FISH IN THE DESERT ?

That sounds suspiciously fishy, doesn’t it

Several early explorers of the Australian interior (and sadly in recent years some tourists as well) have lost their lives there, because they were unable to satisfy their need of fluid intake and died of thirst and dehydration. The Australian desert is dry, hot, and treeless and yet reports from as far ago as 1845 by Eyre and 1861 by Burke and Willis state that Central Australian Aborigines caught fishes and had names for them – in the desert! So, what kinds of fish could possibly survive in the desert? Well, along tropical seashores one can meet the so-called mud skippers, a group of fishes that hop along tidal flats, the sandy beach or may even climb onto the lower branches of mangrove trees in search of food, like insects, spiders, and worms perhaps that they consume on land. Eels, too, are known to be able to survive out on land especially when in wet grass for some days. Even some catfish have been reported to survive for a while out of water. However, none of that applies to the Australian desert species.