Desert Creatures: The Roadrunner
It has been caricatured in Warner Bros cartoons as a mad senseless runner speeding along roads, but this does not do it any justice at all……
This amazing bird prefers to run rather than fly! It is a member of the Cuckoo Family (Cuculidae). It is a survivor, and a successful predator in desert conditions, where food is often scarce! Sure it is fast, but not as fast as illustrated in the cartoons.
Desert Creatures: The Packrat
The entrance to its nest is an interwoven array of sticks, cactus spines and a bewildering assortment of garbage it has picked up in its home construction activities…..
There are 22 species of Packrats, or Woodrats. The species shown here is Neotoma lepida , or the desert Woodrat, taken in the Sonoran National Park (East).