Deserts provide home for many lizards, snakes and tortoises. The largest of them in Asia is the desert monitor (Varanus griseus).

One of the rarest animals on earth, a Bactrian Camel (Camelus bactrianus) with her calf. Only about eight hundred remained in the wild, most of them in Western China. This picture was taken in the Taklimakan Desert, east of the Lop Nur, perhaps the most desolate place in Asia by a Chinese-British expedition three years ago.

The Onager (Equus hemionus onager), a subspecies of the Asian wild ass, inhabits the deserts of Iran.

Two of the many characteristic rodents of the deserts in central Asia. Left, desert jerboa (Jaculus), right, gerbil ().

This long-eared hedgehog is a close relative of the European hedgehog, but occurs exclusively in the deserts of central Asia.

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