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The Questions…

1. How much water can the average camel gulp down at one sitting?

2. The Global Seed Vault has catalogued and stored over half a million samples of plant seeds from around the world. The GSV mission is to help humanity recover from a future disaster and/or restore plant life lost to genetic modification. Where is the GSV located?

3. What distinction does baseball Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield hold in professional sports?

4. Which four U.S. Presidents are members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame?

5. When the HMS Beagle sailed from London to South America in 1831, why did the captain threaten to block young Charles Darwin from coming on board as a naturalist?

The Answers…

1. About 20 gallons. A common misconception is that a camel stores water in its hump. Wrong. The hump is made of fat, which the camel burns for energy as needed. Water is stored in the camel’s bloodstream and cells, same as you.

2. The Global Seed Vault is in a bomb-proof, earthquake-proof facility hundreds of feet beneath the permafrost on a remote archipelago in Norway.

3. Winfield is the only athlete ever drafted by four professional sports leagues. In 1973, he was drafted by the NBA Atlanta Hawks, the ABA Utah Stars, the NFL Minnesota Vikings, and the MLB San Diego Padres. Winfield (6’6″, 220 lbs.) signed with the Padres as a pitcher, but quickly became an outfielder to take advantage of his powerful bat.

4. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft. All were devotees of the sport in their youth.

5. According to Darwin’s autobiography, Captain Robert FitzRoy did not like the shape of Darwin’s nose. FitzRoy questioned “whether anyone with his nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage.”