Animal life in the desert

Charles M. Bogert, curator of herpetology at the AMNH, conducts a survey of American desert creatures for this broadcast. Hosted by Robert Northshield, the program highlights the struggle for survival by desert animals and current scientific research into mechanisms of heat regulation in reptiles. These cold-blooded animals are shown to adapt to environments with wide temperature fluctuations. Bogert covers the eyes of a snake and observes how the snake's heat sensors enables it to strike a moving hot air balloon. This laboratory demonstration, performed live in the studio, supports the theory that tiny pits in the skulls of certain reptile species function as detectors of heat-receptors, enabling the poor-visioned snake to strike accurately at warmblooded targets. Film clips from Walt Disney's The Living Desert are shown in this broadcast to illustrate how desert rats, reptiles, and other small animals survive in the American desert.