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Educator's Guide to the Assembly Program: DESERT REPTILES ALIVE! www.reptilesAlive.com ©ReptilesAlive! LLC 1/14 Educator’s Guide to the Assembly Program: “Desert Reptiles Alive!” Program Overview “Desert Reptiles Alive!” introduces students to a world of extremes. Extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme droughts, and floods all occur in deserts. Deserts are home to many unusual animals, including a variety of reptiles. Join us in learning how reptiles have adapted to survive in ever changing conditions. This guide provides materials that will aid students in getting the best out of the “Desert Reptiles Alive!” program, and includes: desert and animal facts; vocabulary; and suggested resources and activities which can be adapted for different grade levels. Below is a list of possible animals your audience might meet during this program: Depending on the duration of your program, students will meet 5-6 animals (30 minute show) or 7-8 animals (45 minute show). For more details on individual animals, visit http://reptilesalive.com/animals/animals.htm 1. Amphibians American Toad or African Bullfrog 2. Invertebrates Haitian Brown Tarantula 3. Lizards Bearded Dragon Blue Tongued Skink Leopard Gecko Savannah Monitor Sudan Plated Lizard Uromastyx 4. Snakes www.reptilesAlive.com ©ReptilesAlive! LLC 2/14 California King Snake Kenyan Sand Boa Pacific Gopher Snake Western Hognose Snake 5. Turtles Leopard Tortoise Russian (aka Central Asian) Tortoise Deserts Around The World Every continent has deserts. Antarctica is one big desert. Types of Deserts Deserts are habitats characterized by an extremely low annual rainfall (250 mm or 9.84 in.). Deserts cover more than 20% of the planet’s surface and no two deserts are the same. While there are many ways to classify deserts, with varying specificity, it is simplest to categorize them into four basic types: hot & dry, semi- arid, coastal, and cold. Hot & Dry www.reptilesAlive.com ©ReptilesAlive! LLC 3/14 Hot and dry deserts are hot all year with little seasonal change. Rain may occur seasonally but is typically extremely heavy and brief. These deserts are usually either rocky or sandy, making it challenging for plant life to survive. Semi-arid Semi-arid deserts have a slightly higher humidity than hot and dry Deserts come in many different forms but deserts, mostly caused by dew fall, or most are predominantly sand. overnight condensation. These deserts also tend to have a reliable winter rainfall. Soil conditions are sandy or rocky, similar to hot and dry deserts. Coastal Coastal deserts are found in coastal locations in the tropical regions of the world. These deserts are highly variable because of where they are situated, and while some may have relatively high rainfall, this category also includes the world’s driest desert (see below). They are also characterized by long summer conditions and a brief but notable cool winter season. These deserts can be found to support a high diversity of life. Cold Cold deserts are classified by low temperatures all year, often dropping below freezing during the winter months. These deserts experience relatively more rainfall than other deserts but the primary source of moisture is snow. Most of these deserts occur near the arctic and Antarctic circles or at high elevations. Because of the low temperatures, only hardy plant life, such as grasses and mosses, can survive. Extreme Conditions The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest place in the world. The desert as a whole tends to get rain only once every 100 years. This causes the average rainfall to drop below 1 cm per year. There are even some places in the desert that have not experienced rain in over 400 years. The Atacama is also the highest desert in the world at an elevation of 13,000 feet above sea level. Despite all of these extremes, there are people living in the Atacama. The hottest place on the planet is the Dallol Depression, a desert in Ethiopia. Everything about it seems unwelcoming, as there are huge sulfur flats, active www.reptilesAlive.com ©ReptilesAlive! LLC 4/14 volcanoes, earthquakes and blazing sunlight. The highest temperature ever recorded there was 145° F. It may be surprising, but a desert also holds the world record for the coldest temperature ever recorded. The entire Antarctic continent is an enormous cold desert by definition. The lowest The Antarctic desert is cold, barren, and extreme. temperature ever recorded there was -129° F. The world’s largest desert is widely accepted as the Sahara. Occupying most of northern Africa, this desert measures approximately 3.5 million square miles, about the same size as the United States. However the Sahara is not truly the largest desert in the world. By definition, the largest desert is the Antarctic continent, covering 5.3 