Born Hungry in the Sahara Trivia Quiz

Answer: Leathery lips

Sahara means desert, or Greatest Desert, so there is no need to call it the Sahara desert, as that means desert desert. Sahara camels (Arabian camels) are one-hump dromedaries native to Northern Africa and the Middle East. Although nearly all camels are now domesticated and human-fed, wild camels must search vast areas for bits of twig, leaves, plant stems or tumbleweed. Because of their tough, thick lips, and a hard palate inside the mouth, these herbivores can eat the "saltbush" and even thorny plants, including spiky cacti, that other animals cannot.

The camel's upper lip is split, so that each half can move independently, grabbing at short grass like fingers. They can also sit comfortably on hot sand owing to their thick skin.

Answer: Arachnida

The pale and deceptively fragile-looking deathstalker scorpion (Leiurus quinquestriatus) is of the class Arachnida--that of spiders, ticks, mites and some crabs. The most poisonous scorpion on earth, a deathstalker injects neurotoxins that cause excruciating pain in humans, though a healthy adult often survives. Those who die succumb to respiratory failure.

Hunting in the dark to conceal and ambush, these bad-tempered scorpions like live food such as earthworms, centipedes, crickets, ants, beetles and each other. They often grab and crush parts of prey with pincers. They have pairs of eyes on the sides of the head as well as on top. Despite this they don't see well, using touch organs near the legs to sense prey.

Increasingly people keep them as pets, though in many places that is illegal. I saw an advertisement selling a deathstalker for $70.00, but you must first sign a waiver saying you realize it's "potentially lethal". In the USA and other countries the antidote is not approved for the public, and therefore is not available.

Answer: False

The olive baboon (Anubis baboon) is an Old World mountain monkey with an olive colored coat. This species thrives in much part because it eats anything, in a tree, underground, in a forest or the desert. Males and females hunt as a group, taking plants, fruit, mushrooms, rhizomes, grubs, birds, rodents, scorpions and occasionally a small antelope. They sometimes raid farms, so often they are exterminated as livestock killers, the fate of many baboon species.

Quite large, it is called Anubis because it looks like a dog. It has a four-legged gait, canine muzzle and a unique tail. A female often has a non-sexual "friendship", as it is called, with a male new to her troop. She enables his acceptance, and he helps raise her infants, forages food, and fights beside her. Though males are large, dominating and competitive they do help rear infants, groom and calm the young, and protect the troop from predators. This fascinating species has a complex democracy for troop decision-making.

Answer: Excrement

Fabulous for insect control, fertilization and spreading seeds, dung beetles ("turd weevils") have special mouth parts designed to extract essential moisture and nutrients from animal droppings, affectionately called poop. These beetles are picky eaters, consuming only plant-eating animal excrement, preferably fresh. Able to navigate by the sun and stars, special dung beetles called "rollers" skillfully roll balls of dung up to 50 times their weight in a perfectly straight line, often coordinating as a team. Ancient Egyptians recognized their amazing ability to navigate, and honored them as sacred.

Answer: Caracal

The caracal (Persian or desert lynx) is a strikingly beautiful medium-sized wildcat, found in the Sahara outskirts. Caracal is Turkish, meaning "black ear". They have long thrived in the Middle East, Central Asia and India, and were once tamed for use as bird hunters. They can live indefinitely without water, utilizing liquids from their prey and excreting only highly concentrated drops of urine, and with specialized stiff hairs on their foot pads that make it easier to walk on sand.

Supreme hunters, agile and fierce, they'll eat monkeys and antelopes, rodents and gazelles, and have an astounding jumping skill to take down birds. They also eat reptiles, insects and plants. Although some call it a lynx, there are strong genetic differences.

Answer: Xerocole

Desert animals that have evolved to handle the hazards and challenges of living in the desert are called Xerocoles. The term comes from the Greek meaning dry, and the Latin "to inhabit". You may have heard the term xeriscape, a landscaping method for arid climates to greatly conserve water, and xerography (dry printing), which come from the same root.

Most of the Xerocoles concentrate their excretions, drink little to no water directly, sweat easily, have special features to deflect heat, and are active only in the dark, dawn or dusk hours. They include big cats, antelopes, camels, ostrich, bear, rodents, fox and even a crocodile species.

Each has special adaptations so they can effectively feed their hunger in the extremes and dangers of the desert. Most of them can eat and digest an unusually wide range of foods.

Answer: Crocodile

The West African crocodile occupies a great many swamps and river basins of West and Central Africa, as one might expect. But one crocodile, Crocodylus suchus, lived 10,000 years ago in what was savannah and grassland, and has had to adapt to the desert as the savannah disappeared, so this crocodile occupies the northern and southern regions, where more vegetation and humidity occurs.

During the hot season these smaller, less aggressive crocodiles move into burrows and caves, going dormant, eating nothing. Then the desert "wet season" arrives and creates deep pools of water called guelta. The crocodiles emerge to bask on the shores, and hide in underwater rocks, leaping out to grab gazelles and oryx, or a creature of any size, who comes to drink at the guelta.

To survive the desert, they have extra large feet with specialized claws for burrowing, tougher skin that conserves water, and dark circles around their eyes for better vision. The female builds a sand nest for her eggs and guards them, living on the fat stores in her body. After they hatch she stays a few months, a surprisingly devoted mother, but most of the young will be eaten by birds, fish and lizards. It's an eat-and-be-eaten world in the Sahara, where starvation is an ever-present threat, and everyone is hungry.

Answer: Long-eared bats

The desert long-eared bat uses "low wing loading", which means they land on the ground for a few seconds, subdue prey, then take off and eat it in flight, a sort of fast food, eat-on-the-go system. Mostly they gobble up small insects such as cockroaches and crickets, but using their sonar-like ability to detect a favorite food, the scorpion, they'll drop down on it, unaffected even when stung repeatedly.

These bats are harmless to humans but owing to a ferocious looking set of teeth, they are often mistaken for megadermatids, a predatory false vampire bat.

Answer: Air acrobatics

Bateleur eagles ("tight-rope walker") are masters of flight, doing steep dives, barrel rolls, dipping and playing tag, while slapping their wings and crowing loudly.

Black, white and brown with bright red legs and face, these grand birds have long wings and short tails. They cover a massive range every day hunting for food. Masterful at hunting snakes, they also eat lizards, mice, birds and even antelope. Mates for life, they lay only one egg each season, incubated by father or mother. Only two per cent of the chicks live to adulthood, but an adult may live up to 25 years. Sadly they are victims of habitat loss, disturbed nests and collectors of feathers. Often they are unintentional victims after eating carrion animals laced with poison by ranchers. Since 2009 they've been on the endangered Red List, but in some areas they are already extinct.

Answer: Long legs

The Saharan silver ant has special adaptations so it can survive in the vast sea of hot sand. First, before it exits its underground burrow it produces heat shock proteins. Once out, it stays well off the burning sand on especially long legs, often walking on only some of its legs, and it remains outside only about ten minutes a day.

The fastest of the world's ant species, it can zip 108 times its length in a second--similar to a human running 400 mph (643 Km/h). It quickly grabs bits off the corpses of animals who have succumbed to the heat, while avoiding the worst of its enemies, the lizard. These super-power ants are covered in specialized hairs that keep them cool, a sort of heat shield. Researchers hope to copy the design to make coatings that self-cool, called passive cooling.