Tcdgur lili Nonfiction Australian Desert Animals by Yara S. MignonRead to Find Out Which animals have learned to live in the dry Australian desert? in/Hi Inc. 2: (1) © ‘Diitl Vision/PunchStock; herine Karnow/Corbis. 4: (1) © Digital ; Martin Harvey/Peter Arnold, Inc. 5: (1) Corel; John Cancalosi/Peter Arnold, Inc. 6; (t) © Digital Vision/PunchStock; (b) David Curl’Naturepl.com. 7: (t) © Eric and David Hosking/Corbis; (b) Roland Seitre / Peter Arnold, Inc. 8: (1) © Digital Visior/PunchStock; (b) Photolibrary.com. 9: (cr) Don Hadden/Ardea._ Ae ater pt a aa 8.G. Thomson/Photo Research Digital Vision/PunchStock; (b) Michael & Patricia Fogden/Corbis. Allustration Credits: 3: Joe LeMonnier Macmillan McGraw-Hill Published by Macmil Laced el ‘The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., T Copyright © by Macmillan/McGra\ reproduced or distributed in any form network storage or transmission, Printed in the United States of America 123456789 BSF 10 09 08 0706 05 “The total word count is besed on words in the running text and headings or or broadcast for eae learning. STRATEGIES & SKILLS AT A GLANCE Comprehension « Strategy: Summarize © Skill: Evaluate Author’s Purpose Vocabulary * beyond, burrow, distant, lengthy, ranger’s, warning Vocabulary Strategy © Context Clues: Possessives Phonics diphthong /ou/ow, ou CONTENT-AREA VOCABULARY Words related to animal characteristics (see glossary) NATIONAL CONTENT STANDARDS Science © Life Science Word count: 735** of McGraw-Hill Education, a division of enn Plaza, New York, New York 10121. i. All rights re No part of this publication may be red in a database or retrieval system, , but not limited to, Numerals and words in captions, labels, diagrams, charts, and sidebars are not included.ustalfan Dasare Table of Contents Chapter 1 Deserts Down Under.................. 2 Chapter 2 Amazing Desert Animals............... 4 Chapter 3 Desert Bird aj. <3 wei saw ee see esses ews 8 Chapter 4 Desert Reptiles and Amphibians ...... 10 Chapter 5 Desert Arachnids..............00e0 ee 12 Glossary/Index..............0 eee eee 15 Comprehension Check...........00005 16Chapter I Deseris Down Under Australia is the smallest and driest continent. It has 10 deserts. All deserts are quite dry. Days are very hot, and nights are very cold. But many plants and animals have adapted to desert life. Aboriginal (a-buh-RiJ-i-nuhl) people have adapted, too. They have lived in Australia for 40,000 years. Many of them still hunt small animals and gather the sparse desert plants. Some people work as desert rangers. A ranger’s job is to care for the land and the animals that live there. @The Tanami Desert has many hills and ranges. The Great Sandy Desert is the hottest Australian desert. There are many salt lakes in the Great Victoria Desert. The Simpson Desert is the driest part of Australia. © Australia is a continent. The Great Sandy, Tanami, Great Victoria, and Simpson Deserts are Australia’s largest deserts. They cover most of its area.Chapter 2 Amazing Desert Animals The desert is home to the kangaroo, which is the largest marsupial. A female carries her baby, called a joey, in a pouch on her stomach. A joey stays in its mother’s pouch for months. For safety, kangaroos gather to eat in groups called mobs. If one senses danger, it stamps its foot. Then the mob scatters. Only male red kangaroos are @ ® € red. Females have gray fur | on their backs. More than 7 200 kinds of marsupials live i 4/ in or near Australia.© The numbat often hides in old, hollow logs. Most desert marsupials have strong, sharp claws. They use their claws to dig for insects to eat. The numbat uses its long, sticky tongue to eat termites. Unlike many marsupials, the numbat is active during the day. Because of the bands on its back, the numbat is also called the banded anteater. ~~ It is hard to find food in the desert. So some marsupials store their food. The fat-tailed marsupial mouse stores food in its tail. 5A Some animals in the Australian desert come from distant places. Explorers brought camels with them more than 150 years ago. Camels need very little water. They get moisture from the foods they eat. Camels can go for months without taking a drink of water. That has helped them adapt to life in these deserts. — © Camels store fat, not water, in their humps. This fat People used to gives them energy when ride camels across there is no food. the Australian desert. Camels were called “ships of the desert.” Now cars and railroads have become more common.