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About This Quiz
It's a dog eat dog world out there, and dogs generally have it easy compared to most animals. It's hard making a go of it in the wild! You have to worry about the weather, finding shelter, finding food, loss of habitat, hunters, predators, all kinds of things. It's not easy being a wild animal at all. That's why nature goes out of its way to try to ensure animals have a variety of skills and defenses at their disposal to give them an edge in the game of life.
Some animals are super fast and can outrun a human. Some have jaws powerful enough to crush bone. Some climb trees, some fly and some excel at blending in. Striped animals, for instance, use their coloration as camouflage very often. And that can be used to hide from predators just as often as it can be used to hide from prey. Some strips warn you that an animal is dangerous; some may be useful in finding a mate. Some maybe have no purpose that we understand at all.
Whatever the case, there are a lot of striped animals in the world. How many do you think you can identify? Time to find out!
Mountain zebra
Zorse
Okapi
Okapi are sometimes called forest giraffes or zebra giraffes. They're a cousin of the giraffe everyone knows and loves and are native to Central Africa. They're currently considered an endangered animal with habitat loss and hunting being major threats to them.
Quagga
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Groundhog
White-striped lemming
Striped squirrel
Chipmunk
Chipmunks look a lot like little striped squirrels with a smaller tail. Why are they called chipmunks? It may come from a Native American word that means "red squirrel," but it's hard to say for sure. For added fun, some people call these little guys "timber tigers."
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Tiger
Tigers are one of the most easily recognizable animals in the world. There are probably less than 4,000 wild tigers left in the world, and it's estimated there may actually be more in private homes in the United States than in the wild.
Leopard
Jaguar
Ocelot
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Polecat
Skunk
Skunks are the scourge of many homeowners in the world thanks to the fact that they adapt pretty well to living in urban areas, and they love to dig into the trash. Their infamous stink is sprayed from glands, which they can aim and fire at a distance of about 10 feet.
Striped gopher
Lemming
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Tabby cat
Tabby cats aren't actually a breed of cat so much as a kind of cat, if that makes sense. Any cat with the striped pattern is generally considered a tabby cat, and they usually tend to be mutts, which is to say not a purebred but a mix of other breeds.
Maine Coon
Sphinx cat
Abyssinian
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Aardwolf
Striped dingo
Striped hyena
Striped hyenas are the smallest of the various hyena breeds in the world, which means they can still get up to around 120 lbs when they're fully grown. Striped hyenas are pretty historical as animals go and are even mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
Wild dog
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Blue-ringed octopus
Zebra nautilus
Striped man-o-war
Striped pajama squid
The striped pajama squid is remarkably small, only about 3 inches long at full size. The white stripes on the squid reflect lights while the colored stripes are actually chromatophores or pigment-filled cells that the squid can actively flash.
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Tarsier
Ring-tailed lemur
Ring-tailed lemurs are social animals that live in big family groups with upwards of 30 members. Female lemurs are the leaders of the family groups, while males will fight for dominance among one another by using scent-glands to have stink fights with their smelly tails.
Mandrill
Galago
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Ribbon snake
Northern water snake
Milk snake
Garter snake
Garter snakes range from Central America all the way to Northern Canada. For years it was assumed that they were entirely harmless, but more recent evidence shows that they actually are venomous. That said, they produce so little venom and it's so mild that they may as well be non-venomous.
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Striped polecat
Striped polecats are more closely related to weasels and badgers than skunks. However, like skunks, they employ a potent and offensive spray from their posterior to defend themselves.
Stoat
Eurasian mink
African civet
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Forest gerbil
Coypu
Striped grass mouse
Striped grass mice typically live in grasslands in sub-Saharan Africa. There are 11 different species of these small animals, and just one of them can be found in the North of Africa.
Murinae
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Bongo
The bongo is a species of antelope that's generally divided up as Western and Eastern bongos. The colored portion of their coat is usually a chestnut brown and darkens as the animal ages. Weirdly enough, the pigment can actually be rubbed off.
