Test your nature knowledge with these 40 questions

If you’ve been reading this column for the past year you’ll have a good chance of doing well

1Which marine mammals have been spotted "lunge feeding" off the coast of west Co Cork?

2Ash die-back disease threatens one of our best-loved trees. Where in Europe did the fungus start to spread?

3Which Irish animal was newly credited this year with controlling the spread of grey squirrels?

4Which wading bird with a plaintive call is now officially safe from the hunter's gun?

5An 11kg trout was caught by an angler on Lough Corrib last May, using a roach as bait. Which kind of trout was it?

6The alien greater white-toothed shrew is displacing which native Irish animal?

7A drenching summer, good for snails in grass, boosted numbers of which sheep parasite?

8Muntjac is an alien species of (a) mollusc; (b) fungus; (c) mammal?

9Which threatened Irish bird of prey has a silvery male with black-tipped wings and a larger, tawny female?

10American mink and Irish badger both belong to which mammal family: (a) Canidae; (b) Mustelidae; (c) Ursidae?

11Spring sees the swarming of harmless, mosquito-like flies with long dangling legs. They are called after which saint's day: (a) St Martin; (b) St Michael; (c) St Mark?

12Which long-legged European birds would the Golden Eagle Trust like to see established in the midlands?

13Small, ballooning spiders drape silky threads when they land – threads called what?

14The male of which garden tit flashes an ultraviolet patch to attract a mate in spring?

15Clouds shaped like flying saucers are (a) lenticular; (b) orbital; (c) cirrus?

16Recent bitter winters have reduced numbers of a rosy-breasted songbird with black head, white neck patches and a sharp, ticking call. Which is it?

17Fennel, coriander and angelica have flower heads typical of which group of plants?

18A cramp ball is (a) a badger dropping; (b) a wren's nest; (c) a bracket fungus?

19Which river fish moves fist-size stones around to make its nest?

20Is the deargadaol (a) a scorpion; (b) a beetle; (c) a cricket?

21Dandelions close their flowers in the rain. True or false?

22A tadpole that keeps growing without becoming a frog is called: (a) analogous; (b) neotenous; (c) androgynous?

23Which big-leaved plant, healer of bruises and the valued fertiliser of organic gardeners, is macan dubh, also "lus na gnámh briste"?

24Some readers have seen an unfamiliar bird at their feeders: red forehead, black chin, pinkish breast. Is it: (a) a bullfinch; (b) a redpoll; (c) a goldfinch?

25Ireland has colonies of plants and animals once called "Lusitanian" in origin. Was Lusitania in (a) Europe; (b) north Africa; or (c) South America?

26A parasitic disease, trichomonosis, has greatly reduced the numbers of which Irish finch?

27Which tick-borne illness, first named in the United States, is troubling more Irish people?

28Fraughans, whinberries, whorts or mónógs: all names for what berry of acid uplands?

29A rural community project has restored which native Irish gamebird to Boleybrack Mountain, Co Leitrim?

30If entomologists study insects, are people who focus on butterflies and moths (a) malacologists; (b) arachnologists; or (c) lepidopterists?

31Which new bird is tapping trees in Leinster woodlands?

32Sopranos are one kind of which tiny Irish bats?

33Which cheering gift of nature has been banned from many hospital wards?

34Cocksfoot, fescue, Yorkshire fog: which sort of plants?

35Which birds are tearing holes in plastic bales of farm silage?

36Male humans of which province hold Ireland's oldest genes?

37Bryophytes are the mosses and which other kind of lowly plants?

38Kemp's ridley is which kind of Caribbean animal, occasionally cast up on Irish shores?

39A flash of blue on a Dublin canal – which bird?

40By December 1st this year, how many badgers had been recorded killed on Irish roads: (a) 352; (b) 481; (c) 996?

Answers

1Humpback whales

2Poland

3Pine marten

4Curlew

5Ferox

6Pygmy shrew

7Liver fluke

8(C) mammal

9Hen harrier

10(B) Mustelidae

11(C) St Mark

12Cranes

13Gossamer

14Blue tit

15(A) lenticular

16Stonechat

17Umbellifers

18(C) a bracket fungus

19Lamprey

20(B) a beetle

21True

22(B) neotenous

23Comfrey

24(B) redpoll

25(A) Europe

26Greenfinch

27Lyme disease

28Bilberry

29Red grouse

30(C) lepidopterists

31Great spotted woodpecker

32Pipistrelles

33Flowers

34Grasses

35Rooks

36Connacht

37Liverworts

38Turtle

39Kingfisher

40(C) 996