Do fish sleep, and how many eyes does an octopus have? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Zac, 9, asks: do fish (like the one pictured above) sleep?

   1. They do rest, although it might not be exactly like humans sleep, as they have very different brains

   2. No, they swim all the time

   3. A few species do but others prefer to stay awake

   4. Fish have regular sleeping patterns like humans, of a minimum of seven hours a night

2. Maya, 9, asks: how many eyes does an octopus have?

   1. One

   2. Two

   3. Four

   4. Eight

3. Twins Freddie and Bella, 4, ask: how does rain get into the clouds?

   1. Rain starts off as water vapour gas in the air, joins together into clouds, freezes when it gets cold, then melts and drops on to your head

   2. When the sea is really stormy, the water from the oceans flies up into the air and falls as rain

   3. When the sun warms up ice crystals in the air, they melt and fall as rain

   4. We don’t know how, it must be magic

4. Ruben, 11, asks: in which country do they eat guinea pigs?

   1. Papua New Guinea

   2. China

   3. France

   4. Peru

5. Martha, 10, and Zadie, 7, ask: what is the scientific name for the western lowland gorilla?

   1. Gorilla gorilla gorilla

   2. Pan Troglodytes

   3. Ilovebananas

   4. Gorilla lowlandia

Solutions

1:A - While fish don’t sleep in the same way humans do, most rest, mainly at night, in little holes in coral and mud, in nests, or just floating about; parrotfish even make sleeping bags of mucus! But they can’t close their eyes as they don’t have eyelids., 2:B - An octopus has two eyes which can move in different directions. It can also sense light with its skin. The giant squid has the largest eyes of any creature on Earth, 25cm in diameter, the size of a dinner plate or human head., 3:A - Clouds are made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny drops of water – there’s lots of water in the air which you can’t see because it’s a gas, but when the air cools it comes together and forms clouds. These make rain when they grow tall and begin to look dark and grey: the water droplets at the top freeze and grow bigger until they fall and pass through warmer air below, then start to melt., 4:D - Guinea pigs are known as “cuy” in Peru, where they’re cooked and eaten, and thought to be delicious!, 5:A - The western lowland gorilla’s scientific name is Gorilla gorilla gorilla. They live in dense and remote rainforests in Africa.

Scores

1. 5 and above.

2. 4 and above.

3. 3 and above.

4. 2 and above.

5. 0 and above.

6. 1 and above.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering children’s questions, out now as a book.

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