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Article: Living in the desert.(water conservation by desert animals)
- Article from:
- Science News for Kids
- Article date:
- November 3, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When you're hot and thirsty, you're likely to drink a glass of cold water or head for a shady spot to cool down. What you surely don't do is shrink your liver to a fraction of its original size.
But that's just what a type of gazelle does to beat the desert heat.
Sand gazelles live in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. These animals allow their livers to shrink by up to 30 percent--all in an effort to conserve water.
It's one of many unusual adaptations that animals make to survive in some of the hottest, driest places on Earth.
Saving water
How can the size of an animal's liver affect water conservation?
It has to do ...