Tucked away in the southeastern corner of California is an ecosystem like no other: the vast Mojave Desert.
While it may not look like much to passing motorists, the arid Mojave Desert is brimming with wildlife. Birds, mammals, reptiles, insects: It's all here, thriving against the odds in an undeniably harsh environment. Cold winters bring snow flurries to high elevations as temperatures drop well below freezing, and summer highs can soar to more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit, baking the desert pavement. The wind is fierce and rainfall is minimal all year, a scant three to nine inches annually.
Clearly, living conditions are tough.
Yet despite the odds, here in these wide open spaces lives a very special suite of characters, all perfectly designed to make the most of life in this inhospitable place.
This is the wildlife of the Mojave Desert.
Last week, we spent a couple of days exploring Mojave National Preserve, enjoying lovely desert scenery and an array of wildlife species despite the unseasonably cold temperatures and gusty winds.
Check out the wildlife we found on this trip to the desert!
 |
| White-tailed Antelope Squirrel |
Remarkably, fifty species of mammals call Mojave National Preserve home. Most of these are unlikely to be encountered by the average visitor, as many are nocturnal. The majority of these desert mammals are bats or rodents: small, nondescript critters at the bottom of the food chain. But a few species are abundant and distinct enough to identify readily.
 |
| White-tailed Antelope Squirrel |
White-tailed Antelope Squirrels are diurnal (active during the day) and commonly seen along trails, roads and campsites. Other diurnal members of the squirrel family that may be found in the Mojave Desert are the
Rock Squirrel,
Round-tailed Ground Squirrel and
Panamint Chipmunk.
Nocturnal rodents are less frequently seen, so I was very excited to spot a Merriam's Kangaroo Rat hopping around our campsite one night as I returned from a midnight run to the outhouse. (I wasn't able to get a photo, unfortunately.)
Kangaroo rats are perfectly designed for life in their arid environment. Never needing to drink water, kangaroo rats get all the moisture they need from the seeds they eat. They stay underground during the heat of the day, emerging at night to forage for food when temperatures are lower and risk of moisture loss is less.
 |
Merriam's Kangaroo Rat. NOT my photo.
(I think I may be forgiven for failing to get a photo of the kangaroo rat I spotted on my nighttime dash to the outhouse.)
Source: NPS.gov |
Two species of lagomorphs inhabit the Mojave Desert as well: the
Black-tailed Jackrabbit and the aptly-named
Desert Cottontail. Along with rodents, cottontails are herbivores that feed on seeds and vegetation, and in turn are preyed upon by larger carnivores, like
Bobcats and
Coyotes.
 |
| Desert Cottontail |
The chief predator of the Mojave Desert is the
Coyote, though their smaller cousin, the
Kit Fox, is present as well. As dusk fell each evening we were camping, the desert filled with the excited calls of a pack of coyotes, probably just beginning their hunt.
 |
| Coyote at dawn (Joshua Tree National Park) |
While over 200 species of birds have been recorded in Mojave National Preserve, relatively few are year-round residents or breeding species. During the spring and fall, neotropical migrants pass through the desert on their way between southerly wintering grounds and northerly breeding grounds, making use of the desert as a rest stop en route.
But more species than you might imagine make their homes in the desert all year, despite the harsh conditions.
One of the most iconic birds of the Mojave Desert is the Cactus Wren. Building its domed nests within the sheltering arms of spiny cacti, the Cactus Wren knows how to capitalize on this habitat's scant resources. They feed on insects as well as cactus fruits, and get nearly all of the water they need from the food they eat. And I absolutely love their song: To me, it's the sound of heatwaves themselves, rising from the desert pavement. (Listen here.)
 |
| Cactus Wren |
The life of the Phainopepla is linked almost directly to mistletoe. The berries serve as food, and clumps of mistletoe provide sheltered nesting sites. While typically birds of southwestern deserts, Phainopeplas are found farther north throughout California's Central Valley as well, and though they will feed on other types of fruit, I almost always see them in trees with healthy infestations of mistletoe.
 |
| Male Phainopepla |
Male Phainopeplas are a shiny black, while the females are ashy gray; both sexes sport a jaunty crest and have reddish eyes. Look for these birds in desert washes, where desert mistletoe grows in acacia, mesquite and palo verde trees.
 |
| Female Phainopepla |
One of the most surprising birds to inhabit this treeless place is the Ladder-backed Woodpecker. A close relative of the Nuttall's Woodpecker of California's oak woodlands, the Ladder-backed Woodpecker excavates its nest cavity in Joshua Trees, mesquite, willow or cottonwood - all precious pieces of real estate in the arid desert where most trees are more shrubby than tree-like. Their diet consists almost entirely of insects gleaned from the branches of desert trees and shrubs.
 |
| Female Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
Another avian posterchild of the desert Southwest,
Gambel's Quail is likely to be encountered in small family groups, or coveys, moving along the ground and keeping close to vegetation and cover. For this reason, desert washes are good places to find this bird. Each morning of our camping trip, this male bird posted up atop this shrub to call, presumably defending his territory or calling to available lady-quail.
 |
| Gambel's Quail |
While range and habitat is usually enough to separate Gambel's from the more familiar California Quail, some overlap does occur. Look for the Gambel's Quail's brighter rufous head and distinctly buff belly.
 |
| Gambel's Quail |
Black-throated Sparrows occur across much of the Southwest, including the vast Great Basin Desert of Nevada and Utah. They sing a lovely tinkling song from open perches in the spring, making them easiest to spot at this time of year.
 |
| Black-throated Sparrow |
The last bird of note that we encountered is not strictly a Mojave Desert species, and finding them in a Joshua Tree forest is the exception rather than the rule.
Pinyon Jays range widely across the Western U.S., from eastern California to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, where they are typically found in pinyon-juniper woodlands. In Mojave National Preserve, we encountered a flock of around forty Pinyon Jays foraging in Joshua Trees and junipers. They also inhabit edge habitats where sagebrush, chaparral and dry ponderosa pine forests may overlap.
 |
| Pinyon Jays in a Joshua Tree |
Pinyon Jays live and move in large, noisy flocks, traveling widely in search of food, which consists mostly of pinyon-pine seeds and juniper berries, but in true Corvid fashion, they'll take just about whatever they can get.
 |
| Pinyon Jay |
No account of Mojave Desert wildlife would be complete without making mention of California's state reptile, the Desert Tortoise, which is listed as Federally Threatened. These slow-moving, long-lived tortoises may be the quintessential desert animal, perfectly suited to thrive in their harsh desert environment.
But they are at risk from a number of human-related threats, including a respiratory disease that can be passed to tortoises when they are handled by humans, wildfires (which are exacerbated by the spread of non-native annual grasses into desert ecosystems), development and roadways, and predation of eggs and hatchlings by Common Ravens, which thrive in human-altered environments. Please, if you are lucky enough to see a Desert Tortoise in the wild, don't touch it or pick it up! (But please do escort it safely off the roadway by acting as a sort of tortoise crossing guard!) Also, properly dispose of your trash to avoid attracting an unnaturally high number of ravens to the tortoise's habitat.
 |
| Desert Tortoise |
For more about the reptiles of the Mojave Desert,
check out this article.
Comments
Post a Comment