Barry Fotheringham
barry@barryfotheringham.com
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Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Did you know the multi-armed saguaro (“sah-war-o”) cactus can hold a ton of water? Do you know what a Riparian Corridor is?
The Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum is Jacque’s favorite place to spend a morning or stay all day. It is the first place she likes to take friends who are new to our remarkable piece of the world. Nowhere else can you find the creatures and the plant life you can see here in the great Sonoran Desert.
Jacque calls it a verdant desert which is her way of saying it is greener than you would expect a desert to be and far more life goes on than you would guess.
Arizona does have areas with the “Sahara effect” where it is lifeless looking, but not in the Sonoran Desert. At one time there was an ad on TV showing a man and woman describing an “awful” experience in Arizona. It went something like this: “We had to pull off to the side of the road in Arizona and the heat was unbearable. We started to get out of the car but the area was crawling with rattlesnakes." In the first place, rattlers do not come out during the heat of the day as they are cold blooded and would not survive in the direct heat of a summer day. In the second place, they are usually as afraid of us as we are of them. Arizona has gotten a bad rap about our “critters”.
To set your mind at ease, the Arizona Sonran Desert Museum has a program called Saturday Summer Evenings. While you are there (check the hours as they are sometimes open until 10:00pm), you can see what a black light does to a scorpion. You will learn to understand and respect the few creatures that can be harmful and will learn to appreciate all the exciting and unusual citizens of our special desert and how they have adapted to our climate.
One of the things that makes this museum that was founded in 1952 unique is that its goal is to inform visitors only about the Sonoran Desert. The animals as well as the birds and the invertebrates you can see are just those that live in the Sonoran Desert. Jacque likes to call it a “muzooum” as it is a blend of both museum and zoo.
Go underground and watch nocturnal animals under night lighting going about their business. Look at a gila (pronounced “he-la”) monster up close and be amazed at its stunning beaded body. Learn what plants can live with almost no water and what bushes attract butterflies. Get a good understanding of the importance of the rain forests and what is going to happen as they continue to be destroyed.
Prepare to become familiar with the diversity of life in the Sonoran desert and understand that all the components of its ecosystem are important and are interconnected. You will learn of the plant and animal adaptations that help each survivor to thrive here. You will see the difference between the desert grasslands, mountain islands and riparian corridors within the Sonoran desert region. And you will become familiar with different groups of indigenous people in this region.
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All in all it is a wonderful way to educate yourself and spend and have fun doing it!
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