What wildlife lives in the desert?
Learning Objective:
To be able to explain how plants and animals have
adapted to living in the desert
• 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.
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.
Task
1. Match the picture to the correct plant or
animal.
2. Sort through the wildlife characteristics and
match the characteristics with each of the
animal or plants. Some characteristics maybe
used more than once.
Camel video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpGgm8wyY4
For each of the following camel
characteristics suggest how they help
the camel to survive...
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Two rows of long eyelashes
Thick fur
Long powerful legs
Nostrils which close
Fat and water stored in humps
For each of the following cactus
characteristics suggest how they help
the cactus to survive...
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Waxy skin
Spikes
Spikes
Shallow roots
Design your own desert plant or animal
• This can be as wacky or strange as possible.
1. Draw a sketch to show your plant or animal
2. Add annotations to show its desert
characteristics.
3. Explain how each characteristic has adapted
to desert life.
True or False
1. Xerophytes are plants which have physical
characteristics that enable them to survive in
the desert
2. Desert Sand Verbena is an example of an
xerophytic plant.
3. All animals can live in the desert
4. All desert animals are awake in the day and
sleep at night
5. The camel has 2 rows of eyelashes