Physical geography. A desert is a region of land that is very dry because it receives low amounts of precipitation (usually in the form of rain but may be snow, mist or fog), often has little coverage by plants.
Most animals or nocturnal so they only come out at night since it is too hot in the day. So in orderly to survive there you would have to find a shelter. Also a water source.
If you are at an oasis animals will come, so you have a food source