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Desert Animal Riddles: who am I?

16 cards, six to an A4 page. Print them, cut along the dotted lines, and read one clue at a time: the answer is upside down at the bottom of each card. For a class, a pair or a car trip.

Thought Zoo

Desert Animal Riddles: who am I?

Cut along the dotted lines. Read the clues one at a time; the answer is upside down at the bottom.

  1. Who am I?Desert · 1

    1. I live in hot, dry places and eat grass, leaves and prickly plants.
    2. My long eyelashes and nostrils that squeeze shut keep the blowing sand away from me.
    3. When I'm really thirsty, I can drink more than a hundred litres of water in about ten minutes.
    4. When I want to warn someone, I spray a smelly mix of half-eaten food from my tummy.
    5. People call me the ship of the desert, and my big hump is full of fat, not water.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the camel!

  2. Who am I?Desert · 2

    1. I live in trees and bushes in hot, dry Arabia, and I hardly ever touch the ground.
    2. I won't drink from a water bowl, I only lick little drops of water off leaves.
    3. Each of my eyes moves on its own, so I can see almost all the way around me.
    4. My tongue shoots out faster than a blink and reaches farther than my whole body is long.
    5. I change my colours to show how I feel or how warm I am.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the chameleon!

  3. Who am I?Desert · 3

    1. I am a small, furry animal who sleeps all day and wakes up at night.
    2. My teeth never stop growing, so I keep gnawing on hard things.
    3. In the wild, I dig an underground home with rooms for sleeping, storing food and even a toilet.
    4. On my wheel, I can run more than eight kilometres in just one night.
    5. I stuff so much food into my cheeks that they stretch all the way back to my shoulders.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the hamster!

  4. Who am I?Desert · 4

    1. I rest during the day and come out at dusk and at night, often near villages.
    2. My mate and I often stay together for life and raise our pups as a team.
    3. My older pups sometimes stay home for a year to help look after the new babies.
    4. I often follow tigers or wolves to eat the food they leave behind.
    5. I look like a sandy gold wild dog, and my family howls together when the sun goes down.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the jackal!

  5. Who am I?Desert · 5

    1. I live in the rocky deserts of Asia and hide under stones during the hot day.
    2. Every few weeks I wriggle out of my old skin, and then I usually eat it.
    3. I lick my own eyes clean, and unlike most of my cousins, I can blink.
    4. My fat tail stores food and water, and if I drop it, it keeps wiggling.
    5. I'm a small lizard and a popular pet, yellow with black spots like a big wild cat.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the leopard gecko!

  6. Who am I?Desert · 6

    1. I live with a big, noisy family in the dry, sunny lands of southern Africa.
    2. I chatter softly all day while I dig for food, so my family knows I'm close.
    3. The grown-ups in my family teach the babies to handle scorpions, starting with ones that can't sting.
    4. Dark patches around my eyes work like sunglasses in the bright desert sun.
    5. I take turns standing tall on my back legs to watch for danger while the others dig.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the meerkat!

Free for home and classroom use, not for sale. More riddles, and the game: thoughtzoo.app

Thought Zoo

Desert Animal Riddles: who am I?

Cut along the dotted lines. Read the clues one at a time; the answer is upside down at the bottom.

  1. Who am I?Desert · 7

    1. I live in hot, sandy deserts and hide under rocks during the day.
    2. I can go for months without eating anything at all.
    3. Under a special light, my body glows blue and green.
    4. My babies ride on my back until they shed their skin for the first time.
    5. I have eight legs, two pincers, and a tail that curls over my back with a stinger.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the scorpion!

  2. Who am I?Desert · 8

    1. I live in hot, dry deserts in Africa and Asia, and I eat almost any green plant.
    2. I hear with ears on the sides of my tummy, not on my head.
    3. When we're crowded, I turn from green or brown to yellow and black, or even pink.
    4. Once, a giant cloud of us flew across the whole ocean from Africa to the Caribbean.
    5. I jump on long back legs, and my giant swarms can gobble up a farmer's crops.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the desert locust!

