24 Brilliant Burrowing Animals

Platypus

Platypuses can only be found in freshwater and brackish estuaries in eastern Australia. They have the bill of a duck, a tail like a beaver, and feet like an otter, and they lay eggs—but they're still mammals. Female platypuses dig a waterside burrow to lay their eggs and their babies hatch about 10 days later. The offspring remain in the burrow for about four months before moving on and leading independent lives.

House Mouse

While there are 38 species of mice (Mus genus), the house mouse is the most common. When living outdoors, they create burrows in the earth and line them with dry grass, but they'll also burrow in found spots. Indoors, they replicate this behavior and attempt to construct burrows in varioius places, from inside walls to pillows in an attic.

Pangolin

The eight pangolin species are found on two continents, and all are under threat, ranging from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered according to the IUCN Red List. Primarily nocturnal, these scaly mammals dig deep and sometimes quite large burrows to sleep and nest in.

Funnel Web Spider

The funnel web spider is found in eastern Australia. It's known to build a characteristic funnel-shaped web that radiates out from its burrow. Long trip lines are attached to the sides of the web so the spider can be alerted to predators or prey without leaving home. Some types of funnel web spiders are extremely poisonous.

Weasel

Weasels have slender bodies, narrow heads, long necks, and short legs, which may have specifically evolved to move easily through burrow systems—particularly rodent burrows, which are their primary prey. Part of the genus Mustela, weasels are found in a wide variety of habitats, including deserts, grasslands, tundra, and forests.

Meerkats

A meerkat is a type of mongoose that lives in southern Africa, including in the countries of Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mozambique. They reside in dry areas, such as open plains and grasslands, where they often make their homes in burrows built by other animals, usually ground squirrels. These extensive burrows have a dozen or more exit spots, as well as sleeping and toilet areas.

Rat

Wild rats build their burrows and are known to constantly modify them. This is such a deeply engrained behavior that even rats domesticated over the last 150 years for laboratory experiments still burrow if given the space and materials.

Ants

Almost all ant species create deep, complex underground systems with multiple burrows and rooms dedicated to different activities. Interestingly, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that ants' burrowing strategies vary depending on soil type; they dig deeper tunnels through clay and fine-grained soils with higher moisture content.

Prairie Dog

Prairie dog communities, found in the grasslands of North America, are often identified by the particular mounds of earth left near the entrances of their burrows. Their underground colonies are complex and may have between 30 and 50 entrances and exits per acre. A special lookout spot near an exit hole enables these animals to keep watch for predators, including the black-footed ferret, coyotes, eagles, foxes, and bobcats, among others.

Burrowing Owl

Burrowing owls build their homes underground or take over burrows that prairie dogs, squirrels, desert tortoises, or other animals have built. They may also create hidden nests in human-made structures and materials, such as PVC pipes or buckets. In addition to living quarters, these owls use their burrows to store food for their brooding period; caches have been found with dozens and even hundreds of rodent carcasses.

Magellanic Penguin

Magellanic penguins—found along coastal Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands—build burrows on the ground or under bushes to protect themselves and their chicks from the direct sun. They prefer soil composed of small particles such as silt and clay.

These animals are monogamous; during the breeding season, from September to February, females will deposit two eggs in their burrows to incubate.

Wombat

Wombats look like small bears, but they're actually marsupials. Their big, powerful feet and claws make them extremely efficient diggers—they can move up to three feet of earth in one night. Their burrows usually have only one entrance, but include a tunnel or several tunnels to various spaces, including chambers for sleeping. The common wombat generally lives alone, but southern hairy-nosed wombats live in groups in their burrows.

Burrowing Urchin

Perhaps winning the award for creating a burrow out of the toughest material, the burrowing urchin actually scrapes out rock to create its living space and hide from predatory fish. It can grind through the limestone in the ocean thanks to its super strong teeth—composed of crystals of magnesium calcitate—that continue to grow throughout its life.

