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Desert Cat Photography, Yuma, AZ (2026)

09/29/2021

Here a ferret, there a ferret, everywhere's a ferret 🎶🦦

Earlier this month, I volunteered with the Arizona Game & Fish Department up in Seligman, Arizona to do some important spotlighting work on Black-Footed Ferrets (Mustela nigripes) (BFFs).

While I didn't spot a BFF, I found loads of other neat finds and had lots of fun! I recommend volunteering to spotlight these fascinating and beautiful creatures.

🌵Learn about the brief history of BFFs here🌵

BFFs are an endangered species with an interesting history. In the early 20th century, farmers conducted mass extermination of prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.). This is because the farmers thought the prairie dogs were competing with their livestock for food, as well as many other reasons.

This posed a HUGE problem for BFFs. They are highly specialized in hunting Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), which makes up more than 90% of their diet! Prairie dog burrows also provide BFFs suitable dens to raise their young in, as well as escape the harsh desert conditions.

It was believed that BFFs were entirely extinct in the mid-1970's. However, in the early 1980's a small population of BFFs were rediscovered in Wyoming. This provided a small glimmer of hope for survival of the species.

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09/04/2021

The hills are filled with the sound of toad calls 🎶

This handsome lad is Payam the Couch’s Spadefoot Toad (Scaphiopus couchi). Payam gets the name spadefoot from the dark, sickle-shaped keratinous structure at the base of each of his hind feet, hence the name spadefoot toad. He used this little tubercle (foot bump) to help him bury in loose, sandy soil.

Despite being a toad, Payam and his friends do very well in extremely xeric (dry) conditions where there's of sand, mesquite trees, and creosote bushes. Throughout most of the year they are primarily underground where it's nice and cool, except when it's monsoon season.

Stay tuned for our next guest star of the day!

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08/29/2021

🎵 It's raining it's pouring, the toads are out exploring 🎵

Today's guest star is Ziba, the Red Spotted Toad (Anaxyrus punctatus).

Just like her common name suggests, one of Ziba's most prominent traits is the scattered round reddish tubercles (raised bumps) across her body. Another thing that sets Ziba apart from other toads is her very round parotoid glands right behind her eyes. Most other toads have oval shaped parotoid glands.

You can find Ziba and her loved ones in a lot of places. Give them a big "hello" if you're in southern Nevada to southwestern Kansas to the south of Hidalgo, Mexico and throughout Baja California! If you'd like to visit Ziba for a cup of fly tea, you can find her in or around rocky streams and arroyos. Her dorso-ventrally compressed body helps her to wedge between the narrow rock crevices in her home, so it'll be a tight squeeze through the door for visitors.

I hope you all loved Ziba as much as she loves you. Stay tuned next time for our next guest star!

🏜 Travel the desert with me:

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08/26/2021

Good morning, little friend 🌄🦂

Today's guest star of the day is the Dune Scorpion (Smeringurus mesaensis)!

This species of scorpions are a common sighting in Arizona, southern California, and in Baja California, Mexico. They love to live in sandy and dune areas where they spend a majority of their life underground; this is described as fossorial behavior, where an animal has adapted to living underground. So for most of the day they're underground, but at night they come out to hunt.

These guys also have excellent homing instincts! They've been seen traveling 8 meters (~26 feet) from their home to hunt to return back before the sun comes out. Which means they stay relatively close to their homes. However, males are known to travel hundreds of meters away from their homes during mating season!

Stay tuned for our next special guest star of the day!

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08/24/2021

Green June Beetle season is upon us 🪲💚

As promised, here's some more interesting facts about our guest star for the day!

Baby Green June Beetles are called grubs. After fornication, adult females lay about 10-30 eggs into a ball of soil. Females prefer moist soil because their eggs absorb the soil moisture around them. After 10-15 days the babies hatch. This is when they start to burrow deeper into the ground and create soil mounds on top of the turf to allow air to come into their hole.

Unlike their adult counterparts, the grub are nocturnal feeders. They feed on decaying organic matter, such as compost. Out of all the grubs in their family, Scarabaeidae, they are the most distinctive. Why is that? It's because they move around by crawling on their backs with their legs up in the air!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the next guest star of the day!

🏜Travel the desert with me:

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08/22/2021

A spectacular beauty with a devastating touch 🪲💚

The Green June Beetle (Cotinus nitida), also known as the Figeater Beetle, is a member of the Scarabaeidae family. They are common to find around lawned homes, near compost heaps, and agricultural areas. They commonly get mistaken for a Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica), but the Green June Beetle's massive size of 1/2-1 inch (1.2-2.5 cm) body easily sets the two species apart.

