Animals in cage riddle
Vicky caught four animals in the Great Animal Forest and put them into four separate cages. The four animals are:
the lion, that always tells the truth;
the jackal, that always lies;
the parrot, that always repeats the last given answer (if he is the first one, he randomly says “yes” or “no”);
the giraffe, that is so slow that he always truthfully answers the previous question (if he is the first one, he also randomly says “yes” or “no”).
The other animals want to free them and send the small, smart hedgehog on the way to size up the situation. In the middle of the night, the hedgehog creeps into the camp of the Vicky and tries to figure out which animal sits in which cage. One by one, he asks them “are you the jackal?” After hearing the four answers, the hedgehog only knows in which cage the giraffe sits. Then the hedgehog asks them in the same order “are you the giraffe?” After hearing the four answers, the hedgehog also knows in which cage the jackal sits. Because the hedgehog then still does not know in which cages all animals sit, he asks the first animal “are you the parrot?” The answer is “yes”, and now the hedgehog knows exactly which animal sits in which cage. The hedgehog returns to the other animals and together they free the captured animals.
Which animal was in which cage? 
On then the question “Are you the jackal?” the lion and the jackal will both answer “no”.
If the parrot is in the cage behind the lion or the jackal he will also answer “no”.
If the parrot is in the cage behind the giraffe they both will answer “yes” or they both will answer “no”.
The hedgehog now knows the location of the giraffe so they didn’t all answer “no”.
If there is only one “yes” and it came from the first cage the hedgehog still doesn’t know who is in the first cage because then the first cage could contain either the parrot or the giraffe.
If there were two cages with “yes” the hedgehog would not only know the location of the giraffe but also the location of the parrot or he doesn’t know the location of the giraffe at all.
So there is only one “yes” and it is coming from the cage with the giraffe and it isn’t the first cage.
On the question “are you the giraffe?” the lion will answer “no” and the jackal will answer “yes”.
The giraffe will answer the previous question so his answer will also be “no.”
If there were two cages with “yes” the hedgehog would either know the location of the jackal and the location of the parrot or he doesn’t know the location of the jackal at all.
So there is only one cage that answers “yes” and that is coming from the cage with the jackal.
On the question “are you the parrot?” the jackal would always answer “yes” so it wouldn’t be wise to ask this to cage one if you know the jackal was in there.
We already know the first cage doesn’t contain the giraffe so only the lion and the parrot are left.
The lion would answer “no”, so he isn’t in the first cage.
The first cage contains the parrot.
Because the parrot answered “yes”, the last answer on the previous question would be “yes”.
The only animal that gave a “yes” on the previous question was the jackal.
The jackal is in the last cage
The giraffe is in the cage that answered “yes” on the first question.
The lion is in the remaining cage.
Although the hedgehog knows all the locations, we don’t.
For us there are two possibilities:
PLGJ with answers NNYN NNNY Y
PGLJ with answers NYNN NNNY Y
(The parrot answered the first question randomly with “no” and the giraffe with “yes”.)
Your Answer
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