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| Explorer:Ecologist Cassie Allnutt
Date: July 5, 1997 Title of Report: The Chihauhaun Desert US Location: The Living Desert, Carlsbad, New Mexico Report: The Chihauhaun Desert is the second largest American desert, and is 11,000 years old. It extends over 200,000 square miles through Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico. During the day temperatures can reach up to 190 degrees in the summer, and below freezing in the winter. This desert is also the habitat for many different kinds of wildlife. The various types of plants consist of sand sage, Bailya, bluestream, prickly pear, Gyp Buckwheat, Yucca, and the century plant. Some trees of the desert consist of Shinnery oak and Mesquite. Mesquite is a spiny plant with yellow green leaves and produces a golden flower. The flowers on this plant provide food for the wildlife.This plant can grow up to 15 meters in height and its roots can extend 15 feet below the surface.
Birds thrive in the desert as well. The common raven, the burrowing owl, the red-tailed hawk, the American kestrel, and the Harris hawk have found prosperous homes in this desert, as well have the barn owl, the golden eagle, the great horned owl, and the well-known roadrunner. The roadrunner is found in a group of birds called cuckoos. This bird is a fast runner and seldom flies. Roadrunners are predators that hunt lizards, snakes, bugs, rodents and bird eggs. To attract prey the roadrunner often makes a squeaking noise which imitates a birds distress call. Of this habitat, snakes are found to be one of the most dangerous. Many of the different kinds are trans-pecos rattlesnakes, gopher snakes, coachwhips, and the desert massasauga. Other snakes include western diamondbacks, black-tailed rattlesnakes, west diamondback rattlesnakes, desert kingsnakes, and the west rattlesnake. Although the gila monster is not a snake it can be just as dangerous in the desert. Making the Chihauhaun desert their home, animals have also adapted.These animals include bobcats, peccarys,badgers, kitfoxes, black bears, wolves and mule deer. Others include pronghorn, bison, prairie dogs, box turtles, lizards, gray foxes, and elk. The gray fox is completely gray with only splotches of red on its face and tail. It's found in nimrock country and eats fruits, nuts, rabbits, rodents, and birds. This fox is known to hunt in pairs at night. Elk are found frequently in the Chihauhaun desert and have yellowish rump patches. The male elk are called stags and are different from females because of their branching antlers. Elk eat grass, herbs, twigs and bark. The average elk wieghs 450 kg and travels in herds of 25. In the Spring the herd migrates to higher elevations and returns in the Spring. The Chihauhaun desert is the home of hundreds of different species
of animal and plant life.
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Katie is donning Elk antlers.
The golden eagle
The roadrunner
The collared peccary |
