MEET THE WILD SOUTHWEST: LAND OF HOODOOS AND GILA MONSTERS
Desert Ecology for Kids, with activities

By Susan J. Tweit
Illustrations by Joyce Bergen

Alaska Northwest Books$14.95, softbound
0-88240-468-7
124 pages, index

Ages 8 & up


Pick up your magnifying glass, grab your field guide, and Meet the Wild Southwest. Meander along mighty rivers and swim with the otter; get up-close-and-personal with creepy-crawly desert creatures; descend a mile into awesome chasms; rase your face to the sky and find it humming with insects, moths, butterflies, songbirds and soaring raptors; or peer at your feet and discover what lies underfoot. Fling yourself into another world - all it takes is imagination and a sense of wonder!

Know bright, inquiring youngsters? This book is designed just for them. Any reader can learn all kinds of things. Did you know aspen trees clone themselves?
- New Mexico Magazine

Designed to accommodate the meandering mind of a youngster. While reading Meet the Wild Southwest, one might begin to think of the desert as a fairy-tale country.
- Arizona Daily Star

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Wild Southwest

Geology: Once Upon a Time - Climate: How Dry? How Hot? -Plants and Animals: Who Lives Here?

Land of Hoodoos and Gila Monsters
Spiny Survivors: Saguaro, Prickly Pear, Cholla
Plants and Romance: Agave and Yucca
Winged Wonders: Hummingbirds, Sphinx Moths, Dragonflies
Awwwesome Chasms: Grand Canyon, Arizona; Narrows of the Virgin River, Utah; Goosenecks of the San Juan, Utah
What's in a Name?: Names on the Landscape
Ancient Cities: Pueblos, Cliff Dwellings
Rock Art: Petroglyphs, Pictographs
Savvy Survivors: Coyotes, Ravens
Desert Rats: Roadrunners, Kangaroo Rats
Busy Burrowers: Prairie Dogs, Digger Bees
Creepy Crawlies: Centipedes, Millipedes
Plant Poisons: Sacred Datura, Water Hemlock, Fly Agaric
Look-Alikes: Aspen, Gambel Oak
Desert Voices: Canyon Wrens, Cactus Wrens, Northern Mockingbirds
Splendid Soarers: Golden Eagles, Vultures, Buteos
Supersonic Flyers: Falcons, White-throated Swifts
Foreigners: Cows, Sheep, Horses, Burros, Tumbleweed, Saltcedar
Hungry Hordes: Grasshoppers, Quail
Mighty Mites: Ants, Termites
What Guts!: Bighorn Sheep, Mule Deer, White-tailed Deer
Hippety Hoppers: Jackrabbits, Desert Cottontails, Snowshoe Hares
Hunters!: Mountain Lions, Rattlesnakes
Love Bites: Black Widow Spiders, Tarantula Spiders
Night Hunters: Bats, Owls, Scorpions
Rock Sculptures: Arches, Natural Bridges, Balanced Rocks, Fins, Hoodoos
Sky Islands: Bears, Porcupines, Monkeyflowers, Paintbrush
Trash Collectors: Packrats, Magpies
Leaping Lizards: Collared Lizards, Horned Lizards
Stinkers: Creosote Bush, Sagebrush
Hitchhiking Seeds: Devil's Claw, Goatsbeard, Wild Raspberry
Transformers: Leopard Frogs, Tiger Salamanders
Sudden Surprises: Spadefoot Toads, Fairy Shrimp, Annual Wildflowers
Swell Swimmers: River Otters, Colorado Squawfish, Common Backswimmers
Made in the Shade: Cottonwood, Piñon Pine, Ponderosa Pine
What's Underfoot?: Cryptobiotic Crust, Slickrock, Desert Pavement, Desert Varnish
Tricks of Hot Air: Dust Devils, Mirages
Booms and Zaps: Thunderstorms, Lightning

Endangered Species
The Wild Inside - Wild Books - Wild Checklist - Wild Words

 

From the book:

LEAPING LIZARDS

One is large, quick, brightly colored, and hunts on the run. The other is small, slow, and earth-colored, and hunts by holding still.

They're both lizards. The common collared lizard, named for two black "collars" ringing its neck, is the eye-catching speedster. Its neon-bright coloring - a brilliant emerald belly with touches of turquoise blue, and chrome yellow accents above - screams to be noticed. Collared lizards grow to a foot long - at least half of which is tail. ...

CREEPY CRAWLIES

Centipedes and millipedes are both creepy, crawling creatures with many legs. But they are very different.

Centipedes are meat eaters that kill their prey by squeezing it with poison-containing pincers on their first pair of legs. Millipedes graze on plant material and repel predators (like centipedes) by expelling a smelly vapor from their "repugnatorial gland," an organ at the end of their body. Both have long, many-segmented bodies. Centipedes have flattened bodies, with one pair of legs per body segment. Millipedes' bodies are rounded and wormlike, with two pairs of legs per body segment.

Centipedes were named in the mistaken belief that they possessed 100 feet (centi means "one hundred," pede means "feet"). Actually, they may have as few as 30 feet or as many as 362. Despite their many feet and legs, centipedes move quickly and gracefully. Some centipedes can scurry along at speeds of over a foot per second.

Many centipedes have detachable legs. If a predator grabs a centipede leg, the leg breaks off and continues to wiggle, distracting the attacker. A new leg eventually grows to replace the missing one. . . .

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