Animal Habitats
What are some common characteristics of a desert?
What are the largest deserts in the world?
- Deserts are very hot during the day and really cold at night.
- They are very dry due to low rainfall, and do not have any type of streams unless they receive outside sources.
- Because of the fact that deserts do not have any type protection from ground covering vegetation, they often have dust or sandstorms.
- Only around 20% of a desert is actually sand, and it is usually concentrated in dunes.
1. The Sahara Desert- 3.32 million square miles, located in North Africa
2. The Arabian Desert- 900k million square miles, located in Western Asia
3. The Gobi Desert- 500k million square miles, located in China and Mongolia
4. The Kalahari Desert- 360k square million miles, located in South Africa
5. The Patagonian Desert- 260k square miles, located in Chile and Argentina
- Several different types of cacti can often be found in a desert.
- Other plants include Joshua Trees, desert lily, and a brittle bush.
- Most animals that live in the desert have special adaptations that allow them to survive in extreme temperatures.
- You can find birds such as the roadrunner, mammals like the meerkat or spotted hyena, reptiles such as the rattlesnake, amphibians like the desert toad, and the black widow spider or scorpian.