Waterbuck
Nyala
Common eland
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Grey's peccary
Wild boar piglets
Wild boar, like many species related to pigs, tend to have stripes when they're very young and lose them as they age. Technically speaking, the wild pigs you might find in North America aren't actually wild boar but probably hybrids with feral pigs.
Skunk pig
Javan warty pig
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Zephyr hog
Juvenile capybara
Aye-aye
Baby lowland tapir
Lowland tapirs tend to be a solid grey or brown as adults, but the young calves are a light chestnut brown with white spots and stripes that fade out as the animal gets older. Despite the somewhat awkward appearance of tapirs, they're actually pretty swift on their feet, and they're even good swimmers.
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Kudu
Kudu, which can be lesser kudu or greater kudu, is an antelope species native to eastern Africa. Kudu horns have been used to make musical instruments that are appropriately called kudu horns.
Giant eland
Wildebeest
Bongo
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Striped possum
Numbat
The numbat is a small Australian marsupial and is an endangered species these days though it used to range all across the South of the continent. Even though they have teeth, they rarely use them. Instead, they use their very sticky tongue to lick up termites and swallow them whole.
Plains mongoose
Verigated Asian badger
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Yellow jacket
Hornet
Wasp
Honeybee
Honey bees are arguably one of the most recognizable insects in the world. There has been some fear in recent years that if bees were to die out, human civilization might follow since bees couldn't pollinate plants, but science doesn't back that theory up and, in fact, most crops don't require insect pollination at all.
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Dik-dik
Impala
Mountain nyala
The mountain nyala is a species of antelope native to the Ethiopian Highlands. Only males have horns. They're very much a part of Ethiopian culture, and they're even featured on Ethiopia's 10 cent coin.
Savannah antelope
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Bongo
Giant eland
The giant eland is a large antelope that can weigh over 2,000 pounds, which is pretty intense for an animal that can also hit 40 miles per hour at a run. In fact, the giant eland is the largest species of antelope in the world.
Elk
Mangrove antelope
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Striped surgeonfish
The striped surgeonfish lives in reefs throughout the world. For the most part, they only eat algae to stay alive, but, in a pinch, they'll also try to eat small crustaceans. Everyone loves seafood.
Lionfish
Clownfish
Striped grill fish
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Banded sea snake
Ribbon snake
Harlequin snake eel
The harlequin snake eel, also known as the ringed snake eel or banded snake eel, is not a snake at all even though it looks like one. It also looks like the venomous banded sea krait, likely as a self-defense mechanism.
Blake's eel
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Striped monkfish
Kingfish
Lionfish
Lionfish are also called firefish, tastyfish, and butterfly-cod, among other names. Their fin rays contain a toxic that causes nausea, vomiting, fever, convulsions, and other symptoms in humans and rarely can be fatal.
Pacific reel fish
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Banana frog
Yellow fire frog
Tiger frog
Yellow-striped pygmy eleuth
The yellow-striped pygmy eleuth is a tiny frog from Cuba. When it comes time to mate, these little critters can produce a high-pitched mating call 278 times per minute.
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Stink bug
Italian striped bug
The Italian striped bug is what's known as a shield bug thanks to the large, shield-like carapace it sports. The bright colors are a warning to predators since; as a relative of the stink bug, these insects apparently taste pretty awful.
Tiger beetle
Ladder bug
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California kingsnake
California kingsnakes are pretty chill as far as snakes go and don't pose a threat to humans, which makes them excellent pets for people who are into snakes. Even though they're non-venomous, they can still bite if they get angry.
Corn snake
Garter snake
Western milk snake
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Harlequin butterfly
Black and white dovetail
Zebra swallowtail
Zebra swallowtail butterflies live in Canada and the United States. The caterpillars of this species feed exclusively on leaves from pawpaw trees, so the butterflies are never far away. Conversely, if you see some of the butterflies, that means you're probably near pawpaw if you've never tried the fruit and want to.
Regent butterfly
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River hyena
Aardwolf
Even though aardwolves look like hyenas, they tend to act a bit more like aardvarks. They only eat insects as opposed to large prey, and their sticky tongue helps them raid termite mounds and other bug nests so they can slurp up tiny prey rather than chomp down on big animals as you might expect.
