How Animals Survive in the Desert

The physiological functions of animals work only within a narrow temperature range. Hence, they have developed a number of mechanisms to help them survive temperature variations during the day and night and the dry conditions of the desert.

  1. Avoiding Heat

    • Some desert animals are active either during the night or at dawn and dusk when the temperatures are milder. Some animals such as the kangaroo rat and the badger burrow themselves in the sand during the day whereas foxes and skunks spend the day in the cool shade of some den.

    Losing Heat

    • Long appendages such as the ears of the jackrabbits have a lot of blood vessels through which animals dissipate heat. Owls and nighthawks gape with their mouths open and flutter their throats to lose body heat.

    Acquiring Water

    • Water in succulent plants such as cactus and in blood and tissues of animals help animals that feed on them meet a part of their requirement in the desert. Desert insects acquire water from the sap and nectar from flowers and stem of desert plants. The kangaroo rat and some other desert rodents have evolved a mechanism of making water inside its body while digesting dry seeds that they eat.