10 Australian Desert Animals

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Australian Desert Animals by Yara S. Mignon Table of Contents Chapter 1 Deserts Down Under page 2 Chapter 2 Amazing Desert Animals. page 4 Chapter 3 Desert Birds page 8 Chapter 4 Desert Reptiles and Amphibians page 10 Chapter 5 Desert Arachnids page 12 Glossary/ Index page 15 Comprehension Check page 16

Chapter 1 Deserts Down Under Australia is the smallest and driest continent. It has 10 deserts. All deserts are quite dry. Days are very hot, and nights are very cold. But many plants and animals have adapted to desert life. Aboriginal (a-buh-RIJ-i-nuhl) people have adapted, too. They have lived in Australia for 40,000 years. Many of them still hunt small animals and gather the sparse desert plants. Some people work as desert rangers. A ranger's job is to care for the land and the animals that live there. AUSTRALIA Great Sandy Desert Tanami Desert Great Victoria Desert Simpson Desert yellow Desert Area The Great Sandy Desert is the hottest Australian desert. The Tanami Desert has many hills and ranges. There are many salt lakes in the Great Victoria Desert. The Simpson Desert is the driest part of Australia. Australia is a continent. The Great Sandy, Tanami, Great Victoria, and Simpson Deserts are Australia's largest deserts. They cover most of its area.

Chapter 2 Amazing Desert Animals The desert is home to the kangaroo, which is the largest marsupial. A female carries her baby, called a joey, in a pouch on her stomach. A joey stays in its mother's pouch for months. For safety, kangaroos gather to eat in groups called mobs. If one senses danger, it stamps its foot. Then the mob scatters. Only male red kangaroos are red. Females have gray fur on their backs. More than 200 kinds of marsupials live in or near Australia. The numbat often hides in old, hollow logs. Most desert marsupials have strong, sharp claws. They use their claws to dig for insects to eat. The numbat uses its long, sticky tongue to eat termites. Unlike many marsupials, the numbat is active during the day. Because of the bands on its back, the numbat is also called the banded anteater. A Tail of Food It is hard to find food in the desert. So some marsupials store their food. The fat-tailed marsupial mouse stores food in its tail.

Some animals in the Australian desert come from distant places. Explorers brought camels with them more than 150 years ago. Camels need very little water. They get moisture from the foods they eat. Camels can go for months without taking a drink of water. That has helped them adapt to life in these deserts. Desert Ship People used to ride camels across the Australian desert. Camels were called "ships of the desert." Now cars and railroads have become more common. Camels store fat, not water, in their humps. This fat gives them energy when there is no food. A dingo is a wild dog. It hunts alone or in a small group. Aboriginal people went to Australia from Asia about 10,000 years ago. Dingoes went with them. Some dingoes were pets. Pets that escape are called feral animals. Feral animals are a big problem. Wild dingoes are feral. They hunt at night. They hunt bilbies and other small marsupials. Now there are fewer of these small marsupials. Bilbies were once found all over Australia. Now with only small clusters living in a few areas, they are threatened with extinction.

Chapter 3 Desert Birds Desert birds are amazing animals. The emu is a huge bird that does not fly. It runs fast— up to 30 miles (50 kilometers) per hour! Like emus, many other desert birds can travel hundreds of miles in search of food. When there is lots of food, emus store fat. When the lakes are dry, the birds move away. They use their stored fat until they find a place with more food to eat. Emus can reach the same height as an adult person. Some birds hunt many kinds of animals. The wedge-tailed eagle is Australia's largest hunting bird. Each one has an area, or range, where it hunts for food. It will rarely fly far beyond its range. The wedge-tailed eagle has wings that are more than 2 yards (2 meters) wide.