Spread out over 3.5 million square miles in northern Africa, the Sahara desert is the world's largest non-Arctic desert in the world. Stretching outwards towards sections of the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and to parts of the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara contains a variety of animal life, including camels, African wild dogs, ostriches, desert foxes and white antelopes. These animals can go for large amounts of time without needing to drink water, allowing these species to survive in the Sahara. The Nile River runs through sections of the Sahara, causing oasis areas to crop up occasionally in the Sahara region as well.
Found in wilderness areas located in Jordan, Iraq, portions of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Emirates and the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Desert contains more than 137,000 square miles of sand and rock. This large, arid desert region contains various species of wildlife, including gazelles, spiny-tailed lizards, sand cats and camels. Average temperatures in winter vary from 41 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit and average 104 to 120 degrees in summer. A variety of natural resources---including oil, natural gas, rich phosphates and sulfur---can be found in the Arabian desert. During the Gulf War in 1991, Kuwaiti oil fields were set on fire, which released toxic poisons into the atmosphere above the Arabian desert, killing off many birds and other wildlife living in this large desert region.
With annual rainfalls of less than 9 inches and stretching out over 250,000 square miles, the Great Victoria Desert is the six largest desert region in the world. This desert is a protected area of Western Australia and also contains a good variety of vegetation, including marble gum plants, mulga and spinifex grass. After every infrequent rainstorm, the Great Victoria desert blooms with such plant life as wildflower groupings, cacti and desert shrubberies. Wildlife making this desert area its home include rock wallabies, snakes, wild camels and desert lizards.
Covering much of the Southern section of Mongolia and spanning more than 500,000 square miles, the Gobi desert is the third largest desert in the world. The most common wildlife found in the Gobi desert are cashmere goats, which are raised by locals living in the Gobi desert area for their fine hair. Other animals living in this large desert include the golden eagle, Jerboa mice, wild camels, the musk ox and the Gobi grey wolf. The Gobi also features very low temperatures in the winter, and snowfall occurs in the area on an annual basis.
As the seventh largest desert region in the world, the 225,000 square mile Kalahari desert can be found in South Africa. Averaging between 3 to 7 inches of precipitation annually, this large world desert contains such native flora as acacia trees, along with African game reserves that feature such animals as brown hyenas, giraffes and warthogs. Birds that make the Kalahari desert its home include the weaver birds that create nests in the camelthorn trees indigenous to this region of South Africa.
