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Back in July I posted some downtown Phoenix street art scenes for my Part 9 entry. The first picture on that post was of the giant Gila Monster that impressed me so much. At the time I had a strange feeling that I was missing something but didn’t want to linger and be late for work. It was a few weeks later when I realized this very long mural extended further and wrapped around to the other side of the building. The mural featured a few more desert creatures I’d like to share now.
The first critter belongs to Arizona’s wide array of reptiles and this one is the colorful Sonoran Coral Snake which I’ve never seen for real. Anyhow, It’s outstandingly colorful compared to many other desert snakes because of its alternating bands of red and black with narrower bands of white or yellow around the body. Once again, I learned something new while researching for this post. I thought Coral snakes were native only to the southeastern U.S. (especially Florida) but the type found there has the bright yellow stripe around its body while the Coral snakes found in Arizona have a white stripe instead.
At first I thought the Phoenix mural depicting the Coral snake was artistic license – but Arizona does indeed have a Coral snake…among many other poisonous things like the Gila Monster which fascinates me so much! Aside from those creatures, I also liked how the mural featured the Sonoran Desert Tortoise chowing down on what looks like the Prickly Pear Fruit from cactus because it provides them much needed moisture in such an extreme climate. It also interested me that like the Sonoran Coral Snake and the Gila Monster, the Desert Tortoise tends to hide away underground in burrows until night or rainfall comes and then they like to get out and go exploring!
The Sonoran Desert 🏜️ Tortoise 🐢 (above) enjoys his meal of Prickly Pear 🍐 Cactus 🌵 Fruit. Yum, yum 😋 🤤 😋 !!
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Another section of the mural I enjoy shows a coyote exploring the desert terrain, but also has the urban landscape of Phoenix in the background. In recent years there are more sightings of them (especially since the Covid Pandemic) around Phoenix suburban areas. They seem to have little natural fear of humans compared to other wild animals and are relatively comfortable in urban settings.
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This is a sticky situation though, both for them and humans because of the dangers it poses because coyotes can be aggressive and frightening. I’m not sure what solution there can be about this – after all, our development keeps encroaching on wildlife habitats. This puts all of the animals depicted on the mural as endangered to one extent or another. When looking at this broad creation of Arizona’s desert landscape it brings to mind important conservation issues of land use (or misuse as the case might be) like encroaching urban sprawl, pollution, and strained water resources that can’t be put on the back burner forever.
