Desert Animals (See How They Grow)

Desert Animals is one of the ten direct-to-video programmes produced by Dorling Kindersley Vision as part of the See How They Grow series. It was one of the later five programmes, released on VHS on 19th November 1995. This programme looks at the life-cycles of four animals from dry desert habitats.

## Sections

Click here for the full transcript of Desert Animals.

### Tarantula

The programme opens by introducing a redknee tarantula who clambers around while house-hunting and watches a nearby sand boa. After falling from her perch, she continues her search. An interlude shows Beardy the bearded dragon chasing insects. After six weeks, the spiderlings hatch from their egg-sac. They immediately set out on their own. After growing and moulting for three years, the tarantula finally gets the size and colours of his mother. At the end of the episode, the very laid-back adult tarantula watches a pair of scorpions having a fight before he goes off on his own.

### Gerbil

The second part opens with a female gerbil coming up out of her burrow to look for food. Down in the burrow, she has three tiny newborn babies without fur and with their eyes and ears closed. After three weeks, the young gerbils have now grown their fur and can see and hear; the babies all go exploring away from the burrow – at first, one baby goes off on his own, while the other two go out when mother goes to look for the first. Eventually they all return to the burrow. After three months, one of the young gerbils is shown as a full-grown adult, who watches cautiously as the kingsnake passes nearby.

### Tortoise

The third part opens by looking at some of the desert’s animals, including a scorpion, the kingsnake and a solifugid. It also introduces the tortoise, who has laid her eggs in a small cave and gone off for a walk with her mate. Six months later and the eggs hatch. The young tortoises immediately set out, trying to eat plants for the first time and getting into scrapes while climbing rocks. At six months of age, one of the young tortoises passes under a rock formation that he cannot get through at the end of the episode, when he is eight years old and fully grown.

### Gecko

The final part follows the life cycle of a leopard gecko. It begins with the mother gecko finding a cave to lay her two eggs in before she leaves them. While the eggs wait to hatch, the kingsnake is introduced for the first time. The gecko eggs hatch and the two youngsters head out into the world, meeting a blue-tonged skink on the way. The two young geckos then encounter their mother and give her the run around until she leaves. After a year or a year and a half, the young geckos have grown up into adults; one of the young geckos, while looking for a shelter, returns to the cave where it hatched.

## Species list, in order of appearance

### Filmed in studio:

The section each species appears in are bracketed:

* Mexican redknee tarantula, *Brachypelma hamorii* (Tarantula)
* Sand boa, *Eryx sp*. (Tarantula)
* Central bearded dragon, *Pogona vitticeps* (Tarantula)
* Two-spotted cricket, *Gryllus bimaculatus* (Tarantula)
* Desert locust, *Schistocerca gregaria* (Tarantula)
* Large-clawed scorpion, *Scorpio maurus* (Tarantula, Tortoise)
* Mongolian gerbil, *Meriones unguiculatus* (Gerbil)
* California kingsnake, *Lampropeltis californiae* (Gerbil, Tortoise, Gecko)
* Solifugid, *Solifugae* (Tortoise)
* Spur-thighed tortoise, *Testudo graeca* (Tortoise)
* Mexican red-rump tarantula, *Tliltocatl vagans* (Gecko)
* Leopard gecko, *Eublepharis macularius* (Gecko)
* Blue-tongue skink, *Tiliqua sp*. (Gecko)

## Appearances in other DK media

Clips of the Mexican redknee tarantula, kingsnake and leopard gecko were used as video clips in the Eyewitness Encyclopedia of Nature 1.0 (unrelated to the Eyewitness television series).

## Home media releases

The UK VHS release of Farm Animals shows a young Hermann's tortoise standing on rocks at the bottom of the cover, with a gerbil standing just behind the tortoise on the left. In the top-right corner of the corner is a photo of a Mexican redknee tarantula, while mirrored images of leopard geckos are on either sides of the cover. Above the 'See How They Grow' logo is an artwork showing a tortoise in a desert landscape, while an artwork of two gerbils in a desert landscape is at the bottom of the cover.
The Sony Wonder VHS release shows a closer view of the tortoise, without as much rock visible, with the gerbil in the same position as the UK cover. The tarantula has been moved down the cover slightly, with a single image of the leopard gecko now in the middle of the cover directly underneath the title. Above the 'See How They Grow' logo is same hand-drawn artwork of the tortoise in the desert from the UK cover.

Desert Animals has also been released in multi-episode formats. In the USA, Desert Animals was part of a Volume Two release that also combined Jungle Animals, Wild Animals and Sea Animals.