How much do you know about the Sonoran Desert? Take this quiz and find out.
1. What is this?
2. Can you tell the age of this snake?
3. How about these snakes?
4. What kind of flower is this?
5. What is this handsome red-eyed bird?
ANSWERS:
1. This is the nest of a leaf-cutter ant colony. For more information on these insects, see the post of December 17, 2010.
2. This is a trick question. Contrary to popular myth, you can’t tell a rattlesnake’s age by the number of rattles on its tail. Rattlers grow a new rattle segment each time they molt, which can be more often than once a year. Also, the rattle segments are often broken off.
3. Not exactly a trick question, but these are baby rattlers, only a few days old. They are born with what is called a “button,” which is the first segment of their rattle. The first time they molt, they add another segment to the rattle and their eyes become clear.
4. This is the seldom-seen flower of the jumping cholla (also called chain-fruit cholla), which appears only at dusk and at night in early summer.
5. This beautiful bird is a phainopepla. Though often called a “black cardinal,” it is actually the only North American member of the silky flycatcher family, and can often be found in and around desert mistletoe. Along with its slate-colored mate, the phainopepla can be seen in the Tucson area throughout the year, though in summer many of them head up to the mountains where it’s cooler.
SCORE: 1-2 correct, you think desert is something sweet served after the first course. 3-4 correct, you’re a snowbird. 5 correct, you are a true desert rat!
Oh, no. I'm a snowbird.
ReplyDeleteToo many years in NYC.
DeleteTough grader!
ReplyDelete