Sonoran Desert W...lives in the Sonoran Desert. The “necklace” is a ring of white fur around its...
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Javelinas eat all of a prickly pear cactus plant—even the sharp spines! With enough moist prickly pear to eat, javelinas don’t need to drink water. Do You Know? W hat looks like a pig, wears a “necklace,” and eats cactus? It’s a javelina (hav-uh-LEE-nuh). This animal lives in the Sonoran Desert. The “necklace” is a ring of white fur around its neck. Javelinas live in groups called bands. They sleep during the heat of the day and come out at night to eat. Javelinas are consumers —they get energy by eating other living things. A favorite javelina food is prickly pear cactus. Prickly pear is a producer. It gets its energy from the Sun. Luckily for javelinas, there is plenty of cactus to go around. There are far more producers than consumers in the desert. Coyotes are predators that hunt javelinas. After the coyotes are done eating, vultures will clear away any meat that was left behind. These scavengers are consumers that make sure nothing goes to waste. “Pigs” of the Desert Credits: left: © Bob Gibbons/Alamy right: © Joseph Vozniak/Dreamstime.com FooD ChAInS Properties of Food Chains File 1 © Learning A–Z All rights reserved. www.sciencea-z.com Investigation File Sonoran Desert Turkey vultures have no feathers near their face. Without feathers, their faces stay cleaner when feeding on a messy carcass. Javelinas are not actually pigs. They belong to an animal group called peccaries (PECK-uh-reez), which are closely related to pigs.
Transcript of Sonoran Desert W...lives in the Sonoran Desert. The “necklace” is a ring of white fur around its...
Javelinas eat all of a prickly pear cactus plant—even the sharp spines! With enough moist prickly pear to eat, javelinas don’t need to drink water.
Do You Know?
What looks like a pig, wears a “necklace,” and eats cactus? It’s a javelina (hav-uh-LEE-nuh). This animal
lives in the Sonoran Desert. The “necklace” is a ring of white fur around its neck.
Javelinas live in groups called bands. They sleep during the heat of the day and come out at night to eat. Javelinas are consumers—they get energy by eating
other living things. A favorite javelina food is prickly pear cactus. Prickly pear is a producer. It gets its energy from the Sun. Luckily for javelinas, there is plenty of cactus
to go around. There are far more producers than consumers in the desert.
Coyotes are predators that hunt javelinas. After the coyotes are
done eating, vultures will clear away any meat that was left behind. These scavengers are
consumers that make sure nothing goes to waste.
“Pigs” of the Desert
Credits: left: © Bob Gibbons/Alamy right: © Joseph Vozniak/Dreamstime.com
Foo
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© Learning A–Z All rights reserved. www.sciencea-z.com Investigation File
Sonoran Desert
Turkey vultures have no feathers near their face. Without feathers, their faces stay cleaner when feeding on a messy carcass.
Javelinas are not actually pigs. They belong to an animal group called peccaries (PECK-uh-reez), which are closely related to pigs.
Desert Cleanup Crew
Dung beetles can clear away as much as 80 percent of the dung in an area!
Wowser!
In the Sonoran Desert, food can be hard to find. one thing there’s plenty of is dung! The rainbow dung beetle takes advantage of this common food source.
These beetles’ lives depend on dung, mostly from large consumers. The beetles eat the dung. They also use it to raise a family. Female and male dung beetles work together to dig burrows near a dung pile. Then they gather up balls of dung and drop them in the burrow. Females lay eggs inside the balls. When the eggs hatch, the young beetles eat the dung!
These beetles play an important role in the Sonoran Desert. They are decomposers—they break down organic material from other animals. In the process, their own waste goes into the desert soil. It provides nutrients for producers, such as prickly pear cactuses.
Female rainbow dung beetle
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Investigation File Food Chains } Properties of Food Chains } Sonoran Desert
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved. www.sciencea-z.com
Credits: top left, bottom left: © John Abbott/NPL/Minden Pictures; center column, top to bottom, left to right (1): © Rinus Baak/Dreamstime.com; center column (2): © David Cutts/Alamy; center column (3): © Eutoch/Dreamstime.com; center column (4): © Joseph Vozniak/Dreamstime.com; center column (5): © Rolf Nussbaumer Photography/Alamy; right: © Hugoht/Dreamstime.com
Male rainbow dung beetles have long horns on their heads.
UniTEd STaTES
MExiCo
Arizona
SonorAn DeSert
all the organisms in this food chain live in the Sonoran desert, shown in green.
Prickly pears make red fruit called tuna in Spanish.But be careful eating these fruit—they have spines on the outside!
Do You Know?
Energy moves from the Sun to producers to consumers in this food chain.
AN EXAMPLE OF A SONOrAN DESErt FOOD ChAiN
primary consumer
javelina
producer
secondary consumer
Sun
scavenger decomposer
coyote
prickly pear
vulture dung beetle
