The Thar Desert is located in parts of India and Pakistan. It is also known as the Great Indian Desert as well. Bounded by two rivers, a mountain range and a salt marsh, the Thar Desert is home to a lot of amazing animals. During winter, temperatures fall below freezing, while during summer temperatures can reach to more than 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
Despite the extremely harsh condition, many types of wildlife reside in this desert. The animals are able to survive the extreme temperatures with little or even no water and without vegetation. They are well adapted by some body parts and the diet they consume. These characteristics enable them to survive well there.
Let’s get to know these 6 amazing animals in the Thar Desert with their characteristics. They are such a group of great animals you can only find there.
- Saw Scaled Viper
The Thar Desert is home to 25 different species of snakes. Among those snakes, the saw scaled viper is one of the most famous and even dangerous snakes found here. This desert snake likes to hide very easily in the sand in order to protect itself from being hunted and to hunt lizards and insects.
If you would like to know more about snakes, you can find it in most venomous snakes in Indonesia and non-venomous snakes in the world.
- Indian Spotted Eagle
The Thar Desert is also home for one of the biggest flying predators called the Indian spotted eagle. This animal is also considered as one of the major attractions of the Thar Desert national parks.
The Indian spotted eagles are large and majestic with massive wingspan feed on doves, spurfowl and even snakes.
- Blackbuck
The blackbuck is another animal native to the Thar Desert. It is known as Antilope cervicapra. This animal can be found mainly in India, where it is protected by wildlife laws. Known as one of the most famous antelopes in the Thar Desert, it is a near threatened species now.
The blackbucks are 2 feet tall and the males have beautiful twisted, ringed horns which are up to 745 cm long.
They are dark brown in color and they have a white circle around their eyes along with the black stripes on their faces. They live in groups, mostly consists from 5 to 50 individuals.
- Chinkara
Chinkara, or also known as the Indian gazelle, is a tall animal which is over 2 feet tall and weighs around 50 pounds. It has a buff-colored coat with dark stripes from its muzzle to the corner of its eye. It has horns which can reach more than 1 feet long.
Chinkaras are unique as they can go without water for a long time. Instead, they get their hydration from and dew and the plants that they eat.
Therefore, they are known as ruminant herbivorous animals. The Thar Desert is a good habitat for them as they like to avoid areas where humans reside.
- White-footed Fox
Being the subspecies of the red fox, the white-footed fox is native to the Thar Desert since it is mainly found in the desert regions of Pakistan, Kutch, India and Baluchistan as well as southern Iran and Iraq. It looks like the Bengal fox and fennec fox, even though they are not closely related.
The white-footed fox feeds on sand grouse, partridges, and shrike. It is around 45 cm long and has a tail which is longer than 25 cm with a white tip. It has sandy or rusty red coat with light grey or white patches.
- Dromedary
Dromedaries are native to the Thar Desert so that they are well adapted to living in arid areas. They are in the same genus with camel, and they are recognizable for having 1 hump only.
They are about 1.8 m tall and weigh around 900 pounds. A single hump that they have is quite high on their back. They also have long curved neck and long tail. Their mouth is quite large. Regarding to their color, they are usually black or brown in color.
Despite the harsh condition in desert, however, some animals can survive and inhabit those deserts. Let’s check the other animals in the Sonoran Desert and animals in the Gobi Desert. Some of the animals are endangered, so we need to take an action to preserve them.
Animals are interesting to explore. You can read some of these articles to enrich your knowledge about animals: animals with longest pregnancy and marine animals living near coral reefs.