the most part, they hunt their prey and devour it in a way that is both natural and kind of hard to watch if you're a little squeamish. But that's just the Circle of Life, right? It's all part of the grand scheme and even if it seems a little brutal sometimes it's how nature has operated for literally millions of years at this point. Carnivores eat meat and meat, as most non-vegans will tell you, can be pretty tasty. So it's not all that hard to get inside the head of a carnivore and understand where they're coming from. Even omnivorous humans can sometimes succumb to a massive, meat-filled barbecue weekend.Â
Depending on how well you know your meat-eating animal cousins, this quiz either be a walk through the park or a brain-busting tour de force. But if you're pretty confident in your carnivore-identifying skillset then you need to put on the grill, tenderize some steaks and get your brain sizzling with this quiz.
Even though they look like large foxes, maned wolves are not in the same family. It's also not technically a wolf, either. Instead, it's the only member of its family that shares some characteristics with both species.
Honey badgers may sound sweet but in reality, they are anything but. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it's the most fearless animal on Earth and will even attack and fight off lions when forced into corners.
Bobcats range all across North America and feature prominently in Native American folklore. They get their name from their tails or, more specifically, their lack of a tail which is just a stub or "bobbed."
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Black bears are a relatively small species of bear, but they do have some impressive senses. A black bear's eyesight is more acute than a human's and their sense of smell is seven times greater than a dog's, meaning if you really want to hunt something you should use a bear.
As the name suggests, a fishing cat is very much at home in and around water. In fact, the fishing cat is adept at swimming long distances and can even swim underwater.
Orcas are better known by their much more dramatic name, killer whales. Despite that aggressive name these animals, which are related to dolphins, are often very chill in the wild and only rarely cause harm to humans. In captivity, however, an orca can be very aggressive to human handlers and some have even killed.
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Sloth bears are some of the most vocal bears in the world. They can produce over 25 distinct sounds such as barks, woofs, yelps, roars, grunts, and screams. They're particularly vocal when mating.
Binturongs are also known as bearcats and are particularly unusual beasts. Their most curious feature is that their scent glands produce a musk composed of a compound called 2-Acetyl-1-pyyroline that causes them to smell like popcorn or corn chips.
Asian palm civets are not actually cats but they do resemble them. They supplement their diet which includes small mammals and insects with things like mangoes and coffee sometimes.
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Dingoes can be found nearly everywhere in Australia, and though they look like dogs they don't always behave like domesticated dogs. For instance, though they are fully capable of barking, dingoes almost never do. In fact, only about 5% of all the vocalizations made by a dingo will be barks.
Fossas are apex predators in Madagascar and most of their diet consists of lemurs. They also eat smaller mammals, birds and lizards as well to pad out their diets.
African wild dogs are bulky compared to most other dog-like animals and also have an unusual fur coat. Their fur is thick bristles with no undercoat and it thins out as the dogs age. Very old dogs will be almost completely hairless.
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Spotted hyenas, also called laughing hyenas, live in large social groups. While pack behavior is common in animals in the dog family, spotted hyenas will take it to the next level by living in groups of up to 80 different members.
Raccoon dogs aren't really raccoons or dogs. In fact, they're more closely related to foxes than either of the animals it's named for. Native to Eastern Asia they've also become an invasive species in Sweden thanks to people importing them as pets.
Komodo dragons are big, dangerous animals that are best avoided at all times. Their claws can tear through cages and their jaws are capable of inflicting deadly bites that will saturate wounds with bacteria and toxins.
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Arctic foxes are well-adapted to life in the frigid north thanks to their incredibly insulating fur that protects them from the harsh temperatures of the Arctic. In fact, the Arctic fox is the only canid that even has fur on the pads of its feet.
Thanks to their adorable appearance, Fennec foxes have become rather popular as pets even though they're not actually domesticated and the best you can hope for is a tame one. It's legal to own as a pet in some places, but it's best to check with your local jurisdiction to be sure.
Jaguarundi are small, wild cats that tend to be rather solitary in the wild. They also produce a curious array of vocalizations that include normal cat-like meows, growls and purrs but also oddly bird-like sounds.
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Golden jackals are very small, wolf-like canids. Every once in a while a jackal will grow a very small horn on its head that's usually concealed by its fur. People in Sri Lanka used to think they were magical.