Pocket Gopher

Pocket gophers are burrowing rodents found in North and Central America. These animals are well-known for the tunnels they create, which lead to a variety of burrowing spaces with specific functions. Those tunnels often frustrate farmers and gardeners, but in non-human-dominated spaces, they serve a vital purpose—aerating the soil. This burrowing function is important, especially in places where animal agriculture and farming machinery have compacted the soil.

Aardvark

Aardvarks live in the African savannahs, rainforests, woodlands, and scrublands. Their burrows are an integral component of their survival strategy, as they have poor eyesight and are known as solitary, nocturnal, and cautious animals. Before leaving the protective burrows, for example, they often stand at the entrance for several minutes to ensure predators aren't waiting to attack them. And when they sleep, aardvarks block the entrance to their burrows and curl into a tight ball. They also change burrows frequently, digging new ones with their strong front legs.

Kingfishers

There are 92 species of kingfishers, which can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Unlike other types of birds, instead of nests, kingfishers build burrows in dirt banks, old termite mounds, or softwood trees. Male and female kingfishers take turns digging out the soil with their feet to build their burrow, which includes a nesting chamber for their eggs.

Desert Tortoise

Desert tortoises use burrows mostly as protection from extreme desert temperatures. They build separate burrows for the different seasons. Their summer holes are shallower (between three and 10 feet deep), dug at a 20-degree angle, and they use them when regular shade doesn't provide enough relief from daytime heat. Winter burrows are horizontal tunnels dug into banks, can be up to 30 feet long, and provide stable temperatures year-round.

Atlantic Puffin

Like many animals on this list, puffins nest in burrows to keep predators away from their offspring, which is especially important for these birds since they only raise one young—called a puffling—each year. These nests, which puffins build with their feet and beaks, are between two feet and three feet deep and can be found on the steep sea cliffs of the North Atlantic, where 60% of Atlantic puffins live.

European Rabbit

The European rabbit is native to the Iberian peninsula in Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France, though it has been introduced to the rest of Europe and Australia, where it's an invasive species. The structure of their extensive burrows, called warrens, can vary depending on soil availability. According to a study on the types of European wild rabbit burrows, the animal builds larger tunnels in sandy soil and shorter, narrower tunnels in silty soil.

Armadillo

There are 20 different species of armadillos, ranging from the 130-pound giant armadillo to the tiny pink fairy armadillo, which weighs only around four ounces. All of them share some important characteristics: they have tough, layered scales and they all burrow.

The nine-banded armadillo, the only species found in the United States, usually digs multiple burrows in its home range for easy refuge, in case it feels threatened while foraging. Each armadillo may have between five and 10 burrows hidden under tangles of roots and briars.

Meadow Vole

Voles spend most of their lives in their burrow systems, which are elaborate networks of nests, tunnels, surface runways, and openings hidden by layers of grass and ground cover. They have a wide range of predators, which explains their elusive behavior. Owls, hawks, red foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and snakes, among other predators, hunt this burrowing rodent.

Ghost Shrimp

Ghost shrimp are tiny, but their digging abilities are quite impressive. Measuring an average of four inches, they create burrows up to four feet deep along the water's edge and seafloor. The ghost shrimp tunnels not only for protection from predators but also to find food. As it digs, it captures food found in the sediment or floating through the water that flows into the tunnel.

Red Fox

Female red foxes dig burrows or dens to give birth and raise their pups safely, but they may also use them as shelter when it rains and to store food. Sometimes they make a den in a log or cave, but most are dug out by the fox or may be "remodeled" burrows previously used by other animals.

Polar Bear

Polar bears are mostly known for building dens in snowdrifts and slopes, but they may also build underground burrows to protect themselves and their young from extreme temperatures. Polar bear cubs are born between November and January, but they will wait until warmer temperatures arrive in the spring to emerge from their refuge. The heat generated by their mom's body can raise the temperature inside the burrow or den to 40 F, even if it's far colder outside.