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A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert
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By Chuck Woodbury From Out West #46 The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is called a living museum because nearly everything there is alive, whether plant or animal. It could just as easily be called a zoo as a museum because of the huge numbers of animals. I spent about a half-hour at a phone booth in front of the museum before going in. I play the stock market a bit, and it was time to sell a particular stock. So while folks paid their admissions a few feet away, I wheeled and dealed on two phone booths at once. People walking past must have thought it was pretty odd to see a guy talking on two phones. My business finally done, I headed inside, whereupon I immediately zoomed to the coffee bar to load up on my drug of choice while I formulated my game plan. This is a big place, and a person could easily spend a dayand see only an itsy-bitsy bit. I figured I’d stay about half a day, which meant I could see half of an itsy-bitsy bit. In a nutshell, the museum contains plants and animals native to the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico. There is also some information about the nearby Mojave Desert, which is in northern Arizona and southern California. A good way to tell the difference is that the “trees” of each are different — the saguaro in the Sonoran Desert, the Yucca in the Mojave. Every kind of reptile you would ever want to see is here including many rattlesnakes. I was disappointed, however, to miss the Chuckwalla, which was either hiding or hibernating. A Chuckwalla, in case you don’t know, is a lizard of about five to eight inches long that likes to eat Creosote bushes. A Chuckwalla looks a little like a small Gila Monster, but it isn’t poisonous so don’t worry. And here’s a tip: if you are ever stranded in the desert and get hungry, a Chuckwalla would make a good meal. The best way to catch one is after it runs into a rocky crevice to hide, where it inflates itself with air to wedge in tightly. What you must do is get a sharp stick and pop the lizard. Then, deflated, the deflated reptile can easily be removed. Anyway, more about my visit to the museum: I saw mountain lions, bobcats, bears, coyotes, otters, beaver, and even fish. An excellent exhibit shows the inside of a harvester ant colony, where the tunnels extend about four feet below ground. The exhibit is like a giant Ant Farm. One type of Harvester Ant, the Pogonomyrmex, contains the most toxic insect venom known. So watch out! There are places throughout the museum where you can go underground. A fake, but realistic, limestone cave lets you learn all about stalactites and stalagmites and other cave things. I finally got a good explanation of the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite. The first contains the letter C, which means it hangs from the “ceiling;” and the second contains a G, which means it grows from the “ground.” One of the best exhibits is the hummingbird aviary. You get to walk inside and get up close to these cute little creatures. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is just a short drive from downtown Tucson. For more information, call (520) 883-1380. ©2000 by Out West Newspaper Do you have any comments or update information about this story? E-mail Chuck Woodbury
Out West, 9792 Edmonds Way, #265-A, Edmonds, WA 98020. 800-274-9378. Fax: (425) 776-3398. E-mail: outwest@seanet.com. On the Web: http://www.outwestnewspaper.com |
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