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Desert (id: desert) is a biome in Zoo Tycoon 2. The biome is used in the official game for extant animals from Africa and Asia, and extinct animals from Cretaceous Asia, with additional foliage from North America. User-made additions include extant animals from North America and South America, extinct animals from Permian Asia and Pleistocene and Holocene South America and cryptid animals from Asia.

Exhibit Animals (seven official + 21 user-made)

Ambient Animals (two official + two user-made)

Trees (four official + nine user-made)

Plants (five official + 11 user-made)

Rocks (three official + one user-made)

Zoopedia Entry

Desert is a term applied to regions of the earth that are characterized by less than 254 mm (10 in) of annual rainfall, an evaporation rate that exceeds precipitation, and, in most cases, a high average temperature. Because of a lack of moisture in the soil and low humidity in the atmosphere, most of the sunlight penetrates to the ground. Daytime temperatures can reach 131° F (55° C) in the shade. At night the desert floor radiates heat back to the atmosphere, and the temperature can drop to near freezing.
Most deserts arise due to atmospheric wind conditions. Warm air masses created two belts of desert, one along the Tropic of Cancer and the other along the Tropic of Capricorn. Other deserts result from the effects of ocean currents on landmasses, where cool air masses carry fog and mist, but little rain, along coastal regions.