Saving Every Drop

Where water is scarce, plants and animals fight dirty. The creosote bush poisons the soil around itself with chemicals, killing rivals so it can hog the little moisture there is. Some creosote clones in the Mojave are thousands of years old, among the oldest living things on Earth. Camels play a different game: they let their body temperature swing several degrees through the day, which means they sweat far less. And contrary to the myth, their humps store fat, not water.