The desert horned viper occurs in the dunes of the northwestern Negev desert, Israel. We report on a 2 year study on the viper's behaviour and ecology in its natural habitat. We examined whether the vipers moved faster in a vegetation-dense microhabitat versus an open dune area and detected much slower movement in the former. We nevertheless detected no preference of the vipers for any of the dune areas. We suggest that the vipers trade-off the ease of movement on open areas with prey, which is probably more available in areas with denser vegetation. The activity was higher early in the season and the vipers were mostly active right after sunset, with a second smaller activity peak at sunrise, perhaps searching for burrows to spend the day. Fitting this explanation, movement at the track's end was less directional than at its beginning. We found inter-sexual and between-year differences. For example, females were larger than males in the second year of the study but not in the first one and the population seemed to be smaller in the second year of the study than in its first year. The information we provide on this viper may assist its conservation, as sand dunes are threatened habitats in Israel.

Compared with other desert habitats, desert dunes are relatively rich in species, some of which are unique to such habitats. To better understand the interspecific interactions among species in the dunes, their ecology, and their behavior, we studied the habitat use of Stenodactylus petrii. This species is common in desert dunes in Israel and North Africa, and it is a mesopredator, interacting with both its predators and prey, thus affecting populations of both higher and lower trophic levels. We performed an experiment to see whether these animals spend more time in vegetated or open habitats. Our experiment demonstrated that S. petrii individuals moved twice faster out of open dune areas than out of microhabitats simulating desert vegetation. Yet, observations of the gecko's tracks suggest that it is similarly present in open areas and around bushes, necessitating further studies. We also reveal that this nocturnal species is more active earlier in the night than later, and more active in late summer (August) than earlier (June–July). We examined which other co‐occurring animals are active together with the studied gecko in time or space. The spatial and temporal activity patterns of S. petrii are negatively correlated with the activity patterns of gerbils, suggesting that their activity time and microhabitat preference differ. The spatial activity pattern of S. petrii is positively correlated with Tenebrionid ground beetles, suggesting a shared microhabitat preference. However, neither the temporal nor the spatial activity of the gecko is correlated with that of vipers, which are its potential predators. Future studies of S. petrii's natural history are important to understand how expected habitat change (e.g. dune stabilization) should affect it.

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