HOW DESERT ANIMALS SURVIVE

Desert animals, like desert plants, have adapted in very special ways to live in this hot, dry environment. When finding water is a problem, many animals develop ways of living to help them use less water.

One way to save water is to stay as cool as possible. When people get too hot their bodies start to sweat. This water, coming from small pores in the skin, helps to cool the skin and keeps the body temperature from getting too high. Although most desert animals don't sweat, the same type of cooling happens when an animal pants. The body can lose a lot of water under the desert sun.

People are lucky because they can carry water with them in canteens and waterbottles. Animals must rely on the water that they can find. Most of the time little water is available, so animals have to be masters at keeping cool and saving water.

Almost all desert animals are smart enough to stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day. They stay deep underground in burrows. There the sand is much cooler, and burrowing animals, like the kangaroo rat, the badger, the gopher, the coyote and the kit fox, sleep while you are playing on the dunes. At night, after the sun goes down and the sand cools off, the animals come out to hunt for food. When an animal is active at night and rests during the day, it is called nocturnal.