Australian Deserts and their Life
What is a Desert?
Deserts are areas with very low rainfall. All deserts are dry because of their
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Deserts can be hot in the daytime and cold at night, like the Great Sandy Desert.
Deserts can be cold all the time, like Antarctica.
To live in a desert plants and animals have had to develop different ways of capturing water in order to survive in the dry climate. This is called adaptation.
Deserts can be cold all the time, like Antarctica.
To live in a desert plants and animals have had to develop different ways of capturing water in order to survive in the dry climate. This is called adaptation.
Desert Plant Life
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Desert Animal Life
Bandy-bandys live in underground habitats.
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Barking Spiders live in burrows in deserts
that are prone to flash flooding and in leaf litter in Mulga Country |
Barn Owls roost and nest in large, deep tree hollows.
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Bilbies are nocturnal and have powerful forelimbs and strong claws for digging.
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Budgerigars are small bright green parrots. You generally hear them before you see them.
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Greater Stick-nest Rats have large eyes and a blunt snout and rest in a hunched posture.
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Mala_ are small finely built hare-wallabies with reddish brown fur.
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The Narrow-banded Sand Swimmer have pointy snouts that help them burrow and “swim” through the sand in a snake-like fashion.
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Princess Parrots are highly nomadic; they follow good rains through the desert.
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The Red Kangaroo is Australia’s largest kangaroo. Red Kangaroos prefer to stay in small groups.
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Red-capped Robins usually breed after rain in desert Australia.
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The Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko has huge dark eyes, loose skin and a broad paddle shape tail.
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The Southern Marsupial Mole is not a mole, it is a small, unusual, pale golden marsupial with no visible eyes or ears.
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Spinifex Hopping-mice are nocturnal and stay hidden during the heat of the day. During dry times, Spinifex Hopping-mice can survive without drinking.
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What to do! (Year 1 and 2)
What to do! (Year 2)
- Read all the instructions before you start.
- Open KidPix.
- Go to backgrounds and click.
- Choose 'Line drawing backgrounds and special projects' - it is the middle icon.
- Use the down arrow and select 'Desert life'.
- There are 5 backgrounds - the first is the title.
- Add your name to the title slide, a desert animal and colour.
- Save it in your class folder. Call it "your name title".
- On the next 4 backgrounds -
- Draw a plant or animal that you have seen on this page.
- Write a sentence about that plant or animal.
- Colour your desert.
- Save it in your class folder. Call it "your name 1", then the next one "your name 2".......
What to do! (Year 2)
- Download 'Desertlifenotes_s1' and print.
- Choose an animal from the Desert Animal Life pictures.
- Write the name of the animal on the worksheet.
- Find your information by clicking on the picture and the hyperlinked words (blue).
- Record your answers on the worksheet.
desertlifenotes_s1.pdf | |
File Size: | 1553 kb |
File Type: |
Desert Photographs
Cryogenic cracks are not unique to the dry valleys of Antarctica. They're even found on Mars. Water in the soil expands when it freezes and shrinks when it thaws, which creates the crack, and the finer-grained soil falls into the crack.
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