What wildlife lives in the desert?

2. What wildlife lives in the desert? Learning Objective: To be able to explain how plants and animals have adapted to living in the desert

3. All of you will be able to describe the main features of desert plants and animals. • Most of you will be able to explain how plants and animals survive in the desert. • Some of you will be able to explain the key differences between xerophytes and ephemerals.

4. Desert Plants • Xerophytes: plants that have physical characteristics that enable them to survive in the desert. For example cacti have thick skin to store water • Ephemerals: Plants that change their behaviour to suit the desert climate. For example some plants lie dormant for months and years until it rains then they grow, flower and produce seeds in a couple of weeks.

5. Task • Match the picture to the correct plant or animal. • Sort through the wildlife characteristics and match the characteristics with each of the animal or plants. Some characteristics maybe used more than once.

6. Camel video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpGg-m8wyY4

7. For each of the following camel characteristics suggest how they help the camel to survive... • Two rows of long eyelashes • Thick fur • Long powerful legs • Nostrils which close • Fat and water stored in humps

8. For each of the following cactus characteristics suggest how they help the cactus to survive... • Waxy skin • Spikes • Spikes • Shallow roots

9. Design your own desert plant or animal • This can be as wacky or strange as possible. • Draw a sketch to show your plant or animal • Add annotations to show its desert characteristics. • Explain how each characteristic has adapted to desert life.

10. True or False • Xerophytes are plants which have physical characteristics that enable them to survive in the desert • Desert Sand Verbena is an example of an xerophytic plant. • All animals can live in the desert • All desert animals are awake in the day and sleep at night • The camel has 2 rows of eyelashes