The Post Exploding Animal Quiz: Answers
Created | Updated Sep 27, 2015
Beware: handle incendiary animals with caution.
The Post Exploding Animal Quiz: Answers
How much did you know? Remember, fertiliser is the farmer's friend, but only when handled safely. Parliament is not the only place where manure is combustible.
Here are the answers.
- During World War II, as we know, the Japanese employed fire balloons against the US. What strange incendiary bioweapon did a US dentist invent to use against the Japanese?
Bat Bombs. The project, which involved airlifting more than a million bats armed with firebombs over Japan, was never implemented. One scientist referred to it as 'Die Fledermaus Farce'. - You know about the 1993 and 2001 bombings in New York, using a truck bomb and airliners, respectively. What did Italian terrorists use in their attack on Wall Street in 1920?
A horse-drawn wagon. The bomb killed 38 people and an innocent horse, and did $2 million in damage. Talk about occupying Wall Street... - Kamikaze pilots were not the only suicide bombers in World War II. What animals did the Soviets use against German tanks?
Dogs. (Shame on them.) The Germans called them Panzerabwehrhunde. - What infamous US behavioural scientist worked on a pigeon-guided missile during World War II?
BF Skinner. (Who else?) Project Pigeon failed, but Skinner claimed it was because the military refused to take him seriously. - What creature explodes altruistically, to save its fellows?
The carpenter ant, C. Saundersi, of Southeast Asia. It has a self-destruct mechanism, called autothysis. We don't know if it shouts 'Exterminate!' in ant while perishing. - What strange thing happened to a farmer in Queensland, Australia, when he was milking his cow in 1932?
The cow's head blew off. It had swallowed a detonator in a field, but the device didn't go off until later. Moral: don't feed explosives to ruminants. - What causes worldwide incidents of spontaneous exploding pigs?
Manure. There's a reason Homeland Security are worried about your fertiliser purchases. - Why was the small body of water in the Altona district of Hamburg labelled the Tümpel des Todes (Pond of Death) in 2005?
Exploding toads. At least 1000 of them blew up. The complicated explanation involved crows that ate the toads' livers, and a defensive mechanism gone mad. - What was the Sheriff of Essex accused of plotting to do in 1267?
Release flying cockerels with incendiary bombs over London. Call it 'Ye Blitz'. - In 1970, the Oregon (US) Highway Division did something unusual and explosive, but it was intended to protect public health. What was it?
They blew up a whale. The poor thing had died on an Oregon beach, and beaches were listed as 'public highways' back then. They couldn't move it, so they blew it up.
Did you pass? Then you can be licenced to deal with the next animal combustion crisis in your area. This has been a public service of the h2g2 Post Agricultural Division.
