Cold weather poses another problem. Most reptiles and some mammals solve this one by hibernating underground or in rock dens, where temperatures remain moderate throughout the year. Many birds and some mammals migrate to areas where temperatures are warmer and food is more abundant, which may mean going farther south or simply moving down the mountainsides. And insects can survive in a dormant form, as eggs or pupae, though many species remain active during the temperate Sonoran winters.
If you want to see animals, then, go where the vegetation is thickest and most varied, and go when temperatures are moderate. During warm seasons in the desert, this means that walking the washes early or late in the day will give you the best chances for seeing wildlife. Coveys of Gambel’s quail explode into the air, peccaries snort through the underbrush, butterflies festoon flowering shrubs, and coyotes stealthily hunt.
Invertebrates
Insects are generally not bothered by excessive heat, and many species are active during the hottest hours. This is especially true when the plant blossoming season is at its height. Flowers of the mesquite, paloverde, catclaw, saguaro, and other desert plants are “alive” all through the day, as many species of insects seek nectar and pollen or prey on other insects attracted to the blossoms. Insects are fed upon by various species of birds; flycatchers flock to parts of the desert where nectar-yielding flowers are numerous. Because of the absence of extreme cold, the desert climate enables insects to be active throughout much of the year and to support a considerable bird population.
Despite its fearsome appearance and reputation, you have nothing to fear from the tarantula.
Insects play a far more important role in the plant and animal life of the desert than is usually realized. Many desert flowers must be insect pollinated to produce viable seeds. Birds of many kinds depend upon insects for food, and even the seed-eating birds, during the nesting season, rely upon insects to provide the enormous quantities of food and moisture required by their fast-growing nestlings. Many other desert creatures, including certain snakes and lizards and some spiders, depend upon insects for food. The body juices of the insects provide the all-important moisture—which these creatures can get from no other source. Bats, too, are insect eaters, spending the hours of darkness in seemingly aimless and erratic flight while foraging for moths and other night-flying insects that visit the light-colored blossoms of night-blooming plants.
Some species of insects may become so numerous that they threaten the very life of the plants on which they live. Pine bark beetles annually damage or kill numbers of pinyons and ponderosas in the Rincon Mountains, but have been kept sufficiently under control by their natural enemies so that their ravages have not reached epidemic proportions.
Among the common spectacular insects is the TARANTULA HAWK, a large blue-black, red-winged wasp that preys on large spiders. Temporarily paralyzing the spider with its sting, the wasp lays a single egg on its victim, thereby assuring an abundance of living food for its young. The PRAYING MANTIS is another large insect, usually green and inconspicuous among the foliage of desert plants, which it frequents in search of small insects. Ants of many species are active almost everywhere in the desert, harvesting seeds of various plants. Some species construct mazes of underground nest tunnels and deposit the excavated materials on the surface, forming conical, sometimes, craterlike, anthills.
