Desert
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A desert is a very dry place. A desert can be freezing cold or burning hot. Most of a desert is made up of sand or snow, sand dunes or snowdrifts, and cacti or very small plants. It is a biome, one where there is little rainfall.
There are not many animals in the desert, but some animals have learned to survive in various ways. Some animals that do well in the desert are rabbits, bats, bears, and rattlesnakes. These animals all have different ways to survive the intense conditions of the desert. A rabbit lives in a hot desert by circulating hot blood through its long ears to help it cool down, and it also digs a burrow underground where the climate is more mild. Bats also live in hot deserts and only come out at night, when the temperature is cool. Rattlesnakes do not have any body heat of their own, so they use the hot desert sun to warm up. In cold deserts, bears have thick coats of fur to keep warm. Rabbits in cold deserts also dig burrows, because the ground shields them from freezing winds.
Deserts cover at least 25% of the earth.
The biggest hot desert is the Sahara. The biggest cold desert is Antarctica.
