1. Habitat is the environment in which creatures live, including their food sources.
For example, riparian habitat is the area along a stream where creatures live.

2. Albert's towhee is a kind of bird.
It is rare in Pima County.

3. Horses were brought here by Spaniards.
Ancestors of horses lived in Arizona long ago, but they became extinct. Spaniards brought the first horses in modern times.

4. The cactus ferruginous pygmy owl lives in parts of the southwestern U.S. and down into Central America.
They live in separate populations that have not mixed for some time.

5. 150 years ago Tucsonans got water that was drawn and carried from springs.
Before we had modern technology, people scooped water into pots which they carried on their heads.

6. The Gadsden Purchase was a deal with Mexico to buy land where Tucson is today.
The U.S. made the purchase, and the land is now part of Arizona.

7. The Mexican long-tongued bat eats a variety of things.
It feeds on nectar, collecting pollen in the process, and also eats insects. It does not eat blood. It is an important pollinator for agaves and some other desert plants.

8. A species that is no longer alive anywhere is said to be extinct.
When a species is extinct, it's gone forever.

9. The population of Pima County is between half a million and a million people.
Pima County has grown from less than half a million people 25 years ago to almost one million people today.

10. 100 years ago, grizzly bears lived in Pima County.
The last wild grizzly bear in Arizona was killed in the 1930's.

11. The pincushion cactus looks like a pincushion, which is how it got its name.
That's all there is to it.

12. 50 years ago, the Pusch Ridge bighorn sheep used to come down into the valley in winter.
Oro Valley was a favorite spot.

13. Water is important to the willow flycatcher because it lives and hunts in the plants that grow near it.
The birds nest and hunt insects in the trees and shrubs that grow along the water's edge.

14. The wood of the ironwood tree is very hard, and that's how it got it's name.
Ironwood grows very slowly so the wood is very hard.

15. The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is a plan to protect many plants and animals in Pima County.
It is also a plan to provide places for people to live and have recreation.

16. Mammoths, camels, horses, sloths, bison, and saber toothed tigers all lived in southern Arizona during the end of the last Ice Age.
That was about 10,000 years ago.

 

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Level II Quiz