Carnivores of the Kalahari Desert Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Carnivores of the Kalahari Desert - Term Paper Example The desert is characterized by extreme temperatures during the day and very low temperatures at night due to the fact that there are no clouds to tap the heat and maintain the warm temperatures at night. The land experiences little rainfall and the temperature during summer often tends to be very high. Most of the carnivores that inhabit the Kalahari Desert have a higher likelihood of survival in high density areas. The main predator in the Kalahari Desert is the lion. The only other predator in the dessert that can somehow be viewed as a competitor to the lions is the spotted hyena. The cheetah is not specific about its preys and can be liberal about the prey it chose to hunt. This is likely to increase its chances of survival in the desert. The spotted hyena, unlike the brown hyena, hunts it’s on prey and is not a scavenger. In addition, they are not particular about their prey and can go after any species except for buffalos and giraffes. Introduction The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area situated in Southern Africa, and extends to about 900,000 square kilometers, covering most parts of Botswana and portions of Namibia and South Africa, as a semi-desert, with large tracts of good grazing lands after rains (Thomas & Shaw, 2009). The geography of the area is part desert and part plateau. Because not the whole of the Kalahari is a true desert, it supports the existence of plants and land over the vast amount of land. The land experiences little rainfall and the temperature during summer is often very high (Lonely Planet Publications, 2009).