Place

Staying Cool Out of Sight

A solitary cottonwood tree grows in the middle with desert shrub and a tall white dune in the back.
With exposed roots, the cottonwood tree indicates where the dune used to be.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Audio Description, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

The sounds of the dunefield are different at night! A lot of the animals come out when it’s cooler and quieter – no humans. The top predator in the dunefield, the five-pound kit fox, comes out to play and hunt when darkness falls. They live in burrows in the exposed pedestals. Looking around, you probably can’t see any sources of water for these mighty hunters, so where do they get water? Kit foxes don’t drink water the way humans do; they get all the water they need from the blood of the prey they consume.

White Sands National Park

Last updated: September 18, 2021