DESERT TUNNEL

Or broad, colorful Arizona Desert means many things to many animals as well as to many humans. The behavior of people is far more easily observed than the habits and everyday lives of the wildlife that occupies this vast expanse of cactus, creosote bush and dust devils down near the friendly Mexican border. As a result of prevailing high temperature and low moisture conditions, many of our furred and scaled wild creatures spend the daylight hours underground, emerging to forage and move about at night. While Alice, in her journeys down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, was able to step easily from things known to things unknown, not many of us have been able to follow in her imaginative footsteps.

There is a place in Arizona where this underground adventure is possible; where men, women and children may walk through a huge, wooden door, down into a dark passageway, lean upon railings which serve as switches to turn on dim lights to reveal the hitherto private lives of such desert dwellers as that expert excavator, the badger; the little vanishing American, the prairie dog, and many others including the big-eared kit fox, skunks, porcupines, pack rats, beautiful little ring-tailed cats, a cave of live fruit-eating bats, another with ferrets, and a cave where honey bees are at home. There is an ant nest with hundreds of busy inhabitants.

PHOTOGRAPHY: WAYNE DAVIS

On the opposite side of this dark tunnel, visitors may push faintly illuminated buttons, thus turning on lights that reveal the living roots of plants behind glass.

The tunnel is to be viewed at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, fourteen miles west of Tucson. This rapidly expanding educational institution, devoted to telling the story of desert wildlife and plantlife in unique ways, is now in its sixth year. Recently the millionth visitor passed through the entrance gate.

The underground idea was born of a desire to exhibit desert animals, reptiles, insects and plants in as natural a way as possible. There was something very wrong about placing nocturnal animals in cages in the glare of the summer sun, when they should have been displayed in cool undergound dens and burrows where they belonged. Much thought was given to the problem and it seemed that the answer was to place both animals and people in a tunnel beneath the ground surface. So that is what we did, but not all of a sudden. There was a great deal of planning. Then there was the problem of finance, and Finally, of the execution of the plan. Eighteen months of hard work and fifty thousand dollars, dollars, provided by the Charles Lathrop Pack Forestry Foundation, was required before the dream became a reality.

The trench to contain the tunnel was twenty-five feer wide, one hundred eighty-five feet long and eighteen feet deep. The completed tunnel itself was one hundred sixty feet long, twelve fect wide and nine feet high. The underground passageway was built of many tons of con-crete and steel reinforcing. But when the exposition was thrown open to the public, the only evidence of con crete was the floor. The ceiling and both walls were com posed of plaster, which was cast, colored and molded to simulate actual rock formations, with dens on one side and openings for plant roots on the other. The plaster walls viewed by visitors consist of partitions some three feet away from the concrete walls of the tunnel itself. Although the exhibit area in the tunnel is ooty sixty feet long, the average time that visitors spend underground is twenty-one minutes. Some leave the tunnel, walk around to the entrance and enter for the second time.

crete and steel reinforcing. But when the exposition was thrown open to the public, the only evidence of con crete was the floor. The ceiling and both walls were com posed of plaster, which was cast, colored and molded to simulate actual rock formations, with dens on one side and openings for plant roots on the other. The plaster walls viewed by visitors consist of partitions some three feet away from the concrete walls of the tunnel itself. Although the exhibit area in the tunnel is ooty sixty feet long, the average time that visitors spend underground is twenty-one minutes. Some leave the tunnel, walk around to the entrance and enter for the second time.

The fabricated rock-like partition varies in width from several inches to a foot. The removable glass which separates people from animals, is quite tight in the grooves, with the result that the animals receive very little sound from visitors, and in a short time cease to pay any atten tion to the dimly lighted human faces peering at them from the relative darkness.

The tunnel and its exhibits represent a combination of indoor museum and outdoor zoo techniques. Whereas some of the larger natural history museums in our great cities show various mounted animals in their natural habi-tat, using methods of display somewhat similar to ours, the difference is that our animals are alive. Our creatures come and go as they please between the indoor dens and outdoor enclosures. The fact that they choose to spend most of the daylight hours indoors is a clear indication that they prefer the dens to sunlit areas. Among the creatures animals on display in the two-and art the king-called cats, socially not one at all but relatives of the raccoons. These nocturnal animals with their beautiful large eyes, attract a great deal of attention. They are the first animal the visitor sees on the entrances into the tunnel. They have a little shelf that looks like a perfectly natural rocky terrace upon which they spend practically all the daylight hours. They wander about outdoors quite a bit at night.

Directly above them the dens of the king-called car is a beehive. The bees have a constructed old automobile exhaust pipe through which they reach the sugar trucks to secure food, in the domes of a years then they have filled their hair wave sally with honey combs. It is a very native and a very healthy beehive. There is a spotlight above the hive which enables pos ta me the best work-ing. This light is continued by passing the extra tall that illuminates the king-called car's house, incidentally, when we tame van the milling, plastic labels are illuminated simultaneously. A cow exhibit, formerly installed on the plane side of the animal is perhaps sist of the surat alabosice, solidified plank about a yard square and five inches thick. Replica of the various paragoneye nad nimedress that khansa ratta prode ka cha notund seda kato han porod, dilled ind Anchai, harm the pluric. In order tjoe asatly how to hold the ant nest it was oncemary ta om a machanical anaendor to dig daves into the ground seeme eight feet in ancient the old colony and altered in various freely and, to lely "roogs" where she was van. to tuscry Banery and, thele asisider und das where the Queen krys ber anys. Incidentally, the business, of digging dawa. sight Sett and walking a cres action of the and out minidad in to some de Queen. With the Qumen, with the ben, fed pistando colonys. We fort a Queen ants as well as a Queens bees. The ant wat was διανθισικά buy τις μάρκng & Aghe on tạp về the be plic. The nasce of the material was suck that the ight gint ww suffond throughost, sas exire west. Math particles when gland in ploves where light w noe wasted. The dance was a ywy bay group of w and, by looking styr, colored plute-graphie erlazynnemin of the sate thannaloen, and utubing fre Glambussed labels, gaton ma intiente vive of un fe ondagreend stars I belongs. The tendung of c culoster peadeed to the contrealest of explpatior wha Image the επι για iedzenisins the propor teusperines. Tires mondhu wees required in experimen ing with this colony to the summon Laboratory belece her we seady to be introduced baro the plastic and phobad, bt the rou The mananas lame dyed on dow sourlags very quickly. The kit Fons card up on the flyin of thuốc dons and step soundly, avakasing cely sem sherally to pour detail and to ywwa na mak na to xay, "Why dec't you people go hatut and shop the my wo dar The fir Haule prakse doga rin noir la their swaal todane-le any, anting to pay attenden, whatever ta vhätera. Beeldentally, thane crastream Juve maand stude mecoration prives by aerally দাগing down to the band plower.

The low-witted portaples is his stogisine erren bus casszal ogla sadi zemgiacions. Ja bis dan, separated noly by an opening the small yeole para. Tales sebumisse wonderfully adapted to domare life, woate net lose the pestaphte's acas de miglu, maste some of his quills, and pick and pick up cehen that for Isan head, thing than once to that lined candy nối tinhng thêຣ ອະ nou marudd. They ako gogi kis food med porotally mys