Desert Animals

In the extreme conditions of the desert, the merciless sun is always abundant. What is the obvious shortage is water. Drying heat and insufficient amount of moisture prevent the development of a rich plant world, on which the life of all inhabitants of this area directly depends. The rainy season, which is allotted about two months, provokes a violent growth of vegetation and a green carpet can appear even on sand and clay surfaces.

It is during this period that desert animals develop their turbulent childbearing activity. Mammals bring offspring, birds and reptiles acquire nests and lay eggs.

Almost complete absence of moisture, severe temperature and soil with practically no vegetation create certain limitations. How do animal deserts adapt to such intolerable conditions?

Sometimes the temperature on the surface of sand reaches almost 90C. For the inhabitants of these places this is a very serious problem. In addition, no animal can tolerate prolonged overheating. Many of them die from solar exposure.

Animals of deserts escape from scorching heat in different shelters. Many reptiles, invertebrates and mammals find refuge between the rocks, digging salvation burrows, and go hunting late at night. Some species are able to fall into anabiosis, rodents and reptiles in hottest time of year fall into a hibernation. Some animals in the desert spend most of their life underground. Most birds and ungulates migrate at this time to less hot regions. Someone finds a shadow of shrubs, and someone climbs on branches higher than the hot sand.

Tropic deserts are characterized by jerboas, mole rats, volcanoes of the family of meerkats, some species of hedgehogs, and feniks - small chanterelles. There are also large animals of the desert - representatives of mammals: desert cats, hyenas, cheetahs. The family of ungulates is represented by donkeys, mountain rams, antelopes, kulans, gazelles, gazelles and, of course, desert ships - camels.

A dromedary or a single-horned camel is perfectly adapted to the extreme conditions of a given climatic belt. These animals in the desert are well adapted, thanks to their hump, which consists of fat deposits representing its food resources. They travel for a long time in the desert without water. This is facilitated by hooves, which are great for moving on quicksand. They are wide, flat, which helps to move the animal, despite its impressive weight.

With the help of thick lips and teeth, they easily chew even the toughest and thorny plants. Their life expectancy reaches 50 years.

Desert animals that prefer to hunt in the daytime show their activity only in the early morning, while the soil is not yet hot. Then they hide in shady places.

Each animal finds an acceptable source of moisture for itself. Birds fly to large areas in its search, and for those who do not have such an opportunity (antelopes, sandstones, ground squirrels) extract it from bulbs, rhizomes and green twigs.

Desert animals have special physiological characteristics and are adapted to the careful consumption of water. In addition, each of them is adapted to move through hot and deep sand. Paws of mammals are strongly pubescent, the sole is protected by a thick stiff hair brush. "Greben" and "mohnopod" jerboa precisely because of such features have their name. They perfectly run around the sand dunes.

Characteristic of different deserts is the predominance of certain species of animals. For example, in the Sahara they are represented by mongooses, deserted hedgehogs, sandstones, sand foxes, jackals, caresses, baboons, hares of hind legs and deer, there are about 300 species of birds. Unique Atacama deserts are inhabited by varieties of lama, some species of chinchillas, there you can find about 120 species of birds.