million square miles of land. Despite its appearance, the Antarctic receives less precipitation per year than the Sahara. The world’s smallest desert is a semi-arid desert in Yukon, Canada known as Carcross Desert. The desert is approximately 1 square mile of shifting sand dunes. Diversity Deserts can be surprisingly diverse habitats. Many plants and animals have learned to survive in the harsh and extreme conditions. The two most important factors to consider when determining if life can exist is the amount of energy and water. Energy in its most basic form is light from the sun. Plant life uses the light energy to process nutrients into usable building blocks. Without plant life, animal life cannot exist. Water is also critical even in small quantities. All communities of life must begin with the energy of the sun being processed by plant life. This is because plants turn the light energy into a usable form called sugar. Plant-eating animals, called herbivores, can consume plants and process the sugar energy to be used in their own bodies. Meat-eating animals, called carnivores, survive by consuming other animals and processing the energy. These different categories of life are called trophic levels. The plants are called producers because they produce the usable form of energy. Herbivores are known as the primary consumers, being the first consumers of the usable energy. Carnivores fill the remaining levels of consumers (secondary, tertiary, etc.) www.reptilesAlive.com ©ReptilesAlive! LLC 5/14 because they get the energy second hand from consuming either herbivores or other carnivores. Trophic levels are kind of like a food chain but also explain how energy moves through a community. This system is not perfect. As can be observed in any habitat, plants are significantly more plentiful than top predators. This is because energy from each trophic level is lost in two ways. The first way occurs due to the natural production of heat by every living organism. Heat is energy and dissipating heat is not passed to the next trophic level because it is not consumed. The second way is when a plant or animal dies and is not consumed. None of the energy in the body is passed to the next trophic level. Some of this energy, however, is recycled into the system because of decomposers breaking down the body and consuming the energy. Plant Adaptations There are many ways that plants manage to survive in such a dry and hot environment. Some plants thrive all year, while some become dormant for most of www.reptilesAlive.com ©ReptilesAlive! LLC 6/14 the year. Some plants have also evolved to combat the depleting weather conditions. One of the ways that plants have adapted to the desert is by limiting their growing season. Some of these plants only survive for a single growing season. Their seeds germinate (activate) during the first rainfall of the wet season. These seeds are heat and drought resistant and can survive for years waiting for the rain. During the Desert flowers all bloom at the same time shortly after a heavy rain. wet season, these plants grow quickly, bloom and die. The short growing time still allows for the plant to be pollinated and produce seeds. Other plants utilize the same growing season but instead of dying at the end of the wet season, they go into a dormant state. During their dormancy, they shunt all activity and energy production below ground into their root system. A whole category of plants, known as xerophytes, have an adapted structure to conserve and store water. Most of these plants are in the cactus family and do not have leaves. This is because leaves have a large surface area, and the more surface area a plant has, the more water it loses through evaporation. Instead, cacti have spines that not only protect it from herbivores, but also aid in moisture Cacti are perfectly adapted for the harsh collection. Cacti also have large shallow desert conditions, root systems that collect as much water as possible when it rains. All of this water is stored inside the stem of the plant in a fleshy cavity protected by a waxy outer layer. The final group of plants, called phreatophytes, have adapted powerful root systems that go deep into the earth to reach moisture. These roots often end at the water table or just above it. Most phreatophytes are bushes or trees, which can live for hundreds of years. Because these plants have leaves, they had to evolve to prevent water from escaping. One of the ways is to develop smaller or waxier leaves. Another way is to control the microscopic pores to only open at night, when the temperature is lower. www.reptilesAlive.com ©ReptilesAlive! LLC 7/14 Because plants are the base for any food chain, desert plants are under a great amount of pressure to deter herbivores. There are many tactics that have evolved.

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