Do you know Your Yukon? Have you been paying attention to this column? Test your environmental knowledge with our second annual Christmas quiz. Once again, correct answers might even win you a fabulous (well, fairly decent) prize.

Send your answers, along with a return address, to Your Yukon Quiz Central, Environment Canada, 91782 Alaska Hwy., Whitehorse, Y1A 5B7. or fax them to (867) 668-2088. All correct answers arriving by January 15 will be placed in a large, woolly, Yukon-style hat, and three lucky winners will be drawn.

(P.S. If you'd like to cheat, all of the answers can be found in the columns in this archive.)

1. What is permafrost?
    
   
   1. The ice that builds up in your freezer when you haven't defrosted it in years.
   2. A spray used to put sparkly highlights in dyed hair.
   3. A beer-maker's term for well-chilled glasses.
   4. An underground layer of permanently frozen soil and water.
   
   
2. How do you catch a duck for tagging?
    
   
   1. Send it a formal embossed invitation, explaining the tagging program and asking politely for its co-operation.
   2. Put out a nice dish of bread and tag the duck while it's busy eating.
   3. Wait until the ducks moult their flight feathers and can't fly, then use canoes to herd them into traps.
   4. Use specially-trained bird dogs that can retrieve the ducks without harming them.
   
   
3. What is the subnivean space?
    
   
   1. The grotty place under the stairs where the vacuum cleaner won't reach.
   2. A space, between the ground and the snow, where small animals remain active all winter.
   3. The area of skin covered by face cream at night.
   4. The part of the solar system inside the orbit of Neptune.
   
   
4. What is Giardia?
    
   
   1. A gardener gone wrong.
   2. A microorganism sometimes found in untreated water.
   3. What a jockey says to a recalcitrant horse.
   4. An officer in the Irish police force.
   
   
5. Which of the following is a beneficial effect of forest fires?
    
   
   1. Boiled Giardia.
   2. Toasted spruce bark beetles.
   3. Weed eradication.
   4. Soil enrichment.
   
   
6. Why are scientists drilling holes in the Trapridge Glacier?
    
   
   1. They are looking for oil.
   2. To install ice traps.
   3. To look for Boreal Chorus Frogs.
   4. To learn about the history of climate change.
   
   
7. What is the difference between caribou and reindeer?
    
   
   1. Caribou can't fly.
   2. No difference.
   3. The rare red-nosed subspecies, Rudolphus nasusrosatus, is more common among reindeer.
   4. Only Santa Claus knows.
   
   
8. In what part of the Yukon would you find the Boreal Chorus Frog?
    
   
   1. Singing in Whitehorse's Borealis Youth Chorus.
   2. On stage at Diamond Tooth Gertie's.
   3. In the La Biche River valley.
   4. Under the Trapridge Glacier.
   
   
9. What is a sure-fire way to eliminate mosquitoes?
    
   
   1. Build a Death Star.
   2. Set up "Mosquito Crossing" signs on all highways.
   3. Advertise them as an attraction for wealthy European tourists.
   4. Don't even think about it!
   
   
10. What is one way of dealing with acid rock drainage?
     
    
    1. Wait for the "unplugged" album.
    2. Take a stiff dose of Pepto-Bismol.
    3. Reduce the amount of oxygen reaching the rock.
    4. Put the plug back in the drain.
    
    

Have a happy holiday season, from the staff at Environment Canada, Yukon.