The Deserts of Africa
Why do many animals and plants live in Kalahari?
A remarkable number of desert animals make the Kalahari their home, and plants are abundant because they are uniquely adapted to the harsh environment of the Kalahari Desert.
What can happen to desert temperature at night?
At night, hot air from the day dissipates and, in some areas, temperatures can drop below freezing.
Where are the coastal deserts found?
Coastal deserts generally are found on the western edges of continents near the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
What large animals live on the edges of deserts?
Elephants are known to live in areas of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.
Are all deserts always humid or dry?
Hot and cold deserts, no matter where they are located, are always dry.
What climate do they love in?
It is the semi-arid region. Rainfall during the wet season varies from only five to forty inches. Temperatures during the winter are frequently below freezing, but during the summer are well above
Where do most hot deserts lie?
Many hot deserts lie in the subtropical zones.
What are monsoons?
Monsoon," derived from an Arabic word for "season," refers to a wind system with pronounced seasonal reversal.
Why is monsoon develope?
Monsoons develop in response to temperature variations between continents and oceans.
Where are the cold deserts found?
Most cold deserts are found in higher latitudes and higher elevations. They are usually found between the subtropics and polar regions.
What are most desert animals like?
Most desert animals are medium to small in size. However, some larger animals live on the edges of deserts. Elephants are known to live in areas of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.
What is Namib?
Namib meaning "desert" or "place of no people." On the coast of Africa, sea, wind, sand and sun join as in nowhere else on earth.
Where is Namib?
Namib, stretches 1,200 mile (2000 km) along the southwestern African coast.
How are the dry stream channels in the deserts called?
Normally dry stream channels, called arroyos or wadis.
What are polar deserts?
Polar deserts are areas of mostly bedrock or gravel plains with annual precipitation less than 250 millimeters and a mean temperature during the warmest month of less than 10° C.
How do animals get water in the desert?
Quite a few of the animals that live in the deserts get water through their food. Roadrunners extract their water from lizards, insects, small snakes, and other animals. Tortoises get their water from cacti and other plants. Lizards obtain their water supply from plants and insects
What occurs commonly in polar deserts?
Snow dunes occur commonly in areas where precipitation is locally more abundant.
What are some of the cold deserts?
Some cold deserts include the Gobi Desert of central Asia, the Patagonian Desert of South America, and the Great Basin Desert in the southwestern United States.
What do desert temperatures depend on?
Some deserts can be cold most of the year depending on their location.
What is the example of a hard pen desert?
Southern Africa are the Kalahari
Where are they located?
The !Kung population is located in isolated areas of Botswana, Angola, and Namibia.
Who are Bushmen?
The 'Bushmen' are the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, where they have lived for at least 20,000 years. T
Who are the Nimba?
The Himba are semi-nomadic people who inhabit the Kunene Region in northwestern Namibia and Botswana.
Where is Kalahari desert?
The Kalahari covers most of Botswana, and stretches all the way from South Africa's Orange River to the Congo.
What deserts are part of a monsoon?
The Rajasthan Desert of India and the Thar Desert of Pakistan are parts of a monsoon.
What are the largest hot desert in the world?
The Sahara Desert is the World's largest hot desert and covers 3.5 million square miles (9 million square kilometers), making it larger than the whole Australian continent. Temperatures during the day can soar over 100° F (38° C), but drop below freezing at night. Another hot desert can be found in the Namib Desert in southern Africa.
What are deserts?
The desert is a dry, hot, and sometimes waterless place that is very vast.
Why did the Himba have managed to maintain much of their traditional lifestyle?
The land they occupy is so harsh and unyielding that that it has been rarely coveted by the colonialists and commercial farmers that have affected so many other regions of the continent.
How do large animals maintain their body heat.
These large animals maintain their body heat through their ears. When blood vessels in their ears enlarge, heat from the blood and skin is then released into the its roots under the soil.
What are two types of deserts?
Two type of desert are hard pan and soft pan deserts.
Does it rain in deserts?
Yes. Rain does fall occasionally in deserts, and desert storms are often violent.
What is the example of a soft pen desert?
the Namib