SAMPLE TEST QUESTIONS
Every KPSGA Member Guide must pass a test. Here are some sample questions.
BRONZE-LEVEL SAMPLE QUESTIONS
MAMMALS
1. What is the most important use of an animal’s horns?
2. Which carnivore has the strongest jaw?
3. Approximately how long can a hippo stay under water?
4. Name one Mongoose is active during the night?
5. Name one endangered Giraffe which has been translocated to Nakuru National Park and Nairobi’s Giraffe Centre?
6. What is the average life-span of an elephant?
7. Which is taxonomically related to the Kongoni?
8. What is the approximate gestation of the Rock Hyrax in months?
9. If you visit Tsavo parks which Baboons would you encounter there?
10. Which is the heaviest mammal in the world?
11. Which antelope has adapted to rocky outcrops?
12. Give the name of one ruminant?
BIRDS
13. What is the name of the small Stork-like bird which makes one of the largest nests in the world?
14. Which is the smallest Owl in Kenya?
15. Which group does the White-bellied Go-Away Bird belong to?
16. Which bird is the Secretary Bird most closely related to?
17. Why are Cuckoos ‘parasitic breeders’?
18. Name one Palaearctic (Eurasian) migrant?
PLANTS
19. Name a tree that can be found between an altitude of 1,000m and below.
20. What is the name of the delicate-looking flower, often coloured purple or yellow and seen growing on a long thin straight stem above long grass?
21. Pyrethrum is indigenous to which country?
FISH & REPTILES
22. Kenya’s coast is an enormous tourist destination that also attracts sports fishermen from all over the world.Which fish is the most common they catch, tag and release?
23. Which lizard is nocturnal?
24. Name a snake that is non -poisonous?
INSECTS & TRIBES
25. Termites are related to which other insect?
26. A spider is closely related to which other other insect?
27. Which is the smallest ethnic group in Kenya today?
28. Apart from the Maasai name a tribe that is a speaker of Maa?
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
29. Who was the first European to climb to the peak of Mt. Kenya?
30. Which town or city in Kenya has the longest established National Museum of Kenya?
31. One square mile is approximately how many square kilometres?
HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
32. Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s real name was?
33. Which is the oldest hotel in Nairobi and was built in 1904?
34. Vasco Da Gama reached Malindi in which year?
35. The Aberdares National Park is an important wildlife refuge.What else is it important for?
36. Around which town in Kenya is the tea industry based?
37. Why is the east coast of Africa dangerous nowadays?
KWS QUESTIONS & FIRST AID
38. The KWS logo is what?.
39. Your client is feeling the effects of heat exhaustion.What should you do?
40. Hypoxia means
ANSWER SHEET
1. For self defence
2. Hyena
3. 5 mins
4. White tailed
5. Rothschild
6. 60 years
7. Topi, Wildebeest
8. 7
9. Yellow Baboons
10. Blue Whale
11. Klipspringer
12. Giraffe
BIRDS
13. Hamerkop
14. African Scops
15. Turacos
16. Tawny Eagle
17. They lay their eggs in other birds nests and take no care of their chicks
18. Red-backed Shrike
PLANTS
19. Baobab
20. Hibiscus
21. Yugoslavia
FISH & REPTILES
22. Sailfish
23. Gecko
24. Sand Boa
INSECTS & TRIBES
25. Cockroaches
26. Tick
27. El Molo
28. Samburu/Njemps
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
29. Halford J. Mackinder
30. Nairobi
31. 1.6
HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
32. Johnstone Kamau Ngengi
33. Norfolk Hotel
34. 1498
35. Water Catchment
36. Kericho
37. Piracy
38. Elephant and calf
39. Give them sips of 1/2 lt. of water with 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and lay them down.
40. Not enough oxygen.
SILVER-LEVEL SAMPLE QUESTIONS
1. The Hyraxes account for some of the few non-primates where the teats are found on the chest (between the forelegs). Name two other mammals apart from primates, with this feature that are found in Kenya.
Species: ______________________________________________________________
Species: ______________________________________________________________
2. Give an example of a pattern change, as a young animal becomes adult, displayed in mammals, birds, insects, reptiles and fish and indicate which pattern changes to what?
Mammals: _________________________________________________________
Birds: _________________________________________________________
Invertebrates: _________________________________________________________
Reptiles: _________________________________________________________
Fish: _________________________________________________________
3. List five behavioural differences between Common and Grevy Zebras ?
#1 ______________________________________________________________
#2 ______________________________________________________________
#3 ______________________________________________________________
#4 ______________________________________________________________
#5 ______________________________________________________________
4. Some people claim that the Rock Hyrax is closely related to the Elephant., list five similarities ?
#1 ______________________________________________________________
#2 ______________________________________________________________
#3 ______________________________________________________________
#4 ______________________________________________________________
#5 ______________________________________________________________
READING LIST — BRONZE & SILVER-LEVELS
MAMMALS
- AFRICAN MAMMALS — JONATHAN KINGDOM
- BEHAVIOUR GUIDE TO AFRICAN MAMMALS — R.D. ESTES
- THE SAFARI COMPANION — R.D. ESTES
- TRACKS AND SIGNS OF SOUTHERN & EASTERN AFRICAN WILDLIFE — C. AND T. STUART
BIRDS
- BIRDS OF KENYA — ZIMMERMAN, TURNER & PEARSON
- FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF BIRDS OF EAST AFRICA – T. STEVENSON & J. FASHAWE
BOTANY
- TREES & SHRUBS OF EAST AFRICA – NAJAMA DHARANI
- WAYSIDE FLOWERS OF KENYA (Yr. 2008 Version) — TERESA SAPIEHA
- BLUNDELLS FLOWERS — MICHAEL BLUNDELL
- TREES OF KENYA — TIM NODE AND ANN BIRNIE
- TREES, SHRUBS AND LIANAS — ADAMSON
REPTILES
- FIELD GUIDE TO SNAKES AND OTHER REPTILES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA — BILL BRANCH
- REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS OF EAST AFRICA – NORMAN G. HEDGES [OR ANY OTHER AVAILABLE REPTILE BOOK]
INSECTS
- AFRICAN INSECTS — SKAIFE [OR ANY OTHER AVAILABLE INSECT BOOK]
CONSERVATION
- THE WILDLIFE (CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT) ACT, CHAPTER 376 INCLUDING ALL AMENDMENTS
- WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND TOURISM IN KENYA — DANIEL M. NYEKI
- NATIONAL PARK RULES
HISTORY
- 50 YEARS OF CHALLENGE AND ACHIEVEMENT — NATIONAL PARKS OF KENYA
- HISTORY GOVERNMENT FORM 1-4
GEOGRAPHY
- NATIONAL PARKS OF EAST AFRICA — J.G. WILLIAMS
- CURRENT MAP OF KENYA
- OXFORD 360 ATLAS – OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS [OR ANY GOOD ATLAS]
- GEOGRAPHY FORM 1-4
- COLLINS PHOTO GUIDE — ROCKS, MINERALS & GEMSTONES
FIRST AID
- ST. JOHN’S AMBULANCE FIRST AID BOOK
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
- WILDERNESS GUARDIAN — TIM CORFIELD
- EAST AFRICA SAFARI QUIZ BOOK — BOGDEN & STEPHEN ROZWADOSKI
- ANY GOOD “GUIDE TO KENYA” BOOK
- BE FAMILIAR WITH CURRENT AFFAIRS