Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

I think the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is number one of Trip Advisor's things to do in Tucson so it had to be checked out.

The journey there is very scenic and it is interesting to see how the landscape changes.

This is bound to be heaven for Jim because he has always loved cacti.













The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a fusion experience of zoo, botanical garden, natural history museum and aquarium. It is easy to get around it on its paved paths but the unpaved paths are fine too. We saw lots of birds, insects and animals but there were also lots of the same creatures who, intelligently, were hiding from the 94 degrees temperatures, unlike the less than intelligent humans who insisted on exposing themselves to the horrendous heat!

In the Reptile area there were snakes and frogs and other slimy things that, seemingly are not slimy.

Yuck, green slime. I have always hated frogs since my time at the Gaeltacht when some boy put one down my neck. I can still feel it 50 years on!!

                               The desert landscape and vegetation has a beauty all of its own.

Bees and birds make their homes in cacti.

It was difficult to get pictures of the hummingbirds in the hummingbird aviary as they move so fast.

But we got one outside!

This is a beaver sleeping in his den. I'm sure he is very resentful of the humans turning on the light to see him and taking photos of him!

BIg-horn sheep

The boojum tree is one of the strangest plants imaginable. For most of the year it is leafless and looks like a giant upturned turnip. Its common name was coined by the plant explorer Godfrey Sykes, who found it in 1922 and said "It must be a boojum!". In saying this, he was referring of the strange and mythical creature that the author Lewis Carroll called a boojum in his children's book, The Hunting of the Snark. The Spanish common name for this tree is Cirio, referring to its candle-like appearance.

Mountain lions wisely sheltering from the sun!

Fox zapped out by the sun!

                            Porcupine in hiding and drinking lots of water because of the heat!

Squirrel stealing the porcupine's water because of the hot weather!

                                         And I took refuge here for a while out of the sun!

Finally a real live but resting and sheltering from the sun javelina! Helpful notices suggested that we look under bridges and I did.

 And there were more, all dead to the world and the camera. A javelina (pronounced havelina) is a peccary (also called a skunk pig - I might grow to dislike them because of this!) a group of hoofed mammal originating in South America but common in central and southern Arizona. They are social animals (as we can see). They are most active at night but may be active during the day if it is cold. They have very poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell. If they come into the back yard here, which they do occasionally, we are to make loud noises, throw small rocks at them or spray them with vinegar or water. And I didn't bring my feline fighter which would have been ideal for the situation!

The coyotes were hiding from the sun so we had to make do with these sculptures which had no yips and no howls!

A Prairie dog looking to hide from the sun!

These were sand eel, fascinating creatures! They waved around in the water in the aquariom and got shorter as they retracted into the sand or longer as they emerged. No problems with the sun!

The black bear was very restless - could it have been the sun?

And we were exhausted walking round in such heat that a docent (a person who acts as a guide, usually a volunteer) was concerned for us and suggested that we rest for a while in the aquarium where it is cool. But all we wanted at this stage was the air conditioning in  the car. So homre it was!