Animals & Nature · Unit 7
Mammals
Fur, milk and warm blood, from bats and whales to big cats
Mammals are defined by fur, milk and warm blood, and within those constraints they have produced a bat, a blue whale and a human.
The unit covers what makes a mammal, the marsupials and egg-laying monotremes that do it differently, primates, the big cats and other hunters, and the marine mammals that returned to the sea.
This unit breaks down into 18 short steps and 109 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.
- Steps
- 18
- Questions
- 109
- Difficulty
- 1-3
What this unit covers
- Primates
- Marsupials and Egg-Laying Mammals
- Big Cats and Other Hunters
- What Makes a Mammal
- Whales, Dolphins and Seals
Where this fits
Follows Animal Groups. Biology's Human Body Systems is the same body plan in detail.
Where people slip
Whales and dolphins are mammals, not fish. They breathe air, are warm-blooded and feed their young on milk, and their ancestors walked on land.
How the unit is structured
Mammals runs as 18 short steps that unlock in order. 13 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 3 as you progress.
Challenge rounds
Example questions
30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 109 in the unit altogether.
Big Cats and Other Hunters
- Match the pairsLevel 2
1. Match each big cat to a distinctive feature.
Answer: Tiger = Largest cat, striped; Cheetah = Fastest sprinter; Snow leopard = High mountain specialist; Jaguar = Most powerful bite
Each big cat has its own specialisation.
- Picture questionLevel 2
2. 🐅 Which group of animals is shown here?
- A big catcorrect
- A bird
- A reptile
- A fish
A tiger is a mammal, and one of the big cats.
- Type the answerLevel 2
3. Which big cat lives in the Americas and has rosette spots with dots inside?
Answer: jaguar
Jaguar rosettes contain smaller spots, unlike a leopard's.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
4. Which conservation measures help big cats? Pick all that apply.
- Habitat corridors between reservescorrect
- Anti-poaching patrolscorrect
- Community benefit schemescorrect
- Removing all prey species
Protected corridors, anti-poaching work and community programmes all help.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
5. Why do lions live in prides while most cats are solitary?
- Groups defend territory and hunt large preycorrect
- They cannot survive alone at all
- They share one den for warmth
- They are afraid of the dark
Group living helps them defend territory and hunt large prey on open plains.
- True or falseLevel 3
6. Compensation schemes for lost livestock can reduce retaliatory killing of predators.
Answer: True
True, especially when combined with better livestock protection.
Marsupials and Egg-Laying Mammals
- True or falseLevel 1
7. Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly.
Answer: True
True. Flying squirrels only glide.
- Build the sentenceLevel 2
8. Build a sentence about mammals.
Answer: Mammals feed their young on milk
Mammals feed their young on milk.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
9. Which mammals are unusual in some way? Pick all that apply.
- The platypus lays eggscorrect
- Bats flycorrect
- Pangolins have scalescorrect
- Cows have gills
Platypuses lay eggs, bats fly and pangolins wear scales.
- Fact or fibLevel 3
10. The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was a marsupial predator driven to extinction in the twentieth century.
Answer: True
True. The last known individual died in 1936.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
11. What is unusual about the naked mole rat?
- It lives in a colony with one breeding queencorrect
- It flies at night
- It lays eggs
- It lives in the sea
It lives in an underground colony with a single breeding queen, much like social insects.
- Sort into groupsLevel 3
12. Sort each pair by whether the similarity is inherited or convergent.
Answer: Marsupial mole and placental mole = Convergent; Thylacine and wolf = Convergent; Lion and tiger body plan = Inherited; Human and chimp hand = Inherited
Similar looks can come from shared ancestry or independent evolution.
Primates
- Choose all that applyLevel 1
13. Which are apes? Pick all that apply.
- Gorillacorrect
- Chimpanzeecorrect
- Orangutancorrect
- Baboon
Gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans are great apes.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
14. Which primates are found only in Madagascar?
- Lemurscorrect
- Gorillas
- Orangutans
- Baboons
Lemurs evolved in isolation on the island.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
15. How do New World and Old World monkeys differ?
- Some New World monkeys have grasping tailscorrect
- Old World monkeys have wings
- New World monkeys are apes
- They are identical
Some New World monkeys have grasping tails, and their noses differ in shape.
