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Sun Hiding

During the day, roadrunners combat the scorching desert heat by decreasing their activity by 50 percent. Instead of using energy for hunting when then sun is at its hottest, for instance, these birds rest in the shade of a quiet shrub. Overnight, as temperatures drop, roadrunners' body temperatures decrease 7 degrees as the birds go into states of torpor, whereby they suppress their metabolism to reserve energy and prevent additional heat loss to their environment. As the sun comes up in the morning, the birds lift up patches of feathers on their backs, exposing their heavily pigmented skin. This skin acts as solar panels to absorb heat and increase their body temperatures.

Hydration

In the desert, supplies of water are not always available. Roadrunners evolved a method of hunting to ensure they have access to water even when there is none available: Roadrunners are opportunistic omnivores, meaning they eat both plant and animal matter. Plant matter the consume includes seeds from grass, milkweed and nightshade plans, sumac berries and prickly pear cactus. Plant matter is more commonly consumed by roadrunners in the winter when animal prey are scarce. Animal prey includes large insects, spiders, scorpions, snakes, mice and lizards. These food items provide roadrunners with the water content and energy they need to survive.

Roadrunners adapted another essential means of retaining water: While digesting meals, they absorb excess water from their feces before excreting it. Roadrunners have small and large intestines. As omnivores, they have longer and more coiled small intestines than birds who are carnivores. Their small intestines are lined with villi, fingerlike projections that increase the surface area of the intestines and absorb water through blood vessels. Since the food of omnivore birds has a longer distance to travel than food in carnivores, more water is swept up by the villi and absorbed into the bloodstream.

Salt-Dispensing

Unlike other species of birds, roadrunners must get rid of excess salt from their bodies to stay hydrated. Roadrunners have salt glands above their eyes that remove excess salt from their blood. These glands are common in seabirds who drink saltwater but not common in most land birds. The glands are essential in desert birds like roadrunners, since they do not always have ready access to water.

Air Running

Despite their respectable wingspans -- they average 19 inches -- roadrunners can stay airborne for only several seconds at a time. These birds therefore walk and run much more than they fly. They have zygodactylous feet, which consist of two toes facing frontward and two toes facing backward per foot. Roadrunners can run at speeds up to an impressive 17 miles per hour. They need to be able to run quickly to hunt and to escape predators such as skunks, house cats, raccoons, coyotes and hawks.

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Flexible Diet

Desert scorpions are carnivores that typically eat insects or other invertebrates; however, they are opportunistic predators. Scorpions consume spiders, centipedes, earthworms, termites, ants, scarab beetles and even turn cannibalistic and prey upon other scorpions. One of the most prevalent scorpion species in the Sahara, the deathstalker scorpion (Leiurus quinquestriatus), commonly preys upon its own species.

Hydration

Scorpions rarely drink water; after all, a watering hole in the Sahara is a rare sight. Instead, they hydrate themselves via their prey. Scorpions absorb fluids through the flesh and organs of their prey. Nocturnal by nature, scorpions hunt at night, thereby escaping the desert sun’s intense, dehydrating heat.

Metabolism Regulation

One of the scorpion’s most distinct adaptations is its ability to control its metabolism. Food is often scarce in the Sahara. In these times of dwindling food sources, the scorpion will slow its metabolism to as little as one-third the normal rate. This allows them to use very little oxygen and survive on as few as one or two insects a year. The scorpion, however, has the unique ability to quickly reverse its hibernation and spring back to predatory action when food becomes available.

Burrowing and Hiding

Scorpions are burrowing animals. The Sahara’s loose sand and soil provides their necessary habitat. These arachnids take refuge in burrows during the day when temperatures soar to over 100 degrees. Scorpions also love to hide under rocks or small boulders, both as protection from the elements and as a means of concealment when hunting.

Exoskeleton

Scorpions, like all arthropods, have tough exoskeletons. Like sub-tropical scorpions, scorpions in the Sahara wear their exoskeletons like protective armor; it prevents them from being easily crushed. However, desert scorpions also use their tough, segmented exoskeletons as protection from the sun’s harsh rays and a sandstorm’s turbulent winds and debris, while its waxy nature minimizes water loss.

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Large flat feet to spread across sand

Slit-like nostrils

Two rows of eyelashes

Absorb water from dead animals and prey

Metabolism Regulation

Exoskeleton

Burrowing

Flexible Diet ( Cannibalism? )

Body Temperature Regulation

Larvae

Hard leathery eggs

Sun Hiding

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Desert Animal Survival + adaptations of desert animals- DesertUSA

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Desert Animal Survival + adaptations of desert animals- DesertUSA

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Lack of water creates a survival problem for all desert organisms, animals and plants alike. But animals have an additional problem -- they are more susceptible to extremes of temperature than are plants.

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Camels live in deserts that are hot and dry during the day, but cold at night. They are well adapted for survival in the desert. Camels have:

Large, flat feet to spread their weight on the sand.

Thick fur on the top of the body for shade, and thin fur elsewhere to allow easy heat loss.

A large surface to maximise heat loss.

Long periods of time without water (they don't store water in their humps, but they lose very little through urination and sweating).

The ability to tolerate body temperaturesup to 42°C.

Slit-like nostrils, Two rows of eyelashes to help keep the sand out.