ANOTHER LIFE QUIZ/Michael Viney
1. Which birds were threatened with Christmas eviction from their winter roost in Dublin's O'Connell Street?
2. 25mm makes an inch of rain. In November, 2001, 40 mm fell at Dublin Airport. In November this year the total was (a) 95mm; (b) 135mm; (c) 185mm.
3. In such a humid year, an organism that sometimes looks like jelly or spilled custard was noted by readers. Somewhere between animal and vegetable, it can creep about in search of bacteria and fungal prey. What is it?
4. Which migrant birds, that can sleep on the wing, had a hard time finding food in a summer sky with so few insects?
5. In sodden lawns, earthworms stayed near the surface. Which mammals arrived to dig them up?
6. A disease called SOD has led to a ban on the import of some American trees and shrubs - what does SOD stand for?
7. Who is the minister in charge of nature conservation?
8. A countryside survey published by BirdWatch Ireland named which species as the most abundant of our breeding birds - was it (a) rook; (b) blackbird; (c) robin?
9. Disaster has hit a key species in the marine life of Strangford Lough. Is it (a) brittle star; (b) sea cucumber; (c) horse mussel?
10. This year saw big promotion of home wormery bins to process kitchen waste into compost. What is the common name of the recommended stripy earthworm, Eisenia fetida?
11. The journal Animal Behaviour reported a study of herring gulls dropping clams in mid-air and then swooping to catch them again before they hit the ground. What did scientists decide they were doing?
12. Phytotherapy is proving a controversial field for the Irish Medicines Board. What is it more usually called?
13. An Arctic sea-mammal turned up in Killary Harbour, on the west coast, in September and was subsequently taken back to sea aboard the MV Aisling. What was it?
14. Ireland's fishing fleet has caught its quota of megrim. Which fish is it most like: (a) herring; (b) flounder; (c) haddock?
15. In a new book, an Australian geologist modelled a marine disaster for Donegal. What does he think could arrive?
16. A new Irish survey is recruiting volunteers to monitor nature's seasons, recording the dates of bud-bursts and flowerings, first sightings of butterflies, swallows and so on. What word leads its website address?
17. Architeuthis and the Kraken are names for a rarely-seen cephalopod netted last winter by a Scottish trawler - what was it?
18. A deep-sea fish, orange roughy, now being trawled off Ireland, has been shown to live to what age in the ocean: (a) 36 years; (b) 84; (c) 187?
19. Fishing for scian mhara is creating new problems of conservation. Which shellfish is it?
20. The spring rains kept which hard-pressed birds from nesting along the Shannon callows?
21. Which animal has taken to squatting in the attics of holiday homes in western woodlands?
22. Which kind of dolphin, noted for its body scars, wandered upriver in July to Cork's St Mathew Quay: was it (a) bottle-nosed; (b) common; (c) Risso's dolphin?
23. Research by a UCD team found that one season of mechanised potato-growing reduced the earthworms per square metre of soil from more than 1,100 to (a) 54; (b) 135; (c) 390.
24. Phocine distemper killed many common seals this autumn: where were the first Irish cases confirmed?
25. In June this year, the tidelines of some Munster beaches glistened wth the tiny rainbowed floats of the jellyfish Velella velella. What is its common name?
26. A research yacht, Forever Changes, spent the summer counting and photographing the Cetorhinus maximus swimming in Northern Ireland waters. What were they?
27. In cold ocean deeps off the west coast, an organism called Lophelia has built great reefs on the sea-bed, now a priority for conservation. What kind of animal is it?
28. In April, a big bird nicknamed One-Spot was logged as swooping on a hare in Glenveagh National Park. What was it?
29. A new species of fish is being farmed in Connemara for sale to aquariums. Its Latin name is Hippocampus. What is it more usually known as?
30. A new botanical atlas shows a drop in the numbers of sites for Irish Ladies' Tresses. What kind of plant is it?
31. The IWDG has had a busy year of sightings, recorded on its website. What do the initials stand for?
32. In June, a population explosion on the steppes of Afghanistan and Russia brought starlings of a different colour to these islands. Were they (a) pink; (b) blue; (c) white?
33. Which ancient Irish trees, often massively thick but hollow, are the subject of a quest by David Bellamy?
34. A new poem by Sean Lysaght celebrates the laidhrín, whose call is "teu, teu, teu". Which wading bird is this?
35. Digging over ground beneath beech trees last spring, a Dublin reader found objects like small, shrivelled-up, black golf balls. Which gourmet delight had he found?
36. Japanese gourmets would have been thrilled at the offer of a fish caught off Kerry - not least because eating the wrong bit could kill them. They call it fugu - what is it in the West?
37. A black swan (see illustration) appeared among the mute swans in Bray harbour in Co Wicklow. An escape from a zoo or private collection, and belonging to the world's only black swan species, where was its natural home: (a) Australia; (b) Japan; (c) Canada?
38. An all-white bird, rare in Ireland, has been drawing the twitchers to Mayo's Mullet peninsula. Is it (a) snowy owl; (b) snow bunting; (c) snow goose?
39. Networks for Nature is a nationwide conservation project launched last spring. Which networks are they?
40. Six Arctic birds, winter migrants to Ireland, were fitted with radio transmitters to study their route. One ended up in the freezer of a Canadian Inuit hunter. What were the birds?