Desert fox
African wild dog
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Garden snake
Zebra snake
Coral snake
Coral snakes are some of the most common venomous snakes in the world and also pretty easy to recognize thanks to their color patterns. That said, they're only "generally" easy to identify since there are so many species of coral snake and so many species of snakes that mimic this color pattern that, unless you're an expert, knowing for sure if you found a venomous snake could be risky.
Banded krait
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Ribbon seal
Ribbon seals have some of the most striking markings of any animal and, from a distance, actually can look like giant penguins as a result. In general, they are pretty unimpressed by humans and don't often flee when people approach since they have such little contact with them.
Harbor seal
Atlantic sea lion
Golden seal
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Surgeonfish
Clownfish
Copperband butterflyfish
The copperband butterflyfish gets its other name, beaked coralfish, thanks to two very obvious facts about them. The coralfish part is because they live in coral reefs, and the beaked part is obvious from the picture; these guys have pointy little beak mouths.
Lionfish
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Mule
Donkey
Morgan horse
Zebra
Along with tigers, zebras are likely the most familiar striped animal in the world. In Africa, there are three species of zebra — plains zebra, mountain zebra, and Grevy's zebra. Among those, there are several more subspecies.
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Okapi
Wild donkey
Zorse
A zorse is what you get when you cross a zebra stallion and a horse mare. For some reason, there is just an endless supply of names for horse/zebra hybrids, including zebrula, zebrule, hebra, horbra, zebrinny, zebret, and a few others.
Appaloosa
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Vaquita
Striped dolphin
Striped dolphins are fairly commonplace as dolphins go and exhibit most of the same behaviors people familiar with dolphins would recognize. They can be acrobatic, jumping and flipping out of the water, and they can travel in massive pods sometimes with thousands of dolphins together.
Harbor porpoise
River dolphin
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Sitatunga
The sitatunga is an antelope you might find in swampland throughout central Africa. Because they're swamp dwellers, they've uniquely adapted to their habitat and have rubbery, shaggy fur which repels water and tends to resist mud and sludge buildup as well.
Wildebeest
Impala
White-tailed deer
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Grey swordfish
Blue marlin
Atlantic sailfish
There's no doubt that Atlantic sailfish are big and fast, reaching lengths of over 10 feet. One hundred years ago, data suggested these fish could sustain speeds of 70 miles per hour, but more modern research has knocked that speed estimate way down to about 22 miles per hour.
Sawfish
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Zebra duiker
Zebra duikers are a small species of antelope that grow to be at most about 40 to 45 lbs. Thanks to extra-strong bones around their nose and jaw, zebra duikers can chew through hard-shelled fruits and nuts in the wild. It also helps during confrontations when they get hit in the face by rivals.
Dik-dik
Eastern bongo
Lowland capybara
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Palm civet
Reticulated weasel
Grandidier's mongoose
Grandidier's mongoose lives in Madagascar, but just barely. This animal has an incredibly small range and can only be found in the tiniest area of land in Madagascar's Parc National de Tsimanampetsotsa.
Eurasian badger
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Highland streaked tenrec
Highland streaked tenrecs are native to Madagascar. They look like little shrews, but they're not the same family of animal. Even though they're mammals, tenrecs also have a cloaca like birds or reptiles, which is a single opening through which they eliminate all their waste.
Tiger shrew
Hallow rat
Ground possum
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Meyer's striped cat
Striped tenrec
Polecat
Striped civet
The striped civet is a small, cat-like animal only found in Madagascar. They weigh just under 5 pounds, but despite their small size, they're actually the second largest carnivore in Madagascar.
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Tiger turtle
Striped mud turtle
Striped mud turtles call places like Florida and Georgia home. Because they're omnivorous and pretty easy to care for, fans of turtles like to keep them as pets. They'll eat algae, plants, insects, fish, and people have apparently even seen them looking for food in cow dung.
Red-eared slider
Alligator snapping turtle
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