NRMjobs Quiz answers 26-Nov-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Tracks’

(1) Who is the author of the popular book Tracks, Scats and Other Traces - A Field Guide to Australian Mammals?

Answer: Barbara Triggs.

(2) The last Federal Budget (5 October, 2020) confirmed funding to bitumenise an iconic, 472-kilometre outback road. What is the name of the road?

Answer: The Strzelecki Track.

(3) Complete the line: “There’s a track winding back to an old fashioned shack along the road to …”

Answer: Gundagai.

(4) The fossilised footprints of what extinct creature can be found on a lakebed near Camperdown in South West Victoria?

Answer: Diprotodon.

(5) The Trans-Australian Railway from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta includes the longest straight section of train track in the world. The total length without a curve is (a) 258km (b) 368km (c) 478km (d) 588km (e) 698km?

Answer: (c) 478km.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 19-Nov-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Mollusca’

(1) Which of the following is not a mollusc?: (a) Garden snail (b) Oyster (c) Cuttlefish (d) Octopus (e) Earthworm.

Answer: (e) Earthworm.

(2) What hard-shelled, edible mollusc – common in coastal south eastern Australia – shares a common name with a purple-flowering, invasive weed of south eastern Australia?

Answer: Periwinkle.

(3) What invasive marine bivalve mollusc was discovered infesting several marinas in Darwin Harbour in 1999, and was successfully eradicated?

Answer: Black striped mussel (Mytilopsis sallei).

(4) What inhabitant of the Great Barrier Reef (and elsewhere) is the world’s largest living bivalve mollusc, growing to more than 200kg.

Answer: Giant clam (Tridacna species).

(5) Australia’s largest native land slug, Triboniophorus graeffi, is found along the coast in NSW and Queensland. It takes its common name from a distinctive marking. What is it commonly called?

Answer: Red triangle slug.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 12-Nov-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Camels’

(1) How many humps does an Australian feral camel have?

Answer: One.

(2) Australia’s first camel, named Harry, arrived in Port Adelaide in 1840. What event in 1846 made Harry infamous?

Answer: The camel shot and fatally wounded pastoralist and explorer John Horrocks.

(3) Believed to have been introduced in the packing of camel saddles, what succulent, multi-stemmed, weed - with heart-shaped leaves and conspicuous red fruit - grows prolifically in arid areas of Australia?

Answer: Rosy dock / wild hops (Acetosa vesicaria / Rumex vesicarius).

(4) The first mosque in Australia was constructed by Muslim cameleers, possibly as early as 1861. Where was it located?

Answer: Marree, South Australia.

(5) True or false?: Saudi Arabia imports live camels from Australia.

Answer: True.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 5-Nov-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Red gum’

(1) Eucalyptus camaldulensis was first formally described as a species in 1832, and was named after the garden in which the type specimen grew. Where was the garden?

Answer: Naples, Italy (L'Hortus Camaldulensis di Napoli).

(2) Australia’s largest remnant stand of river red gum is the 65,000ha Barma-Millewa Forest on the Victorian-NSW border. Approximately how long ago did this forest form? (a) 25,000 years (b) 250,000 years (c) 2.5 million years (d) 25 million years.

Answer: (a) 25,000 years.

(3) ‘I Was Only 19’, released in 1983, was a chart-topping single for the Australian folk band Redgum. What was the band’s second highest charting single?

Answer: ‘I’ve Been to Bali Too’ (1984).

(4) Eucalyptus camaldulensis has several sub-species, and occurs naturally in all States and Territories except one. Which one?

Answer: Tasmania.

(5) What famous, heritage-listed red gum in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens was twice ringbarked by vandals, in 2010 and again in 2013, and has subsequently died?

Answer: The Separation Tree (which marked the site where Victorians gathered in 1850 to celebrate the separation of their colony from NSW).

NRMjobs Quiz answers 29-Oct-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Pollen’

(1) Pollen first appeared in the fossil record about (a) 370 million years ago (b) 260 million years ago (c) 150 million years ago (d) 40 million years ago.

Answer: (a) 370 million years ago.

(2) What is the study of pollen grains called?

Answer: Palynology

(3) True or false: Marine seagrasses produce pollen under water, which is sometimes carried from flower to flower by tiny crustaceans.

Answer: True. (NOTE: This question has been corrected following feedback from readers - thank you).

