Zebras found in the desert are typically larger than their relatives in other regions. These zebras have amazing vision, with impressive sight both day and night. Zebras are built for desert survival. They mostly forage during the day, spending most of their waking hours ingesting what grasses and more they are able to uncover.
Zebras readily drink water that is available to them but is able to survive days without water. This bird of prey means serious business. While majestic to behold, this hawk is not easily approachable. A migratory bird, they are able to be located within the entire continental United States but are mostly found in deserts to the west.
The birds may also choose to nest in sycamores and oaks, but their nests largely remain the same. The hawk tends to remain nested and hunt when it is opportunistic for them, as true predators do. While the blue heron may seem majestic and stately, they are actually fiercely territorial and unafraid to defend themselves.
These birds are both loud and verbal, using their caws to drive away would-be predators and human visitors alike. While these herons exist across the United States, they tend to nest near to any available water. Although water may be sparse in certain desert regions, the blue heron is likely to find the water region that best suits their needs and drive away any potential predators. These flightless, two-legged birds may be the source of consternation from many. In actuality, the ostrich is able to claim the title of the fastest two-legged bird.
While the desert is rife with natural predators to the ostrich, their speed allows them to outrun them easily. Their legs are more than fast. In some cases, they can be lethal. In some cases, ostriches have been known to take down even a lion with their powerful legs. An omnivore, the ostrich pretty much eats whatever it can find in the environment around it, making it easily adaptable to desert life.
These bison are sturdy. They weigh up to pounds, and like the previously mentioned ostrich, run up to 40 miles per hour. Plains bison migrate and move around intuitively in order to avoid over-grazing. Like many owls, the great horned owl hibernates during the day.
At night, their superior eyesight allows them to survive in the dark. Coupled with their impressive hearing, great horned owls easily avoid predators. Impressive themselves, they are able to fly noiselessly and hunt prey during the night. Great horned owls exist across the continental United States but tend to migrate south like many birds during the winter.
Great horned owls are better suited to the arid weather than the cold. The loon is a forager and often dives underwater in order to look for prey.
Able to open their eyes while underwater and scan for their next potential meal, the desert loon is a sight to behold when engaging in its natural predatory behavior. While many loons make their home in rivers and larger bodies of water, they are happily able to make themselves at home in shallow bodies of water provided they have enough shade and fish to feed on.
With canine teeth strong enough to crush wood, camels can eat plants other animals cannot. If wind becomes a problem for the camel, he can do one of two things. First, he can close his nostrils. Secondly, he can trap sand in his extra-long eyelashes, keeping it out of his eyes. Camels have raised fatty structures inside their cheeks called papillae , which help get food down their throats into their stomachs. These desert animals, also known as javelina, have curved, short tusks that help them tear through plants like the prickly pear cactus.
An added bonus for the peccary: the prickly pear cactus is full of water, offering a great way for the animal to get sufficient hydration in the dry, desert sun.
The black-tailed shown above and white-tailed hares, as well as the snowshoe and antelope rabbit, are commonly called jackrabbits, with only the black-tailed being the dweller in 4 southwestern deserts.
They also have 2 peg teeth behind the top incisors. Their teeth are specifically adapted for gnawing and grow continuously throughout their lives. From spring to autumn, hares eat grass, clover, wildflowers, weeds, and farm and garden crops.
Moths Black Witch Moth. Yucca Moth. Garden Spider. Solpugids, Camel Spiders - Wind Scorpions. Tarantulas Wolf Spider. Find Fossil Insects. Mountain Lion Basics. Life on Desert Sand Dunes. Marsh Hawks of Moab Slough. Attract Hummingbirds and Butterflies to Your Garden. Attack of the "Killer Bees". Looking for Lizards. Finding Insect Fossils in the Mojave. The Desert is Bugged: Bug Lighting. How to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden.
This behavior, called urohydrosis, is shared with their relatives the storks, successful birds of the African deserts. Both vultures and storks may escape the hot midday temperatures of the desert by soaring effortlessly, high on thermals of cooler air. Many desert animals are paler than their relatives elsewhere in more moderate environments.
Pale colors may be seen in feathers, fur, scales or skin. Pale colors not only ensure that the animal takes in less heat from the environment, but help to make it less conspicuous to predators in the bright, pallid surroundings.
The mechanisms some desert animals have evolved to retain water are even more elaborate. They range from simple to physiologically complex. Some retain water by burrowing into moist soil during the dry daylight hours all desert toads. Some predatory and scavenging animals can obtain their entire moisture needs from the food they eat e.
Reptiles and birds excrete metabolic wastes in the form of uric acid, an insoluble white compound, wasting very little water in the process. Mammals, however, excrete urea, a soluble compound that accounts for considerable water loss. Most mammals, therefore, need access to a good supply of fresh water, at least every few days, if not daily.
Desert creatures derive water directly from plants, particularly succulent ones, such as cactus. Many species of insects thrive in the deserts this way. Some insects tap plant fluids such as nectar or sap from stems, while others extract water from the plant parts they eat, such as leaves and fruit. The abundance of insect life permits insectivorous birds, bats and lizards to thrive in the desert. Some desert creatures utilize all of these physical and behavioral mechanism to survive the extremes of heat and dryness.
Certain desert mammals, such as kangaroo rats, live in underground dens which they seal off to block out midday heat and to recycle the moisture from their own breathing.
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