- True or falseLevel 3
16. Different chimpanzee communities use different tool techniques, suggesting cultural traditions.
Answer: True
True. Nut cracking and termite fishing vary by region.
- Type the answerLevel 3
17. Which researcher famously studied wild chimpanzees in Tanzania from 1960?
Answer: Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall's observations changed how we see animal behaviour.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
18. Which are great apes? Pick all that apply.
- Bonobocorrect
- Gorillacorrect
- Humancorrect
- Gibbon
Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and humans are great apes.
Whales, Dolphins and Seals
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
19. Which whale dives deepest in search of squid?
- The sperm whalecorrect
- The blue whale
- The humpback
- The beluga
Sperm whales dive well over a kilometre after giant squid.
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
20. Which are marine mammals? Pick all that apply.
- Whalecorrect
- Sealcorrect
- Dolphincorrect
- Shark
Whales, seals and dolphins are all mammals that live in the sea.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
21. Which threats face marine mammals today? Pick all that apply.
- Entanglement in fishing gearcorrect
- Collisions with shipscorrect
- Chemical and plastic pollutioncorrect
- Too much protected habitat
Entanglement, ship strikes, pollution and noise are all documented threats.
- True or falseLevel 3
22. Whale populations were reduced dramatically by industrial whaling in the twentieth century.
Answer: True
True, and several species are still recovering.
- Type the answerLevel 3
23. Which international body agreed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s?
Answer: International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission introduced the moratorium.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
24. How do seals and sea lions differ?
- Sea lions have ear flaps and can walk on flipperscorrect
- Seals have wings
- Sea lions lay eggs
- Seals live only in rivers
Sea lions have visible ear flaps and can walk on their flippers, while true seals cannot.
What Makes a Mammal
- Fill the blankLevel 1
25. Baby mammals drink ____ from their mothers.
- milkcorrect
- juice
- seawater
- nectar
Milk provides everything a newborn mammal needs at first.
- True or falseLevel 1
26. Mammals are warm-blooded.
Answer: True
True. They keep a steady body temperature using energy from food.
- Fact or fibLevel 2
27. Mammals live on land, in the sea and in the air.
Answer: True
True. Whales swim, bats fly and most others walk.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
28. Why is fur useful to a mammal?
- It keeps the body warmcorrect
- It helps it swim faster
- It makes it lighter
- It helps it see
Fur traps a layer of warm air next to the skin.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
29. Which benefits does endothermy bring? Pick all that apply.
- Sustained high activitycorrect
- Living in colder climatescorrect
- Steady internal chemistrycorrect
- Needing less food
Sustained activity, wider habitat range and constant enzyme performance all follow.
- Type the answerLevel 3
30. What structure allows nutrient exchange between mother and foetus in placental mammals?
Answer: placenta
The placenta supports long internal development.
Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.
How you practise
This unit mixes 10 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.
- Build the sentence
- Choose all that apply
- Fact or fib
- Fill the blank
- Match the pairs
- Multiple choice
- Picture question
- Sort into groups
- True or false
- Type the answer
Practise Mammals
109 questions across 18 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.
Play this unitRead about Mammals
Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.
- How Do Whales Communicate?Songs, clicks and calls that travel for hundreds of kilometres, and what researchers have worked out about their meaning.August 28, 2026 · 6 min read
- Why Do Cats Purr? What the Sound Means and How It Is MadeCats purr when content, but also when injured, frightened or giving birth. How the sound is produced, what it signals, and the evidence on whether it heals.September 9, 2026 · 4 min read
- How Echolocation Works: Seeing With SoundBats, dolphins and a few blind humans build a picture of the world from echoes. The physics of the calls, how the brain reads them, and the moths that jam them.September 9, 2026 · 4 min read
More units in Animals & Nature
- What Is an Animal?What makes something an animal, and what every animal needs
- Pets and Farm AnimalsThe animals we live and work with, and how to care for them
- Animal GroupsMammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and creatures without backbones
- Habitats and HomesWhere animals live, from rainforest to polar ice, and the homes they build
- Baby Animals and FamiliesEggs and live young, animal parents, and growing up
- What Animals EatDiets, teeth, hunting, and how energy flows through a food chain
- BirdsFeathers, beaks, flight and song across the bird world
- Reptiles and AmphibiansScales and slime: snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, frogs and newts