Animal Diets for Kids Quiz

1. What is a herbivore?

1. An animal that eats both plants and animals
2. An animal that eats insects only
3. An animal that eats only meat
4. An animal that eats only plants

2. What is a carnivore?

1. An animal that eats both meat and plants
2. An animal that eats only fish
3. An animal that eats only meat (other animals)
4. An animal that eats only plants

3. Which of these animals is an omnivore (eats both plants and animals)?

1. Bear
2. Cow
3. Lion
4. Rabbit

4. What does a filter feeder eat?

1. It eats only filtered/clean water
2. It eats only very fine grains of sand for minerals
3. It filters out meat from plants
4. It strains tiny organisms from water — like plankton and krill

5. What do pandas eat almost exclusively?

1. Bamboo
2. Fish from mountain streams
3. Fruit and berries
4. Insects and grubs

6. The Venus flytrap is a plant that eats insects. What type of organism is it?

1. A carnivorous plant
2. A fungus that mimics a plant
3. A parasitic plant
4. An insect trap, not a plant

7. What is a 'scavenger' and give an example?

1. A predator that only hunts at night
2. An animal that eats only fruit that has fallen to the ground
3. An animal that feeds mainly on dead or decaying animals rather than hunting live prey
4. An animal that steals food from other predators

8. The giant anteater has no teeth. How does it manage to eat hard insects?

1. It has a tough, muscular stomach (like a gizzard) that grinds up insects it has swallowed whole
2. It only eats very soft larvae, avoiding hard adult insects
3. It soaks ants in its saliva to dissolve them
4. Its tongue secretes acids that dissolve the insects

9. Sharks are often thought of as ferocious man-eaters. What do most sharks actually eat?

1. Mainly fish, squid, and crustaceans — with larger species eating marine mammals
2. Mainly seaweed and algae
3. Only dead animals (scavenged)
4. Only large mammals like seals

10. What do woodpeckers eat, and how do they find their food?

1. Berries and fruits from forest trees
2. Insects hiding under bark, found by pecking wood and using their long, barbed tongue to extract them
3. Nectar from tree flowers
4. Seeds from pine cones extracted with their powerful beak

11. The koala eats eucalyptus leaves that are toxic to most animals. How does the koala survive eating them?

1. Koalas build up immunity by eating tiny amounts from birth
2. They have specialised gut bacteria and an extra-long caecum (digestive organ) that detoxifies the leaves
3. They only eat the young shoots which have less toxin
4. They vomit the toxins back up after absorbing nutrients

12. What does the vampire bat feed on, and how does it find its prey at night?

1. Dead animals found by smell
2. Fruit and nectar only
3. Small insects caught mid-air
4. The blood of livestock and occasionally other mammals, using heat sensors to find blood vessels

13. What is a 'detritivore' and give an example?

1. A scavenger that eats bones
2. A very small herbivore
3. An animal that eats detritus (decomposing organic matter) and is vital for nutrient recycling
4. An animal that eats only decomposed fruit

14. Why do some animals store food, and which animals do this?

1. Only captive animals do this; wild animals don't plan ahead
2. Only for display to attract mates
3. To ensure food availability during winter or when prey is scarce — squirrels bury nuts, leopards cache prey in trees
4. To protect food from other members of their own species only

15. What is a food chain and give a simple example?

1. A chain of animals connected by similar diets
2. A list of all animals that a predator eats
3. A sequence showing who eats whom — from producers (plants) through to top predators
4. The order in which animals eat at a watering hole

16. What do hummingbirds eat and what special adaptation do they have for getting it?

1. Both nectar and tiny insects for protein
2. Fruit juices from ripe berries
3. Insects caught in hovering flight
4. Nectar from flowers, accessed by hovering and using their long, tube-like bills and tongues

17. The blue whale is the largest animal ever, yet its food is tiny. What does it eat and how much per day?

1. Krill (tiny shrimp-like crustaceans) — up to 4 tonnes per day during feeding season
2. Large fish like tuna and swordfish — about 500 kg per day
3. Plankton filtered from seawater — about 500 litres per day
4. Squid and octopus — about 1 tonne per day

18. Which animal has the most varied diet of any land predator — eating everything from moose to berries to fish to mushrooms?

1. Brown bear
2. Grizzly bear
3. Wolf
4. Wolverine

19. What is a 'keystone species' and give an example relating to feeding?

1. A species that eats only one type of food
2. A species whose feeding habits have a disproportionately large impact on its ecosystem — like wolves regulating deer populations
3. Any endangered species
4. The top predator in any food chain

20. Some animals are 'specialist' feeders; others are 'generalist' feeders. Which strategy is more resilient to environmental change?

1. Both strategies are equally resilient
2. Generalist feeders — they can switch to alternative food sources when their preferred food becomes scarce
3. Specialist feeders — their focus means they are always better at finding food
4. Specialist feeders — they are perfectly optimised