Animals & Plants of Saguaro National Park
The 11 animals, plants, and fungi you can find at Saguaro National Park, with sizes, diets, and whether you should worry. See the full park guide at Saguaro National Park.
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Mammal Coyote
Canis latrans
The wild dog you're most likely to hear at a national park — a coyote, at home in the desert, the mountains, and the edges of towns.
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Invertebrate Desert tarantula
Aphonopelma chalcodes
A large, gentle desert spider with a pale, hairy body that spends its days in a silk-lined burrow and comes out on fall evenings to look for a mate.
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Plant Engelmann prickly pear
Opuntia engelmannii
A wide, flat-padded cactus of the southwestern deserts, spreading in low clumps with yellow flowers and purple fruit at Big Bend, Saguaro, and Arches.
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Invertebrate Giant desert hairy scorpion
Hadrurus arizonensis
The largest scorpion in North America, a sandy-colored desert digger covered in sensing hairs that glows blue-green under ultraviolet light.
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Reptile Gila monster
Heloderma suspectum
A slow, heavy desert lizard covered in bead-like black and orange scales, one of the only venomous lizards in the U.S., found in the desert at Saguaro.
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Bird Great horned owl
Bubo virginianus
A big night hunter with feathery "horns" and a deep hoot, found from the saguaro desert to the Everglades, hunting after dark on silent wings.
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Bird Greater roadrunner
Geococcyx californianus
A long-legged desert bird that would rather run than fly, chasing down lizards and snakes across the ground at Saguaro, Big Bend, and White Sands.
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Reptile Mojave desert tortoise
Gopherus agassizii
A slow, dome-shelled land turtle that digs long burrows to escape the desert heat, living in the Mojave country of Joshua Tree, Saguaro, and Death Valley.
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Mammal Mule deer
Odocoileus hemionus
A western deer named for its big mule-like ears, common along canyon rims and desert washes in Grand Canyon, Zion, Yosemite, and Saguaro.
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Plant Saguaro
Carnegiea gigantea
The tall, arm-raising cactus of the Sonoran Desert, found in the United States mainly around Tucson at Saguaro National Park.
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Reptile Western diamondback rattlesnake
Crotalus atrox
A big desert rattlesnake with diamond shapes down its back and a black-and-white "coon tail," most likely to be sunning near a trail at Big Bend or Saguaro.