Desert animals

DESERT IRONCLAD BEETLE

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The desert ironclad beetle (Asbolus verrucosus) is a tank of an insect. Its powder-blue color comes from a waxy coating that helps the beetle retain moisture in the dry Sonoran desert. The bumps on the beetle's shell give it an armored appearance that is even tougher than it looks. The ironclad beetle subfamily is known for its ultra-strong exoskeleton — it’s so strong, these beetles can shrug off being stepped on by a human, according to the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 
Desert ironclad beetles are also known as "death-feigning beetles" for their defensive behavior in the face of threats. When alarmed, the beetles roll over and play dead, according to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. They eat plants and decaying organic matter, and — like many desert denizens — rarely, if ever, need to drink.
SAND CAT

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A softer, fuzzier desert denizen is the desert sand cat (Felis margarita). It is the only cat species that makes its home in true desert environments. Desert sand cats are found in the Sahara desert, the Arabian Peninsula, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Though they look remarkably similar to fluffy domestic kitties, sand cats are elusive and rarely seen by people. They're secretive and difficult to track, according to the International Society for Endangered Cats (ISEC) Canada. Researchers who tried to observe these animals in the wild found that the cats' fur-lined paws left no tracks, and their light-colored coats made them challenging to spot. What's more, the cats crouched low and closed their eyes against searchlights at night, hiding their reflective retinas. 
Sand cats are stealthy hunters and are able to kill snakes as well as desert rodents and lizards. Their mating call sounds like a dog's bark.
Once dubbed "the hardest bat in the world(opens in new tab)," the desert long-eared bat (Otonycteris hemprichii) is found in North Africa and the Middle East. What earned this bat species that nickname? Well, its main diet is scorpions. 
Desert long-eared bats hunt scorpions by falling onto them out of the sky and wrestling the venomous arachnids into submission. The bats are unbothered by the multiple scorpion stings they often receive in the process, according to research from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Ben-Gurion University researchers also found that desert long-eared bats can switch the settings on their sonar, using one type of echolocation to seek out ground-dwelling prey like scorpions and another type to hunt down flying insects. 
Colorful birds are often found in lush, tropical rainforests and are scarce in arid regions — except if that region happens to be in Australia’s interior. One of the continent's most beloved bird species is the pink cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri), which ekes out an existence in the semi-arid and arid Australian Outback. 
Identifiable by its showy orange-and-yellow crest and its blush-shaded body, the pink cockatoo is divided into two subspecies: one found in western-central Australia and other in the east, according to the Australian Museum. These pretty birds live off seeds and insects. They mate for life, according to the Australian Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife (FNPW), and they can be found prancing on tree branches, bobbing their heads up and down to attract mates.
These iconic Australian birds have a variety of names and nicknames, according to FNPW. They're also known as Major Mitchell’s cockatoos (after the early English explorer who wrote about them for a global audience), as well as Leadbeater’s cockatoos, desert cockatoos, cocklerinas, chockalotts and — adorably — wee jugglers.
Perhaps nothing screams "desert" like the image of a sidewinder rattlesnake undulating over a sand dune, leaving behind bizarre curved tracks. Sidewinders (Crotalus cerastes) can slither at speeds of up to 18 mph (29 km/h) using their strange sideways crawl — even across loose sand, according to the Smithsonian Channel.
Sidewinders are ambush hunters. They bury themselves in sand, leaving only their eyes peeking upward. When a lizard happens by, they snap forward and spring the trap. These snakes strike in the blink of an eye, injecting venom that ]attacks both the blood and the nervous system of unwary prey. 
Sidewinders are found in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. They can be recognized by the protruding horn-like structures shading their eyes, which may keep sand from obscuring their vision. 
Fish in the desert? Desert pupfish (Cyprinodon macularis) are small, silvery fish that can survive remarkably well in parched conditions. Pupfish have evolved to thrive in water that flows through arid regions. They're found in California's Salton Sea and its tributaries, and in waterways along the lower Colorado River in Mexico. 
These fish require a high degree of resiliency to survive in a desert's meager or brackish water sources. Special adaptations enable pupfish to survive despite conditions that would be deadly for most fish, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Pupfish can live in water ranging from fresh to 70 parts-per-thousand salt (most of the ocean is between 34 and 26 parts-per-thousand salt). They can live in water as cold as 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius) and as hot as 108 degrees F (42.2 C). They can even live in water as poorly oxygenated as 0.1 parts-per-million (ppm) oxygen (most warm-water fish require 5 ppm oxygen in their water to survive, according to Florida's Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants). 
Despite their toughness, desert pupfish are endangered in California, threatened by the introduction of non-native species and habitat loss. 
No list of weird desert animals would be complete without a nod to lizard-kind. And no nod to lizard-kind would be complete without mentioning the thorny devil (Moloch horridus), the sole species in the genus Moloch, named for an ancient, sacrifice-demanding god worshipped by the Caanites and mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Thorny devils are only found in Australia. They grow to be just over 8 inches (21 cm) long from nose to tail and are covered with sharp spines that serve as a defense against predators. 
Thorny devils also have two heads — really. One is a false head, a protuberance that sits on top of the devil's neck. When threatened, a thorny devil will lower its real head, presenting the false head as a decoy. Thorny devils also have a distinctive jerky walk that may confuse predators, according to Bush Heritage Australia.
As intimidating as thorny devils may look, they're really only a danger to ants, which they lap up by the thousands with their sticky tongues, according to Bush Heritage Australia. These desert denizens "drink" through their skin, collecting dew and moisture from sand with tiny channels between their scales. These straw-like channels, which direct the precious drops to the lizards’ mouths, are just one example of the creative hydration mechanisms that keep animals alive in the driest places on Earth.