Home building (zoology)
Home building in zoology refers to the various ways animals create or find shelter for living, safety, and raising their young within their habitats. The structures and locations of these homes can vary significantly among species. For instance, marine animals like sponges may attach to ocean floors, while gastropods, such as snails, carry their homes with them in their shells. In contrast, many land animals, particularly social insects like bees and termites, construct complex nests or hives that serve as communal living spaces. Birds typically build nests from twigs and other materials, often in trees or around human habitats, while mammals may utilize burrows, dens, or caves depending on their lifestyle. The design and permanence of these homes are influenced by the animal's diet and habitat, with herbivores often being nomadic in their search for food and carnivores preferring specific territories for hunting. Additionally, habitat loss due to human activity and climate change poses significant challenges to animal homes, impacting their survival and reproductive success. Understanding these diverse living arrangements sheds light on the ecological roles of different species and the importance of conserving their natural environments.
Home building (zoology)
The term “home” designates the area, place, or physical structure in which an animal lives, finds a safe haven, and raises its family within a habitat. The characteristics of animal homes varies greatly. The simplest example might be a spot on an ocean bottom where a marine sponge attaches to the sand and grows. Other sea animals, such as gastropods (snails) live in their shells and make their homes wherever they go. Crustaceans, such as lobsters, or land arthropods, such as scorpions, live in simple burrows in the oceans or on land. A large number of lake, ocean, and river-dwelling species, such as fish and whales, have no fixed homes.
Land animals often live in more complex homes. For example, social insects such as bees, termites, and wasps inhabit nests or hives. Birds also build nests. These are constructed in trees, on the ground, or on rocky mountain terrain. In contrast, grazing animals such as deer and antelope live on the ground, wherever their search for food takes them on a given day. In the case of small mammals, individuals or groups often live in complex underground burrows, such as mole holes. Larger carnivores and omnivores often inhabit underground burrows dens, as do members of the weasel family, or in caves and other natural formations, as do bears and large cats.
Insect and Bird Homes
Social insects such as bees, ants, and some wasps live in nests of differing sizes made of wax, paper, or dried mud. Social wasps, for example, live in spherical paper nests a foot in diameter. These nests are seen in trees or under the porch roofs of human habitations. A wasp colony lasts only one year because wasps, as do ants and bees, do not store food. Only a few fertilized females, queens-to-be, survive the winter to begin new colonies in spring. Many solitary wasps live alone except for breeding. Then, females build small brood nests of materials other than paper. For example, potter wasps use mud and saliva, and stone-working wasps mix small pebbles, mud, and saliva.
Termites, also social insects, are known for damaging wood homes. Most species are tropical, but some inhabit the Americas and Europe. They live in large, long-lasting colonies that may hold millions of inhabitants. These colonies (called nests or termitaries) vary greatly. Tropical species build huge mounds with walls of soil particles and dried saliva. Inside the mounds are many chambers, passages, and good ventilation and drainage systems. Termites are often subterranean, burrowing up into logs and wood structures.
Many birds, such as the commonly seen crows, robins, sparrows, doves, and other small to medium birds, nest in trees or warm places around human homes. For instance, doves may nest atop porch lights. These habitations are most often made of intertwined pieces of grass, twigs, and human trash. The nests are often abandoned yearly and in some cases are reused by other species. Also of interest are the nests of woodpeckers, which are located in tree holes.
Flamingos nest along shores of shallow, saltwater lagoons and lakes. The nest is a foot-tall mound of mud with a depression at its top. Flamingos are monogamous, and couples use the same nest over and over. In contrast, vultures usually live on bare ground under mountain overhangs or in caves, building no nests, and laying eggs on bare rock of these spartan home sites. Vultures are also monogamous and will live in a home site for up to forty years. An exception to the “bare rock” rule occurs with lammergeiers of Europe, Asia, and Africa. These bearded vultures build several nests per pair. They are conical in shape, located on rock ledges or in caves, and are used many times, in cycles, as home sites and to raise families.
Mammal Homes
Mammals have a wide variety of home sites. In many cases, such sites are temporary and are simply the last place the mammal finds itself each day. Creatures living in this way are usually herbivores, ranging from hippopotamuses to deer and other artiodactyls. This is because these animals daily range over several square miles seeking food. The other end of the home site range is seen with many omnivores and carnivores. These creatures have specific home sites or dens, which may be burrows in the ground, caves, logs, and natural crevices. Small mammals that live like this include gophers and moles. They dig burrows or tunnels with the sharp claws of their front feet. Gophers store food in chambers in the burrows. They are solitary and territorial, coming together only to breed. Females use their burrows to live in and raise their young.
The homes of moles are more complex. Moles are voracious and solitary, continually burrowing in the ground for food, which includes insects, worms, slugs, snails, and spiders. They defend their homes when other moles—even of their own species—intrude. Moles only socialize when entering tunnels of females to mate.
Mole burrows or holes are close to the ground surface and may be recognized by large, central earth mounds. These “mole hills” are the earth that has been dug up in search of food. The burrows are very elaborate, holding warmly lined central nest chambers, connected galleries, bolt holes that allow escape from enemies, and many passageways.
Wolves and spotted hyenas are somewhat similar, related species. These carnivores tend to live in dens and claim large hunting territories. Wolf and hyena homes and living habits are different. Wolves live in dens or lairs that may be caves, hollow tree trunks, crevices under large fallen logs, or holes they dug in the ground. Few improvements are made in the natural dens wolves inhabit. They are shelters used for safety, protection from the elements, and for raising offspring.
Spotted, or laughing, hyenas, