Looking to add a furry member to your family? Look no further! Through the Desert Museum’s adoption program you can be a “proud parent” to one of our prairie dogs. Your donations allow our prairie dogs to have a healthy lifestyle at the Desert Museum. Adopt today! Need more reasons to adopt a prairie dog?…

They both like the temperature to be ‘just right’, of course! Puns aside – rattlesnakes, like many other animals here in the Sonoran Desert, practice a desert survival strategy known as avoidance. They refrain from exposure and surface activity when it’s too hot during southern Arizona’s summer months, and the cold limits their activity during…

Two desert parks devoted to protection and conservation, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and El Pinacate y Gran Desierto del Altar, are split by the international United States and Mexico boundary. The two parks run parallel along Federal Highway 2- the fronterra. Protected and respected on both sides, the two sister parks are seemingly back…

Avoidance: we all do it; it can be a part of every-day human interaction and life! One aspect of avoidance that thankfully is not a vital part of our daily affairs is predator avoidance. If you’re an insect, this means not getting the attention of another animal that would like to make a meal out…

I have studied jaguars in northwest Mexico and southwest United States for the last 14 years. In 2003 I had the opportunity to study jaguars in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Sonora, Mexico, about 125 miles south of the international border. I was lucky to see two (one female and one male) and several mountain…

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, along with Organ Pipe National Monument and Pinacate Biosphere Reserve, have teamed up on a unique conservation and education project (funded by a grant from the National Park Service). The three organizations are uniting to help ensure species survival of Sonoyta pupfish (formally known as Quitobaquito pupfish) and the Sonoyta mud turtle.   Commonly referred…

The usefulness of detection dogs to our society seems just to grow and grow. Detection dogs have been trained to find explosives, illegal drugs, currency, gourmet fungus, human remains, contraband electronics, firearms, termites, bed bugs, cancerous tumors and low blood sugar emergencies in people with diabetes. And the dogs do this even if the scent…

Carrie took her first flight on a calm morning in the Desert Museum’s butterfly garden on January 9, 2017. We saw her fluttering colors, letting us know she would be fine, a few minutes after she was released into the wild. Carrie is a female monarch butterfly. She emerged from her chrysalis 24 hours earlier, the…

Rather, the lesser long-nosed bats are having babies! According to a press release from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a proposal has been submitted to delist the bat from the United States endangered species list, following a delisting from the Mexican endangered species list in 2015. With over half of the North American species…

Black Friday. Cyber Monday. #GivingTuesday.  Tis’ the season for days dedicated to shopping and spending. Why not shop and spend your money with a cause and organization you’re passionate about? We’d like to give you three ways to go green today. Give your time. There is no way we could operate without our volunteers. We have more than 500…