Picture
Picture of camels.

Animal Life in the Desert

To start the first page, I will name a few popular animals in the desert.   
-
Bobcat
-Camels 
-Cheetah
-Coyote

-Jaguars
-Javelina

-Wild Horses
-Kangaroo Rats
-Lion
-Mountain Mule Deer
-Porcupine
-Cottontails
-Jack Rabbits

-Raccoon
-Spotted Hyena

-Wild BurrosWolves
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Wood rats(Pack Rats)
   WERE THEY LIVE IN THE DESERT
     Animals in the desert must survive in a hostile environment. Intense heat, searing sun, and lack of water are just a few of the challenges facing desert animals.  Different animals live in the different types of deserts. Animals that live in the desert have adaptations to live with the lack of water, the extreme temperatures, and the shortage of food. To avoid daytime heat, many desert animals are nocturnal; they burrow beneath the surface or hide in the shade during the day, emerging at night to eat. Many desert animals do not have to drink at all; they get all the water they need from their food. Most desert animals are small. 
    
THE WEATHER THEY LIVE IN
    Believe it or not,but some deserts get both very hot (during the day) and very cold (during the night, when temperatures can drop well below freezing). Some deserts, however, are always cold (for example, the Gobi Desert in Asia, and the desert on the continent of Antarctica).Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's surface and occur where rainfall is less than 50 cm/year.Most deserts have a considerable amount of specialized vegetation, as well as specialized vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Disturbances are common in the form of occasional fires or cold weather, and sudden, infrequent, but intense rains that cause flooding. SURVIVAL
    But back to animals.
Lack of water creates a survival problem for all desert organisms, animals and plants alike. But animals have an additional problem,they are more susceptible to extremes of temperature than are plants. Animals receive heat directly by radiation from the sun, and indirectly, by conduction from the substrate (rocks and soil) and convection from the air.The biological processes of animal tissue can function only within a relatively narrow temperature range. When this range is exceeded, the animal dies. For four or five months of the year, the daily temperatures in the desert may actually exceed this range, called the range of thermoneutrality. Combined with the scarcity of life,sustaining water, survival for desert animals can become extremely tenuous.

By Holyn Huizinga