© Arizona Game and Fish, 2008
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http://www.azgfd.gov/focuswild
Arizona Wildlife Podcast
Transcript: Episode 1 – Arizona’s Diversity
(Please note: this podcast was recorded live from a public presentation. It was not a rehearsed speech. This transcript attempts
to capture the dialogue as it was spoken. At times when the speech was difficult to hear or understand, a good effort was made.
These rare cases are noted in the text.)
The content for this episode came from the training day at the 2008 National Envirothon competition. It
was originally recorded on July 29, 2008, outdoors at the Flagstaff Arboretum. It consisted of Arizona
Game and Fish Department employees providing background information about some of the wildlife and
wildlife issues found in the state. It concluded with a question and answer session by the students
participating in the competition.
Listen as Sam Huselton, a Department educator, describes some of the amazing diversity found in
Arizona. Kellie Tharp and Eric Proctor, also Department educators, help Sam answer questions at the end.
SAM:
Now Arizona is a very unique state. We have several different types of habitats here. We go from the
deserts all the way up to the Alpine Tundra. We are the only state that has four different types of deserts.
We have the Great Basin Desert, where it is just a cold desert and it is found in the northern part of the
state. And deserts are based on rainfall and the amount of evaporation that occurs there. Areas do get a
certain amount of rainfall but they’re not considered deserts. The other deserts that we have is the Mojave
Desert, that’s the one that’s near the California border. We have the Sonoran Desert, which is the typical
desert you think of in Arizona with the saguaro cactus. And then we have the Chihuahuan Desert, which
is found in the southeast part of the state.
Above some of our deserts in elevation we have an area called chaparral. There those plants grow very
thick, they’re ve