Ok. You know Diana Gabaldon‘s books and the young Outlander Starz series, but there is a reason–or a hundred–why her animals gallop, clomp, fly, and slither off the pages of her books and into our lap (reptiles are not welcome in mine without warning, thanks!). That’s because Herself knows them all. The author has degrees in Marine Biology, Zoology and even a Ph.D in Quantitative Behavioral Ecology, meaning she has a fair grasp of the beasts of Earth’s waters, air, and land … both individually and in their greater ecological systems. Guess they are all her spirit animals.

SO WHO IS YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL? TAKE THIS SHORT QUIZ

Which of these Gabaldon critters is most your type?

• Do you yearn to feel a biting Scottish wind tear at your hair and to thrill to the surging muscles of a stallion under saddle as he gallops across a rocky plain or through an icy Highland burn?  You are a Donas person.

• Perhaps you like nothing more than the bleating of spring lambs, the earthy smell of wet wool or calling “Coo-boss, Coo-boss” to bring in the milch cows on a dusky autumn afternoon for milking? You are a Highland Cow person.

• Maybe you are a “feeder” and idea of mud facials and tossing slops to squealing and pushing 300-pound hogs secretly thrills you?  (Every beast has to eat, um, something, right?) You might be a White Sow.

• Perhaps you love nothing more than a snug room filled with the sound of a crackling fire overlain with the snarfs and rumbling snores of dogs scattered across the rug at your feet like a breathing pile of kindling?  You, hear the call of the wild, you Bran, Bouton, or Rollo dog person.

• And last – but certainly not least – do you enjoy the scent of turpentine? Enjoy boat travel, revel in shouting and gunfire, yet keep your joie de vivre and love of socializing intact? Then you trot to your own drummer, you lucky Clarence The Mule person.  <- Those are the best of all human kinds!