@A dingo is a wild dog. It hunts alone or in a small group. Aboriginal people went to Australia from Asia about 10,000 years ago. Dingoes went with them. Some dingoes were pets. Pets that escape are called feral animals. Feral animals are a big problem. Wild dingoes are feral. They hunt at night. They hunt bilbies and other small marsupials. Now there are fewer of these small marsupials. Bilbies were once found > all over Australia. Now with only small clusters living in a few areas, they are threatened with extinction.Chapter 3 Desert Birds Desert birds are amazing animals. The emu is a huge bird that does not fly. It runs fast—up to 30 miles (SO kilometers) per hour! Like emus, many other desert birds can travel hundreds of miles in search of food. When there is lots of food, emus store fat. When the lakes are dry, the birds move away. They use their stored fat until they find a place with more food to eat. ¥ ° . Emus can reach the same height as an adult person.Some birds hunt many kinds of animals. The wedge-tailed eagle is Australia’s largest hunting bird. Each one has an area, or range, where it hunts for food. It will rarely fly far beyond its range. The wedge-tailed eagle has wings that are more than 2 yards (2 meters) wide.Chapter 4 Desert Reptiles and Amphibians Most Australian snakes are venomous. This means that their bite injects poison, or venom. This hurts or kills their prey. The taipan is one such snake. It only eats small mammals. The taipan is Australia’s most venomous snake. This snake strikes its prey many times. Then its venom quickly kills its prey. ©The length of a taipan can be as long as 11 feet (3.3 meters), which is longer than a car.A lizard called the thorny devil changes color to blend with the sand. It looks scary. But it only eats ants. It eats OAt a rate of about 45 thousands of them ants per minute, the very quickly. thorny devil eats about 3,000 ants in one meal! The water-holding frog goes for lengthy periods without leaving its burrow. It makes a water-filled “cocoon.” It forms a seal with skin it has shed. Water stays inside with the frog until it rains. The water-holding frog © looks like a balloon because of the water it stores under its skin. It stays in its burrow during the lengthy dry season.Chapter 5 Desert Arachnids Spiders are arachnids. Hundreds of kinds of spiders live in Australia’s deserts. Most spiders live on webs they make. A desert has few places where a spider can build its web. Some desert spiders live in tunnels under the ground. The mouse spider does that. It has a trapdoor on its home to stay safe from predators. Mouse spiders have fangs. These fangs inject venom into their prey. The female mouse spider never leaves her home. The male leaves only when it rains. ©@A mouse spider is about as big as a baby mouse.Scorpions are arachnids, too. They hunt at night for spiders and insects. Some scorpions eat snakes, mice, and lizards. Scorpions have from six to twelve eyes. But they can only tell light from dark. They do not like bright light. They =—_ stay hidden during _——_ the day. This keeps them cool and out of the sun’s glare. A scorpion only needs Some arachnids have dim light to hunt body colors that blend , into the land around them. Such blending hides and protects them. This scorpion has its stinger raised in warning. When it stings, the scorpion injects venom into its prey. @Many animals have adapted to life in the Australian deserts. They have learned to store food and drink less water. They may burrow underground to avoid some of the hot sun and stay cool. Some can even stay in their burrow for many years. Other animals blend in with the desert to stay safe. Some move from place to place in search of water. These animals have made the Australian desert their home. ©The woma python lives in the Tanami Desert near Uluru (OO-luh-roo). Uluru is a large, red, sandstone rock in central Australia.Glossary adapted (uh-DAPT-ed) changed (page 2) arachnids (uh-RACK-nidz) arthropods (not insects) with four pairs of legs and a body in two parts (page 12) marsupials (mar-SOO-pee-uhiz) animals that carry their young in a pouch (page 4) mob (MAHB) a cluster of kangaroos (page 4) venomous (VEN-uh-muhs) poisonous (page 10) Index bilby, 7 camel, 6 dingo, 7 emu, & kangaroo, 4 mouse spider, 72 numbat, 5 taipan, 70 thorny devil, 77 wedge-tailed eagle, 9Comprehension Check Retell Use an Author’s Purpose Chart and the photos to help you retell the information in this book. . Author's Think and Compare Purpose 1. Turn to page 7. What problems do feral animals such as dingoes cause in the Australian desert? (Summarize) 2. Which animals from the Australian desert do you find most fascinating? Why? (Analyze) 3. What do you know about other deserts in Australia or around the world? Compare and contrast them to what you know about Australia’s deserts. (Evaluate)uiterort Activitie. C4 4 Who Am I? Create a game about Australian desert animals. Write clues about some of Australia’s desert animals, such as how they have adapted to their environment. Then challenge pairs of players to play the game you made up. You ask the questions; the other players answer them. Make a Venn Diagram Research the Mojave Desert in the United States or any another desert that interests you. Use a Venn diagram to compare it to Australian deserts. Then write a report comparing the deserts. Different Same DifferentGR P » Benchmark 38 + Lexile 590 2.5 Week 1 PART Macmillan McGraw-Hill