While adult beetles don't cause direct harm to humans, they can cause massive destruction to agricultural crops, especially stone fruit. An adult's diet consists of eating ripe and rotting fruit, which includes everything from peaches to apples to grapes. When boreing into the ripe fruit of their choosing, they leave behind a lot of f***s inside and on the now soiled fruit; their f***s produce a very strong and unpleasant odor.

Stay tuned to learn more on the Green June Beetle!

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08/21/2021

Two friends enjoying a lovely afternoon together 💛🌼

Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice) butterflies are quite common and abundant across most of the United States mainland. There has even been some recorded as far as southeastern Canada! They are a versatile species that are comfortable living in rural, urban, and suburban environments, which means that people living in the area can observe these beauties during the spring, summer, and fall.

An adult clouded sulphur's main diet is nectar. They drink from a variety of flowers from the sunflower (Asteraceae) family, including milkweeds and dandelions. Adults also tend to congregate around muddy waters/mud puddles and even animal f***s to take in valuable moisture and nutritious minerals. Caterpillar clouded sulphurs munch on the juicy tender green leaves from members of the pea (Fabaceae) family. They like everything from white clovers to alfalfa!

🏜Travel the desert with me to see more cool wildlife:

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08/20/2021

Hello my sunshines 🌞💛

****UPDATE STUFF****
I hope all of you have been enjoying your summer so far. I'm here here to announce that I'm back!

This past summer, I was doing an internship with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. We were conducting occupancy surveys for Yuma's awesome and endemic species of horned lizards: Flat-Tailed Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma mcallii) 🦎

Everyday was an exciting new adventure, but it was also very busy (and rewarding!). I'm also starting school at the University of Arizona in Tucson this Monday 😃

****NOW BACK TO OUT REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM****

To celebrate all that has happened and that will happen, here is an up-close photo of a Desert Iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis).

As their common name suggests, they are a part of the Iguanidae (iguana) family. Which means that they are primarily herbivores; if vegetationis scarce, they will eat insects! Their blunt faces and sharp teeth are perfect for eating the juicy green leaves, the yummy flowers, and the tasty white buds off of creosotebushes 🌿🍽

These guys also love summer, especially the intense heat! If you're out-and-about in the desert during the afternoon herping, then you're most likely only going to see these speedsters running around.

🏜Travel the desert with me across the vast desert that is the Internet here:

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07/09/2021

Talk about a glow-up 💅🏽💁🏽🦎

For , say hello to the Western Banded Gecko (Coleonyx variegatus). You might also know them by their Spanish name salamanquesa de franjas. Young geckos (as shown in the first photo) are quite small and don't have their adult coloration just yet. As they get older, however, they grow up to about 3 inches long (excluding their chonky tail) and show off their iconic look.

C. variegatus are a nocturnal species of gecko who reside in both the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. They like to live in open arid deserts, desert grasslands, and dunes, to name a few places. These cuties are also associated with rocks or other kinds of shelters. If you're a herper or an avid animal lover, you can usually find these geckos out and about around 11pm to 4pm.

Cool fact: Western Banded Geckos are responsible for keeping scorpion population numbers in check. They are insectivores that eat a variety of insects, including arachnids such as scorpions.

07/07/2021

"Peep peep" goes the Lesser Nighthawk (Chordeiles acutipennis) chicks 🐣

For , we're going to talk about these precious angels. Lesser nighthawks are members of the Caprimulgidae family. They are a crepsecular and nocturnal species of bird that loves to feast on insects. So the best time of day to find these guys is when the sun just starts to set and swarms of bugs begin to emerge.

You can find them flying close to the ground in areas that provide an expanisve view of both the ground and sky, such as a dry wash or a sparsely vegetated creosote flat.

Cool fact: Female Lesser Nighthawks don't build nests. Instead, they lay their eggs directly on the desert sand! Mothers rely on their camaflouged bodies to help keep their eggs hidden from predators.

07/07/2021

One of the best parts about surveying is getting to see the each morning✨🌄🏜✨

With a species such as the Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii), picking the right time to survey them is crucial. This is because of what we learned last time: they can only be out in the heat for so long before they go back to their burrows for the day.

So in order to finish all the plots within the alloted time period, everyone has to get up super early in the morning. To be more precious, we usually meet up before 4 am. And that's to drive out to the field.

Between the yawning and the sweating, seeing the sunrise is really worth getting up so early in the day 🥰

07/02/2021

Ready for battle ⚔

This is another Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii) cutie found earlier this morning during surveying. Being cold-blooded, Flat-Tails need to find warmth before they can do anything else. This is how I came upon this little one. Presumably they were holding this position to soak in those nice warm rays of the sunrise.

Another fun fact: while they have evolved adaptations to the harsh conditions of the desert, they can only withstand the hot sandy ground up to a point. In fact, that point is 45°C (113°F)! Once the ground temperature reaches that point it's time for the little guys to go back into their dens.

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