For the past several years, we’ve included a quiz with our nonprofit’s autumn fundraising appeal, based on articles in the magazine, essays in The Outside Story series, and content in our bi-weekly newsletter. Writing the quiz does not always bring out the best qualities in staff…it’s just too much fun tricking you, dear readers, with credible-yet-wrong multiple choice options, and misleadingly phrased questions.
Despite all our tricks, several of you still managed to obtain perfect scores. From this clever few, we randomly selected two grand prize winners, who will receive gift subscriptions to the magazine to share with friends. Congratulations to Judith Nelson and Bill Arnold!
Thank you to everyone who made a gift this autumn to support our nonprofit. If you’d like to make a donation today, here’s a link!
Here are the questions and correct answers. You can read the questions here.
1. The black racer is one of our fastest snakes. How quickly can it slither?
(C): The black racer is fast, but not so fast that it would get pulled over in a school zone. Its maximum slither speed is about 10 miles per hour. To learn more about this snake and its habitat challenges, check out John Litvaitis’ article from Summer 2019.
2. As described by columnist Susan Morse, “bears eat prodigious quantities of flowers throughout spring and early summer.” Name a species that bears don’t typically eat.
(D): Bears eat many plants, from pickerelweed to golden saxifrage, but they do not eat stinky stewart. Indeed, in the history of ursine research, no bear has ever been observed eating this plant. Scientists debate why this is, but a common explanation is that stinky stewart does not exist.
3. What’s a good wood choice for carving a spoon?
(E): In his Spring 2019 column, Brett McLeod recommended basswood, birch, ash and alder for carving spoons. The correct answer is therefore, “all of the above.”
4. In 1865, C. Hinkley Stevens waded into the Winooski River to pick up…?
(E): When C. Hinkley Stevens waded into the Winooski River in 1865, he didn’t pick up old tires, a mysterious carved pole, a baby in a papyrus basket, or Mrs. Stevens. What he retrieved was an exceptionally large freshwater mussel. You can read more about this in this Autumn 2019 article, “The Pearl Fishers of the Winooski River.”
5. Vermont’s “Kingdom Heritage Lands” are managed to…
(D): “All of the above.” Vermont’s “Kingdom Heritage Land,” also known as part of the former Champion Lands, are managed for a variety of outcomes, including an increase in saw log trees over time, water quality, and rare species habitat. The conservation story of the land was a focus of the first installment in our Resilient Forest series.
6. How do springtails typically get around?
(C): Springtails, which also go by the alias “snow fleas” this time of year, do not, alas, hitch rides on the tails of squirrels, nor do they have special foot blades or microscopic web filaments. Improbably enough, these tiny creatures have built-in catapults. You can see some fun close-up images of them in this blog, “Spring Springtails.”
7. What is a feller-buncher?
(A): By the time you reached Question 7, many of you had stopped trying to win, and were just amusing yourselves by either choosing silly answers, or making up your own (often even sillier) alternatives. Hence the popular wrong answer to this question, defining a feller-buncher as, “a dangerous tree, apt to fall on more than one person.” The correct answer is: a logging machine that cuts down a whole tree, using a spinning blade.
8. Hornpout…?
(D): Hornpouts sometimes guard their young, can survive in warm, poorly oxygenated water, and have stinging spines on their pectoral and dorsal fins. The answer was therefore, “all of the above.” You can read more about these fascinating, and often overlooked, fish in Joe Rankin’s essay for The Outside Story.
9. The extensive natural history collection at The Daniel Smiley Research Center at Mohonk Preserve includes four preserved specimens of the second largest North American rat. What’s the common name of this species?
(C): No, its name is not Forester’s Friend, Squirrel Rat, Catskills Nibbler, or Mickey. The correct answer is Allegheny wood rat. For more about the collection, and a photo of a preserved rat, see page 19 of our Spring 2019 issue, “Mr. Smiley and the Rats of DSRC.”
10. What isn’t true about deer antlers?
(C): Despite common wisdom, antler size does not correlate directly to deer age. For more information on “reading” antlers, check out this article from our Autumn 2019 magazine.