Desert Animals
Explore animals of the desert, camels, fennec foxes, scorpions, rattlesnakes, meerkats, and understand how desert animals survive extreme heat and lack of water through being active at night, storing water or fat, burrowing underground during the day, and having large ears to lose heat
What a learner can do afterwards
- Names at least 4 desert animals
- Explains at least two desert survival adaptations (nocturnal behaviour, water storage, burrowing, large ears for cooling)
- Knows deserts can be hot or cold but are always dry
1 · Read
A desert is a place that gets very little rain. That is the one thing that makes it a desert. Some deserts are burning hot in the day, like the Sahara. Others are cold enough for snow, like the Gobi. Hot or cold, deserts are always dry, and camels, fennec foxes, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and meerkats have all found clever ways to live there.
Zara sees a camel crossing the sand. It has walked for days without a drink. The camel is not storing water in its hump, it is storing fat. The fat breaks down slowly and gives the camel energy, plus a little water, when there is nothing to eat or drink.
Look at a fennec fox's ears. Big ears for such a small fox! Large ears let body heat escape, so the fox stays cooler. Meerkats and many other desert animals also dig burrows and rest underground, where the sand stays cool even when the surface is baking hot.
Deserts are always dry, hot or cold, and desert animals cope by resting in the day, storing water or fat, digging cool burrows, and losing heat through big ears.
More to read
Scorpions: Desert Animals That Come Out at Night
Scorpions are cool little animals that love hot, dry deserts! Some of the biggest scorpions in the world live in desert areas in the southern United States.
Deserts get really hot during the day, so scorpions have a smart trick to stay safe. Instead of walking around in the burning sun, they hide in dark, cool spots. They tuck themselves under rocks, inside cracks, or down in burrows in the ground.
Then, when the sun goes down and the desert starts to cool off, scorpions come out. They creep around at night looking for food. Animals that sleep during the day and stay awake at night like this are called nocturnal.
Being nocturnal is a great way for desert animals to survive. The nighttime air is much cooler than the daytime air, so it helps scorpions stay from overheating and losing too much water. Many other desert animals, like fennec foxes and rattlesnakes, use this same nighttime trick to beat the heat.
So next time you think of the desert, picture the scorpion: a tiny animal that hides from the sun by day and explores under the stars by night. Lizards, kangaroo rats, and camels handle the desert in their own ways too. Deserts can be hot, like sandy seas of dunes, or cold, like high rocky plains. But every desert is dry. Little rain falls, so desert animals save every drop.
2 · Watch
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24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.