Kinkajous are native to Central and South America. Their diet is kind of bizarre since they're classified as carnivores but they're also big fruit eaters and tend to consume a lot of figs. On the carnivore side of things, they eat ants and other insects.
Clouded leopards range all across Asia, particularly throughout the Himalayan mountains and China. They're such good climbers that they've actually been observed climbing down vertical surfaces headfirst.
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The Canadian lynx is very similar to the bobcat although it has much more distinct ear tufts. In some cases, snowshoe hares can make up nearly 100% of the cat's diet, though it can dip as low as about 30% depending on availability of the hares.
The lion is arguably the most recognizable animal in the entire world and has been for literally thousands of years. There are cave paintings in France dating from 17,000 years ago depicting these big cats.
Green anacondas are one of the largest snakes on Earth. Not quite the longest but definitely the heaviest, these constrictors could devour a full-grown human if given the opportunity.
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Meerkats live in desert climates in Africa and tend to live in giant groups. Some families are about 20 members strong while some larger groups can have as many as 50 members.
Sea otters were once prized for their fur, and hunters took their population from hundreds of thousands down to perhaps only one or two thousand. Luckily, as a result of being protected, the species was able to bounce back somewhat but they are still considered endangered.
The banded mongoose can be found in central and eastern Africa. It is a carnivore but not a particularly fearsome hunter. As such, the majority of its diet is beetles and millipedes.
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Wolverines have a reputation for being some of the most fearsome predators in North America. Their ferocity is the reason that Marvel comics named one of their most popular characters after them.
Long-tailed weasels do live up to their name with a tail that tends to be more than half of their total body length. That said, they only get to be about 14 inches in length so "long" is very much a relative term here.
Andean condors, when you factor in both weight and wingspan, are the largest flying birds on the planet. Their wingspan reaches nearly 11 feet and is only surpassed by four other species, none of which match up in the weight department. So basically you don't want to mess with this bird.
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Great horned owls can be found all over North America and are highly skilled hunters. They mostly focus on rabbits but will readily snatch up any small mammal and even some birds if they can get their talons into them.
Goblin sharks are deep-sea sharks and as such as rarely ever seen by humans. They'd likely be an unremarkable species if not for their massive snout and the fact they have protrusible jaws which means their jaws extend out of their mouth when they bite.
Moray eels are accomplished predators thanks to their highly unusual jaws. The eels actually have two jaws that work a bit like the alien's ones from the movie "Alien." The jaw you can see will clamp down on prey while a smaller jaw in the mouth lunges forward and will kill whatever it has caught and pull it into the eel's mouth.
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Some species of tigers can grow to a massive size weighing as much as 650 lbs or more. They are the largest cats in the world and some of the largest cats that have ever lived. The heaviest tiger ever in captivity actually weighed over 1,000 lbs.
Skunks are one of the few animals that adapt well to having its habitat overtaken by human cities. Many homeowners know all too well that a skunk is quite happy raiding human garbage cans in the middle of the night.
American bullfrogs may not look entirely intimidating, but they're very aggressive hunters. Bullfrogs have been known to eat other frogs, fish, snakes, rodents, birds and even bats. If a bullfrog can fit something in its mouth, it'll probably eat it.
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Mongooses are one of only a handful of species that are genetically protected from snake venom. Snake neurotoxin cannot chemically bond when they bite mongooses so the only ill effect a mongoose will suffer is from the bite itself. As such, mongooses have become rather effective hunters of cobras in some parts of the world.
For a time, bald eagles were on the brink of extinction. Luckily, efforts to save the species proved fruitful and in 1995 the eagles were actually removed from the endangered species list. They're still considered a threatened species but they are doing much better.
The Australian sundew plant's clever method of trapping insects for digestion is also very simple. It looks like any other plant glistening with morning dew that will attract insects to drink the water. But that dew is not water. Instead, it's a sticky substance produced by the plant itself from which insects can't escape. Once caught, digestive enzymes break down the bug.
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The alligator gar is an extremely intimidating fish that has a dual row of very sharp teeth on its upper jaw and scales that are less like a normal fish and more like armor. The scales are actually a lot like bone and are covered in a hard enamel, making them very hard to penetrate.