Arizona's Animals

In the newsroom we used to joke about how dangerous the desert can be.  My producer and I agreed, Arizona's slogan should be, "Welcome to Arizona.  Here's your gun, and your sunscreen."

Yes, the people here have more guns than they know what to do with and the sun kills a handful of out-of-state hikers every year.  But, perhaps the most dangerous encounters I've had have been with the wildlife.  It sometimes seems everything in the desert is built for defense.  The plants are pointy and the animals poisonous.  It only took a couple of weeks for Drew and I to run into one of these....

There are a few tarantulas that frequent our apartment complex.  Often times it's late at night when we're coming home from the bar or a movie.  I grab my camera while Drew makes a run for it.  I also had the honor of standing up to a brown recluse with one of Drew's golf clubs, and Wes, our brother-in-law, is still trying to track down the black widow I found near the door of his garage this week.  I know most tarantulas are harmless to humans but it's tough to rival the creepiness of a giant hairy spider. Only one animal has succeeded in beating the creepiness of a tarantula, right on our doorstep.

This little rattlesnake visited last winter.  I guess he was trying to stay warm by our door and I had the nerve to come home from work to disturb him.  I barely had enough time to snap this picture before he rattled and lurched back, preparing to pounce.  I will never forget that sound.  I haven't heard it since, but I came close last week on one of my runs.  Except the rattlesnake sunning right in the middle of my running path must have been this guy's dad.  He was at least twice the size!  I didn't have time to snap a picture, as I immediately sprinted in the other direction.

Most of my animal encounters happen during my runs along the Rillito River.  

People ride their horses through the riverbed because it's only an actual flowing river about once a year.  I've also seen coyotes and roadrunners, leading me to believe I'm really running in a cartoon.  Every now and then, I come across some of the state's more friendly species.  I brought my iphone on one of my runs recently, and snapped these:

A family of quails, my friendly prairie dog who lives next to the parking lot, and a lizard with some pretty convincing camo. 

Fortunately, in my two years living in the desert, I still have yet to come face to face with the species I most fear:  the scorpion.

I hope it stays that way.