North American Desert

About the North American Desert

The Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of the American Southwest and northern Mexico are, by desert standards, remarkably rich — the Sonoran in particular receives rain in two separate seasons, which supports far more plant life than a single-season desert can. Saguaro and other columnar cacti function as habitat in their own right, holding nest cavities excavated by woodpeckers and used afterwards by owls, flycatchers and bats. Most desert activity happens at night or in the narrow windows around dawn and dusk, and much of the animal life spends the day underground in burrows where temperature and humidity are far more forgiving. Summer monsoon storms trigger sudden pulses of breeding in amphibians that have waited underground, in some cases for years.