Atacama+Desert

=**__Atacama desert__**=

Llama
==Descended from wild guanacos and vicuñas, llamas are pack animals that feed on a variety of plants and little water. National Geographic explains that llamas are used as pack animals. They are sure footed on a variety of terrain because of their unique adapted feet. Their feet are two toed with a broad, leathery pad on the bottom. Llamas have nails, not hoofs. Which means they can climb rocky terrain easily.==
 * The average Llama ranges from 5.5 - 6 feet tall at the top of their head
 * Llamas range in weight from 130-210 kgs
 * A llamas hair can grow from 3 - 8 inches on the neck, back and sides
 * llamas hair colours include: white, black, brown, red, grey and spottedIn the wild, llamas live on low shrubs, lichens and other plants that grow on high mountains. They can live for weeks without water because they get moisture from green plants. Their threats are man

Gray Fox
> > **Flamingo** > **Giant Hummingbird** > **Chilean Woodstar** > The adult male is t green above and whitish below with green sides. The throat is reddish-purple and blue but often appears blackish. The tail is long, black and forked with long, pointed outer-feathers that curve inwards. Females are green above and have a white throat while the rest of the underparts are mostly very pale light brown. The diet includes nectar. The only real threats are loss of habitat. > > > > >
 * According to Animal a book by the smithsonian institution, gray foxes are one of only two members of the canid family to climb trees. While the gray fox eats insects and small mammals, it also eats fruits and seeds when necessary. The gray fox has silver upper parts, strong neck and black-tipped tail, while the skull is a U-shape. the female is slightly smaller than males. The gray fox ranges from 800 to 1125 mm (31.5 to 41.3 inches) in length. Its tail measures 275 to 443 mm (10.8 to 17.5 inches) and its hind feet measure 100 to 150 mm (4.9 to 5.9 inches). It weighs 3.6 to 6.82 kg.The gray fox's has the ability to climb trees. Its strong, hooked claws allow it to scramble up trees to escape many predators such as the domestic dog or the coyote or to reach food Its diet consists mainly of rodents, birds, and rabbits.Horned owls eat young grey foxes as well as bobcats and coyotes. Men also hunt and kill grey foxes.
 * The Puna, Chilean, and Andean flamingos live in the Atacama Desert. The Smithsonian Institution writes in Animal that these flamingos eat by slowly walking forward with their beaks dipped barely under water to eat microscopic algae. The feathers are pinker than the slightly larger Greater Flamingo, but less than Caribbean Flamingo. It can be changed from these species by its greyish legs with pink "knees", and also by the larger amount of black on the bill. Young chicks may have no sign of pink coloring at all, but are grey. The Chilean flamingo's bill is like a comb it is used to filter food—mainly algae and plankton—from the water of the coastal lagoons and salt lakes where it lives.they have adapted long legs which allow them to stand in very deep water. The legs of the flamingo have broad webbed feet, which allow them to stay stable on soft or uneven surfaces like mud. Flamingos do not have many threats only rarely do mammals attack them the only thing that others will eat are their eggs
 * The Smithsonian Institution's Animal reports that the giant hummingbird is the largest hummingbird measuring eight to nine inches and weighing just under three quarters of an ounce. Unlike most hummingbirds, the feathers of the giant hummingbird is drab. The **Giant Hummingbird** (//Patagona gigas//) is the largest member of the hummingbird family, weighing 18-24 g (6/10 - 8/10 of an ounce) and measuring approximately 21.5 cm (8½ in) in length. This is approximately the length same length as european starling or a northern cardinal though the Giant Hummingbird is considerably lighter due to its more slender build and fairly long bill. Hummingbirds are attracted to many flowering plants such as shrimp plants, bee balm, Heliconia, Buddleja, Hibiscus, bromeliads, cannas, verbenas, honeysuckles, salvias, pentas, fuchsias, many penstemons, and others. The only threats are loss of habitat.
 * According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the Chilean woodstar, a member of the hummingbird family, is lives in the region. Having been driven out of much of their territory due to habitat loss, the Chilean woodstar lives primarily in the desert climate where it is also threatened by the use of insecticides. Chilean woodstar is the smallest bird in Chile,7.2 to 7.5 centimetres long with the bill being 1.5 centimetres of this. The bill is black and fairly short, about the same length as the head. The tail is often held in a angled position.

=**__Atacama Botany Billy Cleeland__**=

=
The desert plant life includes small, deep rooted, thorny plants. Long roots help them get moisture from under-ground. leaves contain tissue which help retain moisture. Like other deserts, cacti are not common in Atacama.======

=**Some Atacama plants:**=

**mesquite trees** that have very long roots are seen at some places.
These Deciduous trees can reach a height of 6 to 9 m (20 to 30 ft) although in most of their range they are shrub size. They have narrow, compound leaves 50 to 75 mm long, of which the pinnules are sharply pointed. Twigs have a characteristic zig-zag form. **Little leaf horsebrush** is a strong-scented shrub that often reaches a height of 3 feet. Stems are abundantly branched; dark green leaves are slender and come to a sharp point. Flowers of the littleleaf horsebrush are yellow when they first appear. After they mature and dry, they turn brown. Most plants are small with little or no leaves. The Interior part of the desert consists of craters, rocks and loose sand where vegetation is not possible.
 * Saltbushes** are well-adapted to grow in salty or alkaline sites where the soils are silty or gravelly and thus retain little water. Often they are the only plants that can tolerate these conditions, so they can be seen in large numbers. All these plants have greyish-green leaves with hairs that secrete excess salt.
 * black sage**, a small, spreading, aromatic shrub, with a rounded crown and a dwarf growth habit, growing only 10 to 18 inches tall. It flowers August to September and reproduces from seeds.

=
You won't notice a single blade of grass or cactus stump, or a lizard or a gnat for thousands of miles, during your journey through virtually lifeless plains of Atacama. Still, more than a million people live near the coast line or in the oasis. Successfully fighting with the extreme conditions, there live determined farmers in the northern region. They grow olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers.======

When the El Nino current brings rain, a number of wild flowers bloom. Atacama desert flowers are rare, but when they emerge, they completely change the look of the dry landscape.

 * ======Alstroemerias (the multicolored irises)======
 * ======Argylias (velvet and cartuchos)======
 * ======Ananucas (rhodophialas)======
 * ======Calandrinias (guanaco foot)======
 * ======Don Diego de la noche (oenothera coquimbensis)======
 * ======Flor de Pajarito (Corola violacea)======
 * ======Garra de Leon (Leonthochir ovallei)======
 * ======La flor del minero (centauria chilensis)======
 * ======Los cuernos de cabra (skytanthus acutus)======
 * ======Leucocorymnes (spring onions, huilles)======
 * ======Nolanas (three colored pansies)======
 * ======Pata de guanaco (calandrinia logiscapa)======
 * ======Retamo, San Alatodo(Caesalpinia Angulicaules)======
 * ======Rhodophilias (the red and yellow; ananuncas)======

Geoligist
The Atacama Desert is a Desert of south america, covering a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the pacific coast of south America, west of the Andes mountains. The Atacama desert is the driest place on earth the Atacama occupies 40,600 square miles (105,000 km2)in northern Chile. However, some locations in the Atacama receive a marine fog known locally as the Camanchaca, providing sufficient moisture for hypolithic Algae, lichens and even some Cacti. The Camanchaca is a cloud bank that forms in the coast of the Atacama desert and moves inland. On the side of the mountains is where this cloud bank forms. It is a dense fog that does not drop any Rain. It has a wide range of terrain ranging from salt flats, volcanoes and geysers to even shrub forests.