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Google took its Earth Day Doodle to the next level with an animal quiz

Jared Leto is a woolly mammoth. What are you?

 

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Internet Culture

Posted on Apr 22, 2015   Updated on May 29, 2021, 12:36 am CDT

Wednesday, April 22 is Earth Day, and Google is celebrating with an over-the-top version of its classic Google Doodle.

The Doodle itself is a cute, Earth-themed GIF, but when you click on it, you can play Google’s “Which animal are you?” quiz and watch videos from celebrities and public figures who already took the test.

And that’s how we wound up hearing legendary primatologist Jane Goodall utter the phrase, “I found out I’m a whooping crane.”

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Earth Day began in 1970 as a celebration of the natural world and a day of activism to protect the environment. Since then, it has spread from the U.S. to become a worldwide day of awareness about wildlife concerns and climate change. This year’s activities include a cleanup hike along part of the Great Wall of China, local festivals across the U.S., rainforest protections for tigers in Sumatra, and a Facebook campaign to plant a billion seeds or trees.

Jared Leto and Edward Norton are among the celebrities who made Earth Day videos for Google’s quiz, and they certainly played to type. Norton is “casually” sitting around in the sunshine making fun of himself for being identified as a pangolin, while Jared Leto is, of course, wearing sunglasses in the dark. 

Google’s outreach efforts run alongside fundraising campaigns for various wildlife charities, including the World Wildlife Fund, the Virunga Fund and WildAid. For the rest of April, Google will match donations to each of these charities up to $20,000.

Time to start donating—and retaking the Google Doodle quiz until you get the result you want.

Photo via NASA/Wikimedia (Public Domain)

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*First Published: Apr 22, 2015, 7:45 am CDT