(4) The pollen of what plant is largely responsible for Melbourne’s occasional ‘thunderstorm asthma’ events?

Answer: Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne).

(5) What pollination technique – important for tomatoes – is employed by both native blue-banded bees and by European bumblebees, but not by honeybees?

Answer: Buzz pollination.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 22-Oct-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Pouches’

(1) What prevents wombats’ pouches from filling up with dirt while they are burrowing?

Answer: The pouch opens backwards.

(2) Does a kangaroo joey leave the pouch to urinate and defecate?

Answer: No.

(3) What vertebrate uses a large pouch to catch its prey?

Answer: Pelican.

(4) True or false?: Female echidnas have pouches.

Answer: True.

(5) What male vertebrate has a pouch for carrying and hatching eggs?

Answer: Seahorse (also pipefish).

NRMjobs Quiz answers 15-Oct-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Footy fauna’

(1) How many AFL and NRL clubs have birds as their official team nicknames?

Answer: Seven (AFL: Crows, Magpies, Hawks, Swans, Eagles; NRL: Sea Eagles, Roosters).

(2) How many AFL and NRL clubs have exotic species as their official team nicknames?

Answer: 10 (AFL: Lions, Cats, Tigers, Bulldogs; NRL: Broncos, Bulldogs, Panthers, Rabbitohs, Roosters, Tigers).

(3) How many AFL and NRL clubs have fish as their official team nicknames?

Answer: Two (Paramatta Eels and Cronulla Sharks).

(4) How many times have either the NRL (ie since 1998) or the AFL (ie since 1990) men’s grand finals been won by teams with marsupial nicknames?

Answer: Twice (North Melbourne Kangaroos, AFL 1996 and 1999).

(5) Among the major national football codes (AFL, NRL, Super Rugby, A-League/W-League) how many current clubs have native plants as their official nicknames?

Answer: One (NSW Warratahs).

NRMjobs Quiz answers 08-Oct-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Convergence’

(1) Acridotheres tristis and Manorina melanocephala are unrelated birds from different continents. However, they look similar, behave similarly, and both are regarded as pests in some parts of Australia. Even their common names sound similar – what are they?

Answer: Common myna and Noisy miner.

(2) What identifying physical features are almost identical in humans and koalas?

Answer: Fingerprints.

(3) Notoryctes typhlops is a desert-dwelling Australian marsupial, while Talpa europaea is a common European placental. Despite their different origins, the two species have many similarities. What are their common names?

Answer: Central Marsupial Mole (aka Itjaritjari) and European Mole.

(4) Themeda triandra is native to both Australia and southern Africa. In Afrikaans it is known commonly as Rooigras (‘rooi’ means ‘red). What is its common name in Australia?

Answer: Kangaroo grass or ‘roo grass’.

(5) What ability has evolved separately in whales and bats?

Answer: Echolocation.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 01-Oct-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Ramsar'

(1) The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty to protect wetlands of global importance. What does ‘Ramsar’ stand for?

Answer: Ramsar is the name of the city in Iran where the treaty was first signed in 1971.

(2) With an area of more than two million hectares, what ephemeral lake system is Australia’s largest Ramsar site?

Answer: Coongie Lakes, in the Lake Eyre Basin.

(3) Jock’s Lagoon is the smallest Ramsar site in Australia, covering just 18 hectares. Where is it?

Answer: North East Tasmania.

(4) Australia has the third most Ramsar sites of any country in the world - 65 in all. Which country has the most? Which has the second most? (one point each).

Answer: United Kingdom (170 sites) and Mexico (142 sites).

(5) In 1974, Australia was the first country in the world to designate a ‘Wetland of International Importance’ under the Ramsar Convention. What was the wetland?

Answer: Coburg Peninsula, Northern Territory.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 24-Sep-2020

This week’s theme: ‘Colours’

(1) A major tourist drawcard of the Murray-Sunset National Park, near Mildura, are the famed … Lakes.

Answer: Pink.

(2) The small freshwater fish Mogurnda adspersa is known commonly as the Southern …-… gudgeon.

Answer: Purple-spotted.

(3) A disease discovered in SA in the 1970s which kills eucalypyts and other native plants is known as Mundulla …?

Answer: Yellows.

(4) The fruiting body of the exotic Amanita muscaria fungus is … with … spots.

Answer: Red with white spots.

(5) What colour is the Very Hungry Caterpillar?

Answer: Green (with an orange head).