Thinking of having a wild animal as a pet? Think twice. As we mark the International Day for Biodiversity on May 22, one place we may not want too much biodiversity is among our pets! Demand for wild (or exotic) pets (which we’ll define as animals not usually kept and bred as pets) has been…
Category: Animals/Wildlife
Building Your Desert Tortoise Garden
Plants for Desert Tortoise Food and Habitat Adopting a desert tortoise can be a dream that takes years to realize. Properly caring for a tortoise requires more than people understand and planning a habitat is not something many people feel comfortable with. While the process can be daunting, we’ll get you started with this guide!…
Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery: A Binational Effort
As evidenced by its common name, the Mexican gray wolf is native to northern Mexico as well as to southern Arizona and New Mexico. Early this summer, U.S. and Mexican authorities signed an important agreement to continue their collaborations to conserve, manage, and recover this endangered animal. The Mexican gray wolf is a subspecies of…
Pop the champagne, it’s time for RAIN!
Herpetofauna awaken with the rainy season An Arizona summer is dry. It’s hot. There’s not a drop of moisture in the air. Life is seemingly absent at first glance as humans are indoors while the wildlife is underground or minimally active in cool shady hideouts. The desert is one of the harshest climates to live in,…
The Pollinator Party
National Pollinator Week, June 20-26, is a time to celebrate and BEE excited about the amazing work of pollinators! Join the festivities at our annual Party with Pollinators (Cool Summer Nights) evening this Saturday, June 25. We will have special pollinator themed activities and learning opportunities. Pollinator Week was developed to support pollinator health and…
Sharing is Caring in the Sonoran Desert
By Catherine Bartlett, Education Program Manager What do limp lizards, a bundle of bats, and fresh fecal samples have in common? Love. Well, maybe not love exactly but each can certainly be seen as an act of generosity in the animal world. Of the five love languages (words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service, receiving gifts) animals exhibit each, in some…
Weaving the Web of Life
Do you recall the grade school diagrams illustrating a simple food chain? This predator eats that prey and that prey eats plants, and plants obtain their energy from the sun and nutrients from soil. Arrows represent one organism eating another. Food chain diagrams help us visualize the flow of energy through an ecosystem. While the…
What Is Conservation Really About?
By Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction Join Michelle at the Desert Museum on Saturday, November 13, from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. for a brief reading from Beloved Beasts, a lively discussion with renowned field ecologist and conservationist Harry Greene, and a book signing. Books will be available…
Enriching Environments
What is animal enrichment and why do we do it? We’re not talking vitamin supplements (though they might be included!) but ways to engage and entertain the animals in our care. Read on to learn from our amazing young collaborator Sarah Green, who earned the Girl Scout Gold Award for her project researching and creating…
Respect the Rattlesnake
Scared of rattlesnakes? You’re not alone. Many people fear or simply misunderstand these incredible animals. Legend and lore may talk up the fearsome qualities of these venomous pit vipers, but ultimately humans are much more of a threat to these animals than they are to us. At the Desert Museum, we believe the best way…
Desert Diaries 