Arizona-Sonora desert museum

prairie dog peeks out of its burrow. The sun beams from behind it, lighting its golden, stubby hairs. Another prairie dog emerges from its burrow, sits straight up, barks with all its might and tumbles backward. The crowd roars.

Although its name implies it is a museum, it really isn't, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. It's not a place filled with dusty, stuffed animals. Instead, it is a living museum, a place where most of the more than 300 native Sonoran Desert animal species and 1,300 plant species live in natural-looking habitats. A combination world-renowned zoo, natural history museum, aquarium and botanical garden, the New York Times called it, "the most distinctive zoo in the United States."

Whatever you call it, it's a place where families come to watch mountain lions climb trees, play tag or doze in the sun atop a huge slab of rock. As you watch the other animals-the black bears, the foxes, the Mexican wolves and the white-tailed deer-notice the rocks. Few people realize that the rocks are not natural rocks, but man-made wonders.

The educationally oriented museum opened in 1952 and has received wide acclaim.

"We like people to see the Sonoran Desert as it is, not through trinkets and play snakes," said one docent. Visit the museum and you'll see the desert as it really is-a true desert delight. TL-DO.nA IKENRY

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85743; (520) 883-2702.

Copyright T L Enterprises, Inc. May 1999
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