Question

Desert animals, such as the kangaroo rat, need to conserve water in their bodies. Which of the following mechanisms is an efficient way of conserving water?

Answer 1

Well, how might you expect an animal to conserve water? Think about all the ways how you, as an animal that is NOT adapted to living in an arid environment, waste water every day.

First, they're not going to sweat to cool off. Instead, expect a lot of burrowing animals that can escape from the sun's radiation.

Second, their urine is going to be concentrated. Aquatic organisms that don't have to worry about water scarcity are most likely going to excrete their waste as ammonia, while organisms that might worry a bit more about water scarcity will have more concentrated urine and excrete nitrogenous waste as urea. Animals adapted for arid environments have even more concentrated urine, and excrete their nitrogenous waste as uric acid.