Climate in the desert it extreme. Hot and dry with little rainfall is what forms the land of sand we know today. The desert takes up one third of the land on earth, although only 20% is sand. It is found in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, as well as Australia. If you were to count the Arctic and Antarctica as polar deserts, due to the little rainfall, desert would be located there too. Surprisingly, the desert gets very cold at night, despite the blazing heat in the daytime. The desert gets so hot, that all the animals in the desert, have ways of combating the sun. Fennec Foxes have large ears, like many other animals, to absorb heat from the sun and keep the rest of the body cool. Animals within the desert are known as Xerocoles.