Janet Fabio and Renee Mazin
In SaddleBrooke we are all desert dwellers, but some critters have been in our community much longer than us. Learn more about our desert neighbors in the Southwest Collection at the DesertView Library! Pick up books such as Desert Life, Wildlife of the Southwest Deserts, Desert Holes, and Tread Lightly. Or look for books on specific animals such as coyotes, quail, roadrunners, and javelinas. This collection also has a selection of guides for identifying birds that inhabit the Southwest.
When your youngest guests come to visit, make sure they experience our beautiful and unique desert wildlife. To get them started for their outdoor nature journeys, be prepared to whet their curiosity with titles from the children’s section of the DesertView Library. Our picture books are informative and a treat for the eyes. Many of the books highlight that desert trickster, the coyote. Titles include Coyote Canyon, C Is for Coyote, Coyotes All Around, and Coyote’s Wild Home. Other books personalize the coyote: Way Out West Lived a Coyote Named Frank, Two Cool Coyotes, and Coyote: a Trickster Tale.
But we have more to offer than coyote tales! Hopping through the desert, they could find The Tortoise and the Jackrabbit, How Jackrabbit Got His Ears, or I’m a Hare, So There! If they prefer animals that visit at night, there is Josefina Javelina, Three Little Javelinas, Bedtime in the Southwest, Desert Night Shift: a Pack Rat Story, or Who-o-o’s Awake in the Desert? Lastly, there are critters that crawl or slither: Danny Diamondback, Rattlesnake Rules, Fang and Stinger, Life in the Slow Lane: a Desert Tortoise Tale, and Lizards on the Wall.
A recent 2024 Top 10 Southwest book is Sonoran Desert Journeys: Ecology and Evolution of Its Iconic Species, by Tucson author and naturalist Dr. Theodore H. Fleming. Check out his book from the DesertView Library, and then attend his Oct. 17 lecture sponsored by the Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries at 4 p.m. in the DesertView Theater. While the lecture will focus on several vertebrates that co-exist in our environment, the scope of the book is much broader. It begins with the evolution of life then segues into a journey of discovery about the natural history of some of the Sonoran Desert’s most known animals and plants, including how they cope with a changing climate. Finally, he discusses the complexity of Sonoran Desert conservation and offers ideas to help coexist with the unique species that call this area home.
If you are inspired to learn more about other animals beyond our local environment, the DesertView Library’s nonfiction collection offers some intriguing titles: What Owl Knows, Eight Bears, Flight Paths (on bird migration), or The Social Lives of Animals.
Diving deeper into worldwide ecology, pick up one of these recent books: Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of our Planet, The Earth Transformed, or A Natural History of the Future.
These books can be reserved for quick pick-up at the DesertView Library. Use the easy catalog link on the library website sblibraries.com. And don’t forget to bring in the grandkids to select some of the delightful children’s books to help them, and you, learn about desert animals in our backyards.