Cool Desert Animals

Hey guys! Sorry for another massive gap in posting without notice– I went away for a week and I thought I'd have enough internet and time to update you guys, but I was pretty busy and didn't have access to a computer. Whoops!

It's funny-- sometimes if I come back to Blogger after a long absence I get nervous that world war 3 or something went down on AJ XD glad it didn't this time.

I don't have much in the way of Animal Jam related content, and a big weekend of doing all the work I couldn't do while I was away the past week.

However, I do have some animal related content...

I saw so many different animals over my trip!

A few of the animals I saw I had never seen before-- like this beautiful roadrunner. 

I have some more pictures of the animals I saw, but they're on my dad's phone and he's away right now so I'll edit them back into this post when he returns. The photos are here now!

Here are all the awesome creatures I was lucky enough to see:

- A lot of tiny lizards. Most of them were understandably cautious around me (I'm a lot bigger than a tiny lizard), but on one of the last days of my trip I saw one sitting on a rock and they let me sit down nearby to admire them :3

- One larger lizard. I went on a hike and my brother spotted a black lizard with white spots/stripes and a rounded tail cooling off in the underbrush. I didn't get a picture, so I might not remember the patterns of their skin 100%.

- On that same hike, I saw another tiny lizard... but this one had two tails! Or, more accurately, the tip of a second tail coming out of their normal-sized one. Sorry for the low-quality photo, but you can see their two tail tips!

- Again on that hike, I saw two really big and cool caterpillars. One was eating a leaf and was so big they almost reminded me of a squirrel, holding the leaf in their hands and bringing it to their mouth. LOOK AT THEM

Fun fact: at least in America, any caterpillar you find is way more likely to be poisonous than any spider you find. You can tell that the caterpillar above is probably poisonous because of their bright colors and sharp barb at their tail. Another telltale sign is extreme fluffiness. 

Moral of the story: admire caterpillars at a respectful distance. ^-^

- Once again on that hike, I saw my first rattlesnake! They were just calmly and gracefully traveling over some rocks and into the brush, and we kept a respectful distance. I have a nice video, but I might need to edit out the sound because you don't need to hear my annoying voice lol

- For three or four days in a row, when my family came back to where we were staying we always saw the same slug in the same place at the same time of night. They weren't moving that slowly, they just had a schedule! In the photo it's hard to tell what part is the actual slug and what parts are just shadows lol

- I saw a bunny! Their ears were a little bigger than the ones where I live, so I took notice.

- I saw a baby finch and their parents

- EDIT: As I'm editing in the photos, I remembered another cool animal! My family visited a permaculture forest (fruit trees and veggies are grown alongside native plants and wildlife). The people there had built a shelter on a raft out of recycled materials that a mama mallard was using to take care of her eggs! They said the raft was anchored to the bottom of the pond to protect the mallard from coyotes because coyotes can't swim. We could see her shifting around inside, which they said was a sign that the eggs were soon to hatch!

- And last but definitely not least... a trio of coyotes strolling together at night! Nocturnal predators like them tend to stay far away from humans, so seeing them was special. Contrary to popular belief, coyotes want nothing to do with humans and will not attack you unless you are awful and attack them first, and even then they'll probably just try to get away from you. Among other keystone predators, coyotes are vital members of the ecosystem. They deserve respect. 

That being said, keep a respectful distance away from animals you encounter. They're probably afraid of you (you look like a giant to most of them) and the best way to show you care about them is to not cause them any unnecessary panic. In addition, be sure to contact a professional wildlife rehabilitator if you come across an animal who looks hurt. 


And you can probably get a general idea of where I traveled to from the animals I listed above. XD

Once I get all my homework done, I'll have more AJ-related things to post about later.

See you in Jamaa!

~DoomyPanda