Deserts - Jolly Phonics Level 3 Readers
A desert is a big stretch of land which
gets very little rain. Deserts can be
made up of sand or of stones or rock
The Sahara Desert in North Africa is
the biggest desert of all.
In some deserts, the sand gets piled
up into mounds by the wind. These
mounds, which look like waves, are
called dunes.
Sometimes, strong winds whip the sand
and dust up into sandstorms. When this
happens, clouds of sand drift across the
desert.
There are tribes who live in the desert.
They use camels to ride on and to help
them carry things. That is why camels
are sometimes called the ships of the
desert.
A camel stores fat in its hump. It can go
without food or drink for a long time,
while it uses up the store of fat. A camel
can close its nostrils, which stops sand
from getting up its nose in sandstorms.
Deserts often look empty, but lots of
animals do live there. There is not much
shade or shelter from the sun, so
animals hide and do not come out until
it is cooler.
Small animals, reptiles and insects shelter
underground from the sun. Desert insects
tend to have long legs which help them
avoid touching the hot ground.
This insect is from the Namib Desert in
South Africa. It drinks while standing
on its head by kneeling down and
letting droplets from the morning fog
drip down its body and into its mouth.
This is a desert fox, called a fennec fox.
It lives in the Sahara desert and hunts
small animals and insects.
Roadrunners like this one live in deserts
in America. They mainly get about
by running along the ground, and
they feed on insects, lizards and small
snakes.
Deserts often go without rain for a very
long time, but sometimes there are
sudden rainstorms. When rain falls, the
empty riverbeds fill up, and animals can
come and drink.
When it has rained, the desert blooms,
but only for a short time. Then the
seeds lie waiting on the desert sands
until the next rainstorm, when they can
bloom again.
The cactus has adapted well to life in
the desert. When rain falls and the soil
is wet, the roots of the cactus take in as
much rain as they can. The cactus swells
up as it stores the liquid and then shrinks
again, little by little, as it uses it up.
Lots of small animals and insects live on
the cactus. Desert woodpeckers make
holes for nests at the top.
Spadefoot toads live in deserts in
America. They can spend a long time
underground, waiting for rain. Then
they come out into the pools of rain.
The tadpoles of the spadefoot toad only
take three weeks to develop into adult
toads. By this time, the pools have all
dried up, so the toads go back
underground to wait for it to rain again.
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