Animals of the World

27 Skills in Science. 22 are ready to try — three verified questions each, no account needed.

Ready to try

Ages 5–7
Animal Camouflage
Know that many animals use camouflage — colours and patterns that help them blend into their surroundings — to hide from predators or to sneak up on prey, like a leaf insect that looks like a leaf or an Arctic hare that turns white in wint…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 5–7
Animal Homes
Know that animals make or find many different kinds of homes — birds build nests, rabbits dig burrows, bees live in hives, hermit crabs use empty shells, spiders spin webs — and that these shelters protect them and their young
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 5–7
Animal Record-Holders
Know some of the world's animal record-holders — the blue whale is the largest animal ever, the cheetah is the fastest land animal, the bee hummingbird is the smallest bird, the giraffe is the tallest — and compare their sizes to familiar…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 5–7
How Animals Have Babies
Know that different animals have their babies in different ways — some lay eggs (birds, reptiles, fish, insects), some give birth to live young (most mammals) — and that babies may look like miniature adults or look very different from the…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 5–7
Wild, Farm & Pet Animals
Understand the difference between wild animals, farm animals, and pets — wild animals find their own food and shelter in nature; farm animals are kept by people for food, wool, or eggs; pets are animals people keep for companionship — and…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 7–9
Animal Migration
Know that many animals make incredible journeys called migrations — Arctic terns fly from pole to pole, monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles across North America, wildebeest cross the Serengeti following rain, and humpback whales…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 7–9
Desert Animals
Explore animals of the desert — camels, fennec foxes, scorpions, rattlesnakes, meerkats — and understand how desert animals survive extreme heat and lack of water through being active at night, storing water or fat, burrowing underground d…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 7–9
Polar Animals
Explore animals of the Arctic and Antarctic — polar bears, Arctic foxes, and walruses in the north; penguins, seals, and albatrosses in the south — and understand how polar animals survive extreme cold through thick fur or blubber, huddlin…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 7–9
Predator Hunting Strategies
Understand that predators have evolved hunting strategies — wolves hunt in packs, chameleons use their long tongues, spiders build webs, crocodiles ambush at water's edge — and prey animals have evolved defences — porcupine spines, skunk s…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 7–9
Rainforest Animals
Explore animals of the tropical rainforest — the most species-rich habitat on Earth — learning that the forest has layers (canopy, understory, forest floor) with different animals at each level: toucans and monkeys in the canopy, jaguars a…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 7–9
The World of Minibeasts
Know that insects and other minibeasts (spiders, worms, snails, centipedes) are the most numerous and diverse group of animals on Earth — there are more species of beetle than any other animal — and that they play vital roles as pollinator…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 9–11
Animal Intelligence
Explore animal intelligence and complex behaviour — chimpanzees and crows use tools, dolphins recognise themselves in mirrors, octopuses solve puzzles and escape enclosures, elephants mourn their dead, meerkats teach their young to handle…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 9–11
Biodiversity
Understand that biodiversity — the variety of different species in an ecosystem — is essential for healthy ecosystems, and that keystone species (like wolves in Yellowstone, sea otters in kelp forests, or bees as pollinators) have an outsi…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 9–11
Endangered & Extinct Species
Understand why some animal species become endangered or go extinct — habitat destruction, hunting/poaching, pollution, climate change, and invasive species — and know examples like the giant panda, mountain gorilla, Amur leopard, and the n…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 9–11
Invasive Species
Understand that invasive species are animals (or plants) that have been introduced to a place where they don't naturally belong — like grey squirrels outcompeting red squirrels in the UK, cane toads poisoning native predators in Australia,…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 9–11
Protecting Endangered Animals
Know how people work to protect endangered animals — through national parks and marine reserves, captive breeding programmes (like those that saved the California condor and Arabian oryx), anti-poaching patrols, wildlife corridors connecti…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 9–11
Structural Adaptations
Understand that animals have structural adaptations (body features like the giraffe's long neck, eagle's talons, dolphin's streamlined shape), behavioural adaptations (migration, hibernation, tool use), and physiological adaptations (antif…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 9–11
Symbiosis
Understand symbiosis — close relationships between different species — including mutualism (both benefit, like clownfish and anemones), commensalism (one benefits without harming the other, like remora fish riding sharks), and parasitism (…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 11–12
The Red Queen Hypothesis
Introduce the Red Queen hypothesis — species must keep evolving just to maintain fitness relative to co-evolving partners; describe predator-prey arms races (cheetah speed vs gazelle speed, bat echolocation vs moth hearing jamming) and par…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 12–13
Deep-Sea Survival
Explain how deep-sea animals cope with crushing pressure (no gas-filled spaces, flexible proteins, pressure-adapted enzymes); describe thermoregulation extremes — antifreeze glycoproteins in Antarctic fish, supercooling in wood frogs; intr…
9 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 12–14
The Biodiversity Crisis
Quantify the current biodiversity crisis: extinction rates 100-1000x the background rate; explain methods for measuring biodiversity loss (species-area relationship, population viability analysis, IUCN Red List categories); evaluate rewild…
104 verified questions on this shelf
Ages 13–14
Grouping Species Using DNA
Explain cladistics: organisms are grouped by shared derived characters, not just similarity; how phylogenetic trees are built using molecular data (DNA sequence alignment) and the molecular clock; explain why birds are technically a group…
10 verified questions on this shelf

Being planted

These Skills are on the map, but their questions are still being written and checked.

Ages 5–7
Animals Everywhere
Coming soon
Ages 5–7
Nocturnal Animals
Coming soon
Ages 7–9
Animal Communication
Coming soon
Ages 7–9
Savanna & Grassland Animals
Coming soon
Ages 12–13
Sexual Selection
Coming soon

Skill names and descriptions include the Marble Skill Taxonomy © Generative Spark, Inc. (withmarble.com), licensed under ODbL 1.0 (database) and CC BY-SA 4.0 (content). Practice questions are GlowGrades's own, each checked by independent verifiers that must agree before a child ever sees it.