  3. Who am I?Desert · 9

    1. I sleep in a cool burrow all day and come out at night to hunt.
    2. I can go a long time without drinking, because I get water from my food.
    3. I have fur on the bottoms of my feet, so I can run on hot sand.
    4. I belong to the dog family, but I'm even smaller than most pet cats.
    5. My giant ears keep me cool in the desert and hear bugs moving under the sand.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the fennec fox!

  4. Who am I?Desert · 10

    1. I live in dry, rocky deserts in the USA and Mexico, and I hunt rats and mice.
    2. I have no eyelids and no outside ears, so I hear by feeling the ground shake.
    3. Two tiny pits between my eyes and nose feel the warmth of a mouse in total darkness.
    4. My long, hollow fangs fold back against the roof of my mouth when I don't need them.
    5. When I'm scared, I shake the tip of my tail and it makes a loud buzzing warning.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the rattlesnake!

  5. Who am I?Desert · 11

    1. I live in hot, dry deserts in America and Mexico, and I'm awake during the day.
    2. On cold mornings, I fluff my back feathers to show black skin and soak up the sun.
    3. My footprints look like the letter X, with two toes in front and two behind.
    4. I'm a bird that can fly, but I'd much rather dash across the ground after lizards and snakes.
    5. In cartoons, a hungry coyote chases me all the time but never catches me.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the roadrunner!

  6. Who am I?Desert · 12

    1. I spend my whole life in shallow water, and I like to swim close to the bottom.
    2. When winter gets cold, I slow down and rest in the mud at the bottom.
    3. I can live in water twice as salty as the sea, and in very hot water too.
    4. The boys of my kind can turn bright shiny blue, with yellow or orange tails.
    5. I'm a tiny fish, about as long as your finger, living in pools in the hot desert.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the desert pupfish!

Free for home and classroom use, not for sale. More riddles, and the game: thoughtzoo.app

Thought Zoo

Desert Animal Riddles: who am I?

Cut along the dotted lines. Read the clues one at a time; the answer is upside down at the bottom.

  1. Who am I?Desert · 13

    1. I live in a hot, sandy desert and sleep under the ground all day.
    2. I plug the door of my home with sand to keep the heat out.
    3. I never drink water, I get every drop from seeds, bugs and juicy plants.
    4. My long ears are so sharp that I can hear an owl's wings coming closer.
    5. I look like a tiny mouse, but I bounce in zigzags on long back legs, like a kangaroo.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the jerboa!

  2. Who am I?Desert · 14

    1. I live in a small herd in a hot, dry land of sand and stones.
    2. I can go for weeks without drinking, because I get water from plants and dew.
    3. I can tell when rain falls far away, and I walk a long way toward the clouds.
    4. I was born sandy brown, and my coat only turned white as I grew up.
    5. I'm a white antelope, and from the side my two long straight horns look like one.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the oryx!

  3. Who am I?Desert · 15

    1. I live in a big family, in a nest deep under the hot sand.
    2. I go out to find food at noon, when hungry lizards hide in the shade.
    3. My very long legs hold my body high above the burning sand.
    4. I count my steps, so after zigzagging around I can run straight back home.
    5. I'm the fastest ant in the world, and tiny hairs make me shine like a mirror.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the Saharan silver ant!

  4. Who am I?Desert · 16

    1. I live in a hot, dry desert and spend the day resting in a burrow.
    2. I hardly ever need to drink, because my food gives me almost all the water I need.
    3. Thick fur grows under my toes, so the hot ground never burns my feet.
    4. My big, low ears hear little animals rustling underground, and then I dig them out.
    5. I look like a tiny house cat with a kitten face my whole life, but I'm wild.

    thoughtzoo.app It's the sand cat!

Free for home and classroom use, not for sale. More riddles, and the game: thoughtzoo.app