The Desert Big Horned Sheep By Ashley Hull

1. The Desert Big Horned SheepBy Ashley Hull

2. The Desert Big Horned SheepDescription • One of the rarest animals in the desert is a big horned sheep. • It has short thin hair. • Up towards its neck it has a light brownish color with gray too. • Down towards its back it has dark brown hair. • Adult female big horned sheep are called ewes. • Babies are called lambs. • They can live more than 25 years. • The males are excellent climbers and they can run pretty fast. • The males and females usually mate at the age of 7to8 years of age. • The babies are born alive because they are mammals. • They usually weigh 200 or more pounds. • The males have huge horns curve backwards. • Females have big ones too but they are not as big as the males are. • Also they can have more than one circle on their horns and the females horns are more curves to the side. • They have 4 medium sized legs

3. Desert Habitat of the Big Horn Sheep • My animal lives in the continent of North America. • It likes to lay in deep slopes. • The male big horned sheep lives a herd with 5 to 15 animals. • Also the female and her lamb live in separate groups till the young grows up.

4. Desert Diet of the Bighorn Sheep • The desert big horned sheep is an herbivore. • It eats plants. • Some of its enemies are coyotes, mountain lions, cougars, and humans. • One of the things it likes to eat is grass but it can’t find much of it. • It also eats sedges and forbs. • The big horned sheep usually gets its moisture from the plants it eats.

5. The female big horned sheep horns are smaller than most….the males horns are usually bigger than the females horns…but every winter their horns fall off. They can have more than 1 curve on there horns.

6. Desert Adaptations of the Big Horned Sheep • Adaptations are necessary to survive in the desert environment. • The big horned sheep is a diurnal animal witch means it is out at day. • Every winter its horns fall of and when they grow back on they grow even bigger. • It protects its self by taking its horns and ramming into its predators or other herds of big horned sheep. • It also keeps cool by laying in steep slopes.

7. Bobcatby Macy Kaiser

8. Description of Bobcats • Did you ever want to learn about the bobcat? • The bobcat got its name from its bobbed tail. • Its body covering is a soft and silky coat. • The adult bobcat is measures from 24 to 45 inches. • It lives 12 to 13 years in the wild. • The male bobcat weighs 20 to 30 pounds and the females weigh 13 to 30 pounds. • The bobcat is a mammal and gives birth to 2 or 3 tiny, helpless kittens which are born live. • They have 2 nicknames which are wildcat and bay lynx. • This cat has 4 legs . • The face of the bobcat is much like the domestic cat, but larger.

9. Habitat of A Bobcat • Some places you could find a bobcat are on the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. • The bobcat lives in the southwest deserts in the United States of America. • You would be able to find a bobcat in a den, in a mountain in the desert.

10. Food Diet of the Bobcat • The bobcat is a carnivore, which means it eats meat. • It is a predator. • The bobcat eats rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, birds, fish, small deer, rodents, and sometimes larger animals. • When it is in a fight with an enemy, it will kill that animal and the bobcat drags that animal back to the bobcat’s den.

11. The bobcat uses camouflage to protect itself.

12. Adaptations of the Bobcat • Adaptations are necessary to the bobcat to survive in the desert. • A bobcat is nocturnal, which means it is active at night. • The bobcat uses camouflage and marks its territory to protect itself. • To get it food, it uses the soft pads on its feet to help it stalk its prey. • Then it grabs the prey by its claws, and it uses its sharp teeth to bite the animal’s neck. • The bobcat’s ears have hairy tufts. The bobcat acts like the hairy tufts are antennae, helping it hear the slightest sound.

13. Coyoteby Blake Campbell

14. Description of a Coyote • A coyote is a mammal and a vertebrate. • Coyotes have 21 teeth on the top and 21 on the bottom. That equals 42. • It is 2 feet tall and 3 feet long. • A female has 5 or 6 babies at once. • Coyotes are about 25 to 50 pounds. • It’s color is a grayish or brownish and sometimes a reddish. • Their ears are pointed. • It communicates by howling, barking, growling , and wailing. • A coyote is a carnivore and is warm blooded. • Coyotes tails are bushy and 11 to 16 inches. • Their nick names are prairie wolf and brush wolf • They have 4 long legs.

15. Habitat of a Coyote • One place you can find a coyote is in North America. • It lives in the United States and Mexico. • You would find it in tall grass. • The desert you would find them in is the Great Basin, Sonoran, and the Mojave. • Coyotes live in desert, forests, mountains, and prairies.

