File:The continent we live on (1961) (20675789212).jpg

Title: The continent we live on
Identifier: continentweliveo00sandrich (find matches)
Year: 1961 (1960s)
Authors: Sanderson, Ivan Terence, 1911-1973
Subjects: Physical geography; Natural history
Publisher: New York : Random House
Contributing Library: New College of California
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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same respect as a sensible human does when wearing thin-soled canvas shoes. Deer and peccaries mince carefully along between them and always go around them, even when in headlong flight. The large cats and, I have been told, particularly the Jaguar prefer to give all areas where they grow as wide a berth as pos- sible. I have seen puma in dense cactus beds in south Sonora, and it was then pointed out to me that they were always follow- ing man-made paths. Experienced native hunters told me that the cats suffer from cactus thorns picked up on the ground as they do from porcupine quills, because both may be barbed. This seems reasonable; but how then do the lesser cats—the Ocelot Left: Even hawks make use of the cactuses. Here a pair of Western Red-tails has built a nest among the spines. Facing page: Barrel cactuses are rather odd: their spines reduce the effect of the sun's rays; they grow after they have fallen: and they grow on the bias. and the Eyra (Jaguarondi)—manage so well in just such growth, getting their food by hunting the innumerable other animals that seem to be totally unaffected by the worst that even a jumping choUa can provide? This is really a curious thing when you come to examine it. In jumping chollas—which are more or less impenetrable masses of needle-sharp spines—there customarily live hosts of small animals that dart in and out of their mazelike branches, ap- parently with as much ease as we might cross a country road. First there is the little Cactus Wren, which seems to be more or less symbiotic with the chollas, making its nest therein and skip- ping through them at great speed. In addition the Goldfinch, Linnet, Verdin, and sundry other small birds also live in the densest masses of spines. Then the Kangaroo Rats make their nests in huge piles of the fallen portions of the most spinous cactuses, and dart in and out of them as if the spines did not exist, without ever so much as a scratch. The Pack Rats also tote these horrendous objects considerable distances and pile them up. How either rodent manages this is not known. Their basic aim would seem to be to make a rampart against predators such as coyotes; but their worst enemy, the Cacomistle (often called "Ring-tailed Cat"), though a small, soft-furred, quick member of the raccoon family with a long, bushy tail of alternating black and white rings, seems to be able to penetrate these bomas with the greatest of ease. Cacomistles are the mam- malian world's champion escape artists; for, though the size of small domestic cats, they can wedge themselves into crevices so constricted it is quite unbelievable even when you see them for yourself. Many kinds of mice, such as the Pocket Mice, gallivant about cactuses of all kinds, rippling in and out among the spines; but I have seen a bobcat shin up one as if it were spineless, while the coatis climb them unconcernedly during their mass forays. All three kinds of skunks—the Hognosed, Striped, and the little spotted Spilogale—bumble about beneath them, and fat raccoons hunt in them. There is a small gray-colored squirrel in southern Sonora in the Scrub Belt that delights in rushing up and down the flutings of the giant organpipe cactus stems inside the spines and can somehow safely dart through from one of these flutings to the next. And it is in the giant cactuses—Pringle's, the Sa- guaro, and the Organpipe—that the most astonishing communi- ties of wildlife may be found. First, the Gila Woodpecker gets his living off insects from under the leathery hides of these plants by making his characteristic holes; he also makes specially large holes in which he installs his mate at nesting time. The cactus responds by lining this with scar tissue. When the woodpecker's family is raised and has departed, the tiny Elf Owl comes along and takes up his abode therein. This delightful little creature is about the size of an overfed sparrow, is incurably inquisitive, and seems not at all afraid of man or beast. DESERT NIGHT LIFE The fauna of the desert is extraordinarily plentiful, but it is so adept at concealment during daylight hours that one might think 264

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