NRMjobs Quiz answers 28-May-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Acacias’

 

(1) Approximately how many species of Acacia occur naturally in Australia? (a) 1,000 (b) 2,000 (c) 4,000 (d) 8,000

 

Answer: (a) 1,000

 

(2) Fill in the blank in this John Williamson song lyric: “Hey it’s July and the winter sun is shining / And …. is my friend”.

 

Answer: Cootamundra wattle.

 

(3) What is the official date of National Wattle Day in Australia?

 

Answer: 1 September.

 

(4) Made famous in a 1964 Slim Dusty song about a retired drover, what is a common name for the desert wattle Acacia cambagei?

 

Answer: Gidgee.

 

(5) What species of prickly wattle, endemic to the south-eastern Australian mainland, has common names including ‘kangaroo thorn’, ‘hedge wattle’ and ‘bugger bush’?

 

Answer: Acacia paradoxa

NRMjobs Quiz answers 21-May-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Galahs’

 

(1) How many sub-species of galah are usually recognised?

 

Answer: Three (Western Australian form, Eolophus roseicapilla roseicapilla, South-eastern form, Eolophus roseicapilla albiceps, Northern form Eolophus roseicapilla kuhli).

 

(2) Where in Australia was the former township of Galah? (bonus: What town on the Castlereagh River takes its name from the Wiradjuri term for “place of galahs”)

 

Answer: Victoria (Mallee region - between Walpeup and Ouyen, south of Mildura). Bonus: Gulargambone, NSW.

 

(3) What is the simplest way to tell the sexes apart in galahs?

Answer: The eyes (females have pinkish-red eyes, males have dark brown eyes).

 

(4) Collected in 1801, where is the holotype specimen of the galah currently held?

 

Answer: Paris (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle du Paris - Baudin Expedition collection).

 

(5) Where would you find The Big Galah?

 

Answer: Kimba, South Australia.

 

This week’s Quiz is dedicated to the dozen-odd rescue galahs which have graced the NRMjobs office over the past 22 years (and in particular to the indomitable ‘Moby’ - below - currently recovering from injury).

NRMjobs Quiz answers 14-May-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Ants’

 

(1) What long-legged invasive ant from South East Asia, named for its erratic behaviour, has devastated crab populations on Christmas Island?

 

Answer: Yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes)

 

(2) Who was the director of the 1984 movie ‘Where the Green Ants Dream’, about an Aboriginal land rights case.

 

Answer: Werner Herzog.

 

(3) What aggressive native ant, common in southern Australia, has a sting which is occasionally fatal to humans, and is responsible for about 90% of ant allergies in Australia?

 

Answer: Hopper ant / Jack jumper ant (Myrmecia pilosula).

 

(4) Papunya in the Northern Territory - and the associated Papunya Tula art movement - is named after what type of edible native ant?

 

Answer: Honeypot ant / honey ant (Melophorus bagoti and Camponotus inflatus spp.)

 

(5) When the ants go marching five by five, what does the little one stop to do?

 

Answer: Take a dive.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 7-May-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Fish’

 

(1) What is the marine emblem of NSW?

 

Answer: The Blue groper (Achoerodus viridis).

 

(2) Which of these fish is the odd one out, and why?: Golden perch, Callop, Silver perch, Yellowbelly.

 

Answer: Silver perch (Golden perch, Callop and Yellowbelly are all common names for Macquaria ambigua; Silver perch is a different species - Bidyanus bidyanus).

 

(3) Where on a fish would you find the caudal fin?

 

Answer: Tail.

 

(4) What jawless fish of southern Australia spends the early part of its lifecycle in freshwater, migrates to the sea as an adult, then returns to freshwater to spawn and die.

 

Answer: Pouched lamprey (Geotria australis).

 

(5) What is the title of the popular short story by Henry Lawson, in which three gold miners disastrously try to improve their fishing luck with a home-made explosive device?

 

Answer: The Loaded Dog.