Most animals avoid being out in the sun during the hottest part of the day.Many mammals, reptiles, and amphibians live in burrows to escape the intense desert heat. Rodents also plug the entrance of their burrows to keep the hot and dry winds out. Most animals either come out during the early morning or in the evening.

Some animals like snakes, foxes, and most rodents are nocturnal. They sleep during the daytime in their burrows or dens and hunt only during the night when the temperatures drop. Certain animals like the round-tailed ground squirrel resort to estivation (a long state of inactivity) when they slow down their metabolism to conserve water and energy when the days become very hot.2)Kangaroo rats are known to producewater by digestingdry seeds. Many rodents have extra tubules in their kidneys that help them extract most of the water from their urine and return it to the bloodstream. They also filter the moisture out of their exhaled breath through specialized organs in their nasal cavities.