Consider the following pairs:
| Country | Animal found in its natural habitat | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Brazil | Indri |
| 2. | Indonesia | Elk |
| 3. | Madagascar | Bonobo |
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) None
Every pair is shuffled. The indri is a lemur that lives only in Madagascar, the bonobo is an African ape found in the Congo basin forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the elk is a large deer of North America and the cold uplands of Asia; none of them occurs wild in the country it is paired with.
- ✗ 1. The indri (Indri indri), the largest of the lemurs, lives in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar and is Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Lemurs do not occur naturally in South America, so Brazil is wrong.
- ✗ 2. The elk (wapiti) is a large deer known from North America, where scientists call it Cervus canadensis, and it is also found in parts of Central and East Asia. Tropical Indonesia has no wild elk.
- ✗ 3. The bonobo, or pygmy chimpanzee, is an African great ape; UNESCO notes it as a threatened species of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Madagascar has no apes.
Remember · Indri = Madagascar (largest lemur). Bonobo = DR Congo only (Salonga NP). Elk/wapiti = North America and Central/East Asia. Madagascar has lemurs but no apes.
Sources
- IUCN, Lemurs of Madagascar: A Strategy for Their Conservation 2013-2016 (Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor) ↗ “one of the largest continuous rainforests remaining in Madagascar and comprises several management units, from national parks to community-managed sustainable-use reserves. The corridor supports a remarkable 17 species of lemur, including the emblematic and Critically Endangered indri (Indri indri).”
- IUCN, Amazing Lemurs (Indri) ↗ “Indris are the largest of the lemurs and are revered in Malagasy culture - legends tell of humans descending from Indri!”
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) ↗ “it constitutes the habitat of numerous threatened species such as the pygmy chimpanzee (or bonobo), the bush elephant and the Congo peacock.”
- U.S. National Park Service, Elk, Yellowstone National Park ↗ “The North American elk is considered by some experts to be the same species as the red deer of Europe ( Cervus elaphus ). This is an ongoing taxonomic debate. Currently, most scientists refer to elk in North America as Cervus canadensis .”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·