What animals live in the atacama desert?

Question

What animals live in the atacama desert?

Answer 1

The birds and mammals of this ecoregion are hardy creatures indeed. They tend to congregate along streams and oases, but they are also able to forage for food and water in a largely barren area. Mammals include llamas, vicuñas, alpacas, huemel deer, pericote panza gris (a small mouse), zorro gris (a fox), and viscacha--the largest member of the chinchilla family. Birds include three species of flamingo (Andean, Puna, and Chilean), lesser rhea, Puna miner, tamarugo conebill, black-throated flower-piercer, giant hummingbird, and Andean swallow. Rare and endemic birds include the Chilean woodstar, coastal miner, thick-billed miner, white-throated earthcreeper, slender-billed finch, and drab seedeater. Penguins, terns, gulls, cormorants, boobies, pelicans, and oystercatchers can all be found along the coast as well.

The intrinsic value of the Atacama Desert's plant and animal communities lies in the unique nature of their composition, the high levels of endemism and some species' remarkable adaptations for survival in some of the planet's most demanding conditions. The highly endemic flora is of particular importance. There are some traditional uses of species by the local inhabitants (Aronson 1990; Bittmann 1988), e.g. food from Oxalis spp., medicinals from Salvia tubiflora and Ephedra spp.

There are approximately 550 species of vascular plants representing 225 genera and 80 families in the lomas formations. The most diverse families are the Asteraceae, Nolanaceae, Cataceae, Boraginaceae, and Apiaceae. Endemism can be very high (over 60%) (Rundel et al. 1991). Most of the plant species mentioned earlier are endemic to the Atacama desert. Three cacti are endemic to the northern part of the Atacama desert; they are Eulychnia iquiquensis, Neoporteria sensu and Copiapoa sp. Endemic shurbs of the ecoregion include Berberis litoralis, Anisomeria littoralis, Atriplex taltalensis, Adesmia viscidissima, Croton chilensis, Balbisia peduncularis, Nicotiana solanifolia, Teucrium nudicaule, Monttea chilensis, Stevia hyssopifolia, Senecio almeidae, Gutierrezia taltalensis and Haploppus desrticula. Endemic plants near Tocopilla are Malesherbia tocopillana, Mathewsia collina and Nolana tocopillensis (Dillon and A. E. Hoffmann-J 1997).

Understandably, very few animals have adapted to successfully inhabit this extremely dry habitat. The few scorpions and insects are the prey of lizards (Tropidurus spp.) and of a small passerine of the genus Geositta. An occasional bird of prey or vulture can be found scavenging on the carrion of domestic animals. Mammals are equally few with a mouse (Phyllotis darwini) and a fox (Pseudalopex griseus) encountered periodically. The growth of a few scattered shrubs and herbaceous plants such as lichens enables certain specialized insects and poisonous spiders to colonize these deserts.

A greater diversity of flora and fauna can be found on the lomas. Several birds, such as the Peruvian song-sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis) and the Pacific blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina) visit the lomas at the beginning of the winter when many insect pupae hatch. The lomas in bloom are also visited by several species of hummingbirds (e.g., Rhodopis spp., Myrtis spp., and Thaumastura spp.) (Dorst 1967). There are 6 restricted species of birds found in the north of this ecoregion and the Sechura desert ecoregion; these birds include the Chilean woodstar (Eulidia yarrellii), thick-billed miner (Geositta crassirostris), white-throated earthcreeper (Upucerthia albigula), cactus canastero (Asthenes cactorum), slender-billed finch (Xenospingus concolor, and tamarugo conebill (Conirostrum tamarugense). The chilean woodstar, slender-billed finch, and tamarugo conebill are threatened species (Stattersfield et al. 1998).