Hobbies And Interests
Avoid the Heat
A simple behavior that most animals act out in the desert is to simply avoid the heat. Many animals, such as rodents or snakes, create small underground shelters in the sand. This shelters them from the heat and serves as their homes. Also, many animals found in a desert environment are biologically nocturnal; their biological sleep clocks allow them to be awake at night when it is cooler and then allows them to sleep during the day. Examples of nocturnal desert animals include owls and bats.
Storing and Preserving Water
Many animals in the desert have evolved to store water within their fat deposits. For example, the Gila monster, a desert lizard, stores much of its water in its tail. Another strategy in the bodies of desert animals is to preserve existing water. A common evolutionary trait is for many animals to absorb water from food more effectively. This usually means that desert animals remove solid waste from their bodies that have little to no water found in them.
Body Parts that Dissipate Heat
Probably one of the most unique evolutionary traits desert animals have is that some of these animals evolved appendages or unique body parts that help dissipate heat from their bodies. One of the best examples is the camel. The camel has one to two humps in its back filled with the majority of its entire body fat. This means that the camel has little fat distribution across its body. Other unique examples include large, thin body parts on the body, so blood can be cooled. For example, many rabbits in the desert have relatively large, long ears. This allows their blood to flow upwards in thin tissue, lowering the internal temperature of the blood as it returns downward into the body.
Estivation
Estivation is the biological term for animals that slow their metabolism down during hot months in the year. Estivation is the hot weather equivalent to hibernation; when the months become too hot, the animal slows its metabolism to a point where it essentially sleeps through the months. The animal hides in a shelter, either under sand, in a cave or underneath rocks, and begins to slow down its metabolism until it sleeps. Desert animals like tortoises, toads, squirrels and spiders have been recorded estivating during the hottest months in the year.
Plant Adaptions
Many plants have a relatively easier time adapting to a desert environment. This is only because animals, with internal organs and a more complex biochemistry, need to have a certain level of heat homeostasis to survive. Most plants, such as the cactus, in the desert have tough skins that keep in water. Plants also store most of their water in their underground roots. This allows the water to remain moist and not evaporate. Plants are also larger vertically speaking in the desert. This allows sunlight to dissipate across a large body frame and not at one, small object.