Human Relations in the Wildlife of a Desert

For many centuries, humans have been part of the Fauna and Flora of hot deserts. As mentioned previously, the desert has a harsh environment, such as lack of food, water and extreme weathers, people have been also adapting to it. Those people are called: Bedouins. Bedouins are usually people, small or big communities, that choose to live in these kinds of circumstances and keep historical habits, the Old Stone Age habits.

The main desert groups are: 

• the hunter and collectors, 
• the Nomadic Herdsmen, 
• the Caravan Traders  
• the settled cultivators.

The hunters and collectors have a nomadic life, in which they hunt and gather food for their survival. Usually, for their hunts, they use snares, spears and poisoned arrow. Men and women have different hunting skills. Men usually hunt large animals that need more physical skills and women often collect insects, rodents, lizards, honey, grubs, etc.

They adapt to the harsh climate of the desert. At night, while the temperature is low, the fire is lit to keep them warm. They usually travel, by walking, in small groups from a place to another.

The Nomadic Herdsmen is a more advanced desert group. They ride on animals to travel from a place to another, searching for food and water. The animals they capture are very precious to their wealth. They usually have horses, sheep, goats and others. Most of the Bedouins of Arabia, wear specific clothes to protect themselves from harsh weather, the heat of the sun and sandstorms. They are also characterised by living in tents called yurts. All of these “luxuries” are made by animal skin, clothes, carpets, tents, etc. Animals are also important for trades for other necessities such as medicines, dates, beverages, etc.

The Caravan Traders are travelling merchants. Usually, they travel at night for less contact with the Sun’s heat and with weapons to protect themselves of thieves. They are constantly battling their survival against many people that wants to take their merchants. Camels are their favourite merchant transport animal, because of their strengths, such as travelling 15 miles a day and carry 350 pounds of merchant. The number of caravan traders has decreased because of all the transportation facilities that exists today but are still very important to the inside parts of the desert.

The settled cultivators are mostly found in Egypt, Pakistan, Colorado in California and the Tiger-Euphrates in Iraq. Usually, they need water for irrigation, found in rivers, oasis and in a network of canals. Their methods of extracting water is still used by farmers today for the cultivation of cotton and rice.

In 2020 climate change and global warming are our first concern. Polar deserts are melting. The temperature in hot deserts are rising, waterholes are drying and resulting of relocating local living creatures. Some species are dying and some others are now disappearing. The plant life is decreasing as well. Plants are dying because of the heat and lack of water. This situation is not only affecting the people living in deserts but also all ecosystems in all countries and continents. It’s affecting us all: Humans, animals and plants.