This animal trivia game is the animals edition of Rarest, where the rarest right answer wins. Every prompt asks you to name an animal from a group: a breed of dog, cat, horse or chicken, a kind of owl, parrot, shark or snake, a member of the weasel or crow family. The lists are huge (the dog breeds alone run past 600), and only the right answers score. Beagle and German Shepherd keep you near the ground; a breed only a kennel club judge would know sends you to the top tier.
Play it right here: the game above locks every round to animals. You can play the daily round (seven prompts, the same for everyone that day) or switch to Unlimited for as many rounds as you like. For a mix of all eight categories, play Rarest, the rarest answer game on the home page.
How the animal trivia game works
- You get seven prompts, each starting with "Name a…" or "Name the…", and 25 seconds per prompt (or no clock at all with No timer).
- Type any correct answer and press Enter. A wrong guess costs one second and you can try again.
- Each correct answer lands in one of six tiers, from Flicker (5 points) to Inferno (100 points). Once per round, Thermal ×2 doubles one prompt.
- After each prompt you see where your answer ranks, the best-known answers and a few of the rarest.
All 40 prompts in the animal trivia game
These are the prompts the animals edition draws from, with how many correct answers each one accepts:
- Name a breed of dog (612 answers)
- Name a breed of cat (97 answers)
- Name a breed of horse or pony (400 answers)
- Name a breed of chicken (206 answers)
- Name a breed of cattle (402 answers)
- Name a breed of sheep (312 answers)
- Name a breed of rabbit (86 answers)
- Name a member of the cat family (94 answers)
- Name a wild member of the dog family (70 answers)
- Name a kind of bear (34 answers)
- Name a kind of deer (72 answers)
- Name a member of the weasel family (83 answers)
- Name a kind of whale, dolphin or porpoise (119 answers)
- Name a kind of seal, sea lion or walrus (42 answers)
- Name a kind of marsupial (412 answers)
- Name a kind of primate (450 answers)
- Name a kind of rodent (420 answers)
- Name a kind of bat (298 answers)
- Name a kind of owl (266 answers)
- Name a kind of parrot (300 answers)
- Name a kind of eagle (71 answers)
- Name a member of the falcon family (72 answers)
- Name a member of the crow family (156 answers)
- Name a kind of pigeon or dove (300 answers)
- Name a kind of duck, goose or swan (192 answers)
- Name a kind of heron, egret or bittern (74 answers)
- Name a kind of penguin (29 answers)
- Name a member of the pheasant family (219 answers)
- Name a kind of snake (400 answers)
- Name a kind of lizard (400 answers)
- Name a kind of turtle or tortoise (300 answers)
- Name a kind of crocodile or alligator (35 answers)
- Name a kind of frog or toad (400 answers)
- Name a kind of shark (300 answers)
- Name a kind of ray or skate (352 answers)
- Name a fish of the salmon and trout family (83 answers)
- Name a kind of tuna or mackerel (52 answers)
- Name a kind of spider (318 answers)
- Name a kind of cephalopod, such as an octopus or squid (127 answers)
- Name an animal that went extinct in the last 500 years (400 answers)
Common answers vs rare answers
Here is what separates a low score from a high one in the rarest answers for a few of the prompts. The left column is what most players type; the right column shows answers from the rarest tier for that prompt.
| Prompt | What most people say | Rare answers |
|---|---|---|
| Name a breed of dog | Beagle, German Shepherd, Dachshund | Hällefors Elkhound, Lài, Old Welsh Grey Sheepdog (Inferno) |
| Name a breed of cat | Maine Coon, Siamese, Bengal | Jianzhou, Foreign White, Bohemian Rex (Inferno) |
| Name a breed of horse or pony | Thoroughbred, Mustang, Arabian horse | Esperia Pony, Foutanké, AraAppaloosa (Inferno) |
| Name a breed of chicken | Rhode Island Red, Orpington, Leghorn | Polbar, Šumavanka, Daisy Belle (Inferno) |
| Name a breed of cattle | Holstein Friesian, Highland cattle, Jersey cattle | Algarvia, Red Mingrelian, Red Tambov (Inferno) |
| Name a breed of sheep | Merino, Jacob sheep, Shetland sheep | Cornella Bianca, Brentegana, Pusterese (Inferno) |
| Name a breed of rabbit | Angora rabbit, Flemish Giant rabbit, Holland Lop | Sachsengold, Golden Glavcot, Hulstlander (Inferno) |
| Name a member of the cat family | Cat, Lion, Tiger | Garlepp's pampas cat (Inferno) |
| Name a wild member of the dog family | Wolf, Fox, Coyote | Alaskan tundra wolf (Inferno) |
| Name a kind of bear | Polar bear, Giant panda, Brown bear | Tibetan blue bear, Himalayan black bear, Marsican brown bear (Roar) |
For the rarest answers to every prompt in all eight categories, see the rarest answers list.
Tips to win the animal trivia game
- Name the species, not the group. 'Northern hog badger' is a weasel-family answer most players never reach; 'badger' is not.
- Go regional. Local livestock breeds (Gaddi sheep, Lohani cattle) and island birds are where Inferno answers live.
- Birders and aquarium keepers have an edge: scops owls, catsharks and stingrays are packed with rare answers.
- When the clock is low, bank a common answer. A Flicker still beats a zero.
More categories
Rarest has eight categories. Each one has its own page and its own locked game:
- Geography trivia
- Food & Drink trivia
- Sports trivia
- Movies & TV trivia
- Music trivia
- Science trivia
- History trivia
Answer lists are built from Wikidata, and rarity comes from public Wikipedia statistics; read more on the About page.