16. Eating Habits of the Coyote • Coyotes are predators but they are omnivores. • Their mane diet is prairie dogs, mice, rabbits, rats, gophers, squirrels, antelopes, goats, sheep, cattle, deer, and elk. • If in the winter they can’t find food they eat juniper berries, mesquite beans, and water melons. • Their enemies are humans, wolfs, bears, cougars, and bobcats.

17. Adaptations of a Coyote • Adaptations are necessary to survive in the desert environment. • To help coyotes hunt they have sharp eyesight, keen smell, and their hearing is excellent. • Coyotes have a strange smelling aroma to mark their territory. • A coyote changes coats to protect its self. • By seasons their colors change. • Coyotes are nocturnal so they sleep in the heat of the day and hunt at night.

18. Coyotes howl at the moon. Coyotes have poofy fur.

19. Diamondback RattlesnakeBy Britney Biltz

20. Description of Diamondback Rattlesnakes • One kind of desert animal is the diamondback rattlesnake. • You can recognize a diamondback from other snakes because it has a diamond pattern on its back. • It can get up to be 8 feet long. • The diamondback can be gray, brown, tan, pale blue, brick red, or pink. • They have dark diamonds with a yellowish border. • The diamondback has a thick body and his eyes look like cat’s eyes. • It has a rattle at the tip of it’s tail. He has a forked tongue. • The diamondback rattlesnake is heavy-bodied. • The diamondback has no legs.

21. Habitat of a Diamondback Rattlesnake • One place you could find a diamondback rattlesnake is on the continent of North America. • It lives in the Sonoran Desert. • In the Sonoran Desert they like to be in dry, rocky areas. • They like to hide in thick palmettos, holes of tree stumps, and burrows of the gopher tortoise. • They like to hide behind rocks or in shrubs.

22. Food Diet of the Diamondback Rattlesnake • Diamondbacks are carnivores because they eat meat. • They eat birds, small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. • Some predators of the diamondback are hawks, bald eagles, roadrunners, wild turkeys, coyotes, deer, and foxes.

23. Adaptations of the Diamondback Rattlesnake • Adaptations are necessary to survive in the desert environment. • The diamondback rattlesnake lives in dry, rocky areas and behind rocks or in shrubs to keep it cool. • A diamondback has a rattle at the tip of its tail that makes a loud buzzing sound to keep predators away. • It has eyes that looks like cat’s eyes to hunt at night. • A diamondback has a brown diamond pattern on its back with a yellowish border to help it blend in with the desert environment. • He hunts at sunrise, sunset, and sometimes at night. • It has scales on its belly to help it move across the sand.

24. The diamondback is getting ready to spring out to get his food. The diamondback just put venom in his food.

25. Gila Monster by Alli Duerstock

26. Description of the Gila Monster • Have you ever wondered what a Gila monster looks like? • A Gila monster is a reptile. • They have scales like shiny beads. • Their scales are orange and black. • They have a stout body and a broad blunt head. • A Gila monster’s tongue is forked, broad and flat. • The length of the Gila monster is about the size of a human baby. • It also weighs about 2 pounds. • Gila monsters can have up to 3 to 15 babies. • A Gila monster is a very shy animal. • A Gila monster has 4 legs and 5 toes on each leg.

27. Habitat of the Gila Monster • If you want to know where the Gila monster lives you should go to the continent of North America. • A Gila monster lives in the deserts of North America. • The deserts are the Mojave, Sonoran, and the Chihuahua. • You would find a Gila monster if you looked in a hole underground. • Most of the Gila monsters habitat has been destroyed. • The Gila monsters name came from the Basin River in Arizona.

28. Desert Diet of the Gila Monster • A Gila monster is a carnivore. • Its diet is eggs, young birds, small mammals , and lizards. • Gila monsters can swallow their food whole. • Its predators are coyotes, hawks, and people. • Gila monsters have an organ on its tongue called the Jacobson’s organ that helps it find its prey. • If a Gila monster is not bothered it will not bite you. • Gila monsters can live for months without eating. • It can Because it stores food in its tail.

29. Adaptations of the Gila Monster • Adaptations are necessary to survive in the desert environment. • A Gila monster can keep cool because their scales retain moisture. • They also can survive days without drinking water. • Gila monsters protect themselves by having painful bites powerful venom and change colors. • They’re also very good swimmers. • Most of the time Gila monsters move very slowly, but they move very fast when they find food. • Gila monsters can live for months without eating because they store food in their tail.

30. A Gila monster is a lizard that is orange and black.

31. Hairy Armadilloby Spencer Rueff

32. Description of a Hairy Armadillo • One kind of desert animal is the hairy armadillo. • It has four short legs and small hooves. • His face and ears are pointed. • He has light brown or white hair that grows between his scales. • They weigh from 4 to 5 pounds and are 1.5 to 2 feet long. • His body is like a little tank. • They’re mammals and vertebrates.

33. Adaptations of a Hairy Armadillo • One necessary thing in the desert are adaptations. • The hairy armadillo burrows in sand dunes and sleeps in the day. • He can hold his breath for 6 minutes under the sand. • Its armor is its sharp hair. • He protects himself with his bone covered skin.

34. Habitat of a Hairy Armadillo • If you want to see a hairy armadillo go to North or South America. • Their homes are wetlands, deserts, and grasslands. • The farthest south they go is southern Chile. • They live in burrows.

35. Diet of a Hairy Armadillo • A hairy armadillo is an omnivore because it eats plants and animals. • It eats insects, plants, lizards, rodents, and small snakes. • IT will also eat roots and fruit. • The kinds of insects he likes are ants, termites, and beetles. If there is not much food, he will eat dead animals.

36. Jackalby Nathan Perkins

37. Description ofJackals • My desert animal is the jackal. • They have fairly long legs and a long bushy tail. • It has a grayish yellow or brown coat. • A common jackal looks like a fox. • It is a mammal. • There is three different species: the black backed, side striped and golden. • The height of my animal is 2 and a half feet. • They can weigh up to 25 pounds. • Jackals have four legs. • It has grey eyes and a long nose. • They have long ears.

38. Habitat of the Jackal • Places you can find jackals are in deserts of Asia and Africa. • The deserts of Africa and Asia are Nahib, Kalahari, Arabian, Sahara, Turkestan and the Gobi desert. • They live in dens underground.

39. The Food Dietof a Jackal • Jackals are carnivorous animals. • Hyena and wildabeasts are the only things that eat them. • They eat anything dead. • Sometimes jackals eat athropods. • The pups go on field trips for food, like insects.

40. Adaptations of a Jackal • All animals have adaptations to help them survive the desert. • Jackals get their water from their food. • It protects itself by hiding in the rocks. • Jackals move carefully so they don’t attract attention. • They are diurnal animals which means their active in the day. • They eat when the larger animals are done.

41. Jackals don’t like to be touched.

42. Kangaroo RatBy Rebecca Caddell

43. Description of Kangaroo Rats • Have you ever wondered what a kangaroo rat looks like? • The color of a kangaroo rat is light brown on the top and a white belly with a shade of yellow. • Unlike most desert animals it has silky fur. • Its weight is five to six ounces. • It is two inches tall. • The kangaroo rat has a long tail. • The length of the his tail is 7 to 8½ inches . • The kangaroo rat has a long tail to help it stay balanced. • My animal is tiny but it can jump like a kangaroo. • Do you want to know how for it can jump? • Well the kangaroo rat can jump 2 to 10 feet in one jump! • That’s why his powerful hind legs come in handy. • You probably have figured out that my animal is a mammal. • He has short front legs a large head, and big eyes. • He has keen eyesight. • It will have 5 babies per litter. • This animal will grow 15” long. • It’s a vertebrate.

44. Food of the Kangaroo Rat • Kangaroo rats are omnivores because they eat seeds, grains, green parts of plants, and insects. • Rattlesnakes, coyotes, foxes, and bobcats eat the kangaroo rat. • The kangaroo rat gets water from plants and the seeds it eats.

45. Habitat of the Kangaroo Rat • Some places you could find a kangaroo rat is on the continents of North America and South America. • It lives in the Atacama and Patagonion Deserts. • You can find my animal under a shady bush.

46. Adaptations of the Kangaroo Rat • This is how the kangaroo rat can survive in the desert because of its adaptations. • It keeps cool because it does not pant or sweat • Kangaroo rats conserve water because their bodies make their own water from the air it breathes and the food it eats. • They hop fast and have an under ground burrow to protect themselves. • My animal is nocturnal because it moves out at night. • It feeds at night.

47. Kangaroo rats are cute.

48. Meerkat by Bryce Denney

49. Description of a Meerkat • One kind of desert animal is the meerkat. • The meerkat has silvery brown fur with stripes of black across their back. • They also have stocky hind legs and broad rounded heads. • Meerkats have sharply pointed noses. • The meerkats grow up to 12 inches. • They even have tails that grow up to 8 inches. • The meerkats’ weight is 2 pounds. • Female give birth 11 weeks after they mate, and they mate when they are one year old. • Meerkats have white fur on their underside.

50. Meerkats Location • One place you could find a meerkat is in the continent of Africa. • The desert that they live in is the Kalahari Desert. • The part of Africa that they live in is the southern part of Africa. • You would have to find their tunnels to find them.