Arizona Animals

Thought I'd introduce you to some of the creatures of the Arizona desert.

The Whipscorpion is a gruesome sight. Six legs to walk with and two pincer arms to grab with and pointy jaws to eat with. And the kicker ... we found this in the shower. Turns out, as ugly as it might seem, they're kind of nice to have around. For humans, they might bite you hard enough to draw blood, but they're not venemous. They do like to eat scorpions, though, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

You think of squirrels and you think of wooded areas, trees, grass, the idyllic place ... but not the desert. Indeed, most of the squirrels here in the desert are very small. So we were pleased to see this guy hanging around. He's a Rock Squirrel, indigenous to the Arizona desert, bushy tail and all. This one hung around in the wash behind our house for a few years and then vanished. Don't know if he was someone's lunch or just ...? He liked to climb that fence you see behind him, grabbing two adjacent bars and arm-walking himself up until he got to a bird feeder. So I greased the bars and it was amusing for quite awhile. No squirrels were harmed in the process.

Of course, you think "desert" and you logically think "rabbits." This is the typical Cottontail Rabbit. This one is very young, in fact. Maybe 5" long. The odd part is the picture was taken outside the local Lowes hardware store. He and his family were living in among the pallets. I was more concerned about cars than coyotes for this guy. We get jackrabbits, too, but they're not as plentiful here as farther out in the desert.

Bobcats are not uncommon around here. Mostly harmless ... to humans. And they have, obviously, made themselves at home in our urban sprawl. This one was sitting on the wall of our yard keeping an eye on the birdfeeder as if he thought we put it there to attract birds to give him something to eat.

Obviously, you think "desert" and you definitely think vultures -- Turkey Vulture to be precise. They're found in more places than the desert, actually, but certainly in the desert. Vultures are ugly up close, most say. Those bald heads and beady eyes and, after all, they do eat dead things. But, in flight, they are magnificent. At a distance, the easiest way to tell the difference between a vulture and a hawk is that the vulture almost never flaps his wings. He just ... hangs there, drifting on air currents, cruising along. Quite majestic, actually. They get up around sunrise and find themselves a place to sun themselves to get ready for the day. You know, warm up a little, dry off the feathers, maybe get rid of a few parasites. I took this picture from my back porch and didn't realize until I looked at it later that the bird was staring right at me. "Hey! I'm not dead yet! Wait your turn!"

Last one for today. This is one of the smaller hawks. He's called a Cooper's Hawk (or Sharp-Shinned Hawk -- I can never be sure). They're very swift flyers. I read about one birder watching a Cooper's Hawk chasing a quail. He was gaining quickly, so the quail folded his wings and simply fell into the thicket for cover ... except the hawk was faster. He rolled upside down in flight, flew beneath the quail, and caught the quail in his talons, and flew off with lunch. Very impressive. These hawks prefer birds while others, like the Red Tail Hawk, like larger prey like rabbits and such. As such, this Cooper's Hawk, too, is pretty sure we put birdfeeders out as bait to attract things he likes to eat.


Try if you like, but you can't convince me that this stuff is "random" and "chance," the product of some mindless evolution. They are too complex, skillful, uniquely adapted, and carefully designed to be accidental. Oh, no, that's not reasonable at all, looking at creation.