---
title: "Desert Animals"
description: "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, storin"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/desert-animals-mt_0zqOTjjW2k
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/desert-animals-mt_0zqOTjjW2k.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# 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

Subject: Science · Area: Animals of the World · Ages 7 to 9
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/desert-animals-mt_0zqOTjjW2k

## Ready when they can

- 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

## Lesson: How Desert Animals Survive

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.

*(drawing: Desert animals often flip the clock: they rest through the hot day and come out to hunt and eat once it cools down at night.)*

**Example.** 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.

**Tip.** 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.

**Recap.** 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.

## Practice

24 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Nocturnal Animals](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/nocturnal-animals-mt_V_wIdRZLsG)

## Opens up

- [Polar Animals](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/polar-animals-mt_D4lyx0iYyB)
- [Three Kinds of Adaptations](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/three-kinds-of-adaptations-mt_EaWjCyn8W2)