How do Animals and Plants Survive in Deserts?

            Due to the scarcity of water and extreme climatic conditions hot, dry, windy prevailing in the desert, it is very difficult for animals and plats to survive. They have to adapt themselves to the desert conditions so that they can live. Let us see what types of vegetation and animals are found there and how they survive.

Animals of Desert

            The vegetation of a desert mainly consists of thorny shrubs, cacti and palm especially dates trees. Cacti, prickly pear, saguaro, century plant etc., have adapted themselves to live in desert conditions. These plants have ways to store water in their fleshy stems. The leaves have squeezed themselves into tiny thorns to reduce the loss of water. The roots go deep into the ground and are widespread to collect every drop of water available in the soil. The stem stores the water and slowly gets thinner as the water gets used up. In some cacti, the thorns point towards the earth. The dewdrops deposited on the tips of these thorns fall to the earth and get absorbed by it. In this manner, a cactus plant manages to create moisture on the ground around it.

Plants of Desert

            Most desert animals sleep during the day to escape the high temperatures and come out at night in search of food. Some animals sleep during the hottest part of the year. There are very few animals found in deserts such as snails, pack rat, jerboa, etc. these have adapted themselves to the desert conditions. Animals such as the kangaroo rat and gerbil can survive with little or no water. Reptiles adjust their body temperatures to cope with heat ad cold. The Australia desert toad stores water in its body. Some species of lizards, ants, owls and snakes also live in desert sad adjust to desert conditions.

How do Some Animals Recognize their Offspring?

            It is said that only man has highly developed reasoning faculties and hence, can think, act and talk. Animals, too, have their own superior senses that excel man in certain activities. For example, dogs have deep smell and hearing sense that man does not have. Similarly, like human beings, animals have offspring and take care of them. But how do these animals recognize their young ones?

Animals use their sense to recognize their young ones

            For most animals where parental care is essential, it is important for the mother and her young ones to recognize each other, so that they do not lose contact. This is done through one or more of the five senses- smell, sound, sight, touch and taste. Most mammals recognize their offspring’s by smell. This is also observed among dogs, deer, sheep, horses and seals.

            It is interesting to note that in a flock of sheep, every mother can recognize her own young one by smell, and ignore others. When around one is born, its mother sniffs the newborn baby and the smell is immediately registered in its memory for life. Thereafter, the mother locates her baby b sniffing all the babies around until she finds her own lamb.

            Birds recognize their young ones b sound. Each parent bird has her own special mother call which the baby immediately recognizes on hatching, and the mother can also recognize the baby’s cry. An Austrian naturalist, Dr. Konard Lorenz, made a special study of geese. He conducted his study just before some geese eggs were about to hatch. He removed the mother goose and sat by he eggs himself. As the babies hatched, he gave the mother call. As a result, they be followed him every where believing him to be their mother, as they recognized only that sound, but since, he was too big for the young geese, they got confused when he stood up. However, they were quite happy to follow him when he crawled about on his hands and knees.

Why can’t Animals Talk like Us?

            Wouldn't it be nice if your pet dog could speak and share its thoughts with you? Many stories for children are about animals that can talk like human beings, but this is only a thought of the authors. Amongst all living beings, man is the only creature on earth that can communicate with the help of words of speech; this is because of the highly developed human brain. Since the brain in animals is not so well-developed they are unable to utter words or a language to express their feelings. That is why they cannot talk like us.

Animals express their feelings by gestures

            It is well-established fact that animals also feel happy, experience, sorrow, fear, love, affection, hostility, hunger, thirst or protective needs, etc., just as humans do. Because they are incapable of expressing their feelings in words, they express or communicate with the help of certain gestures and sounds, which may or may not be familiar or understood by us. You might have seen when a cat goes near a group of birds; all the birds start chirping very loudly in a peculiar way. They actually express their fear that the cat may kill them. Similarly, a dog expresses its anger by barking and its feelings of happiness by wagging its tail. A monkey demonstrates its anger by making peculiar sounds.

Can Animals Reason?

            It is generally believed that animals do not have reasoning power but it is not true. They do have the power of reasoning but it is much less as compared to human beings. The degree of reasoning varies from animal to animals and even within species.

Monkeys are the most Intelligent of all Animals

            Some experiments have led to the conclusion that monkeys and apes have better power of reasoning than other animals. An experiment was conducted to test the reasoning power of monkey. In these experiments two wooden boxes were placed in a room and a bunch of bananas was hung at a height beyond the reach of the monkeys. When a monkey was left alone in the room it liked at the bunch of bananas for some time and then liked at the boxes. It put one box on top of the other and then climbed on them. Thus proved that the monkeys could think and find a way to reach the bananas. Again a monkeys is an animal that can also discriminate colors. It can be trained and taught to learn many tricks.

            Scientists believe that dogs, cats and some other animals can also reason up to some extent. For instance per dogs can be trained to learn many things. You might have seen a beat show in which the bear acts according to the commands of its master it is obvious that it uses its memory in it’s for food. Whenever they see any food they fly down to eat it. The lizard approaches its prey very cautiously and carefully. This indicates that the lizard uses reasoning to capture its prey.

            If you look at birds nests, you have to concede that a cretin amount of reasoning has hone into making them. These nests have special arrangements for regulating heat and light e.g. nests of weaver birds. Nests are fabricated for laying eggs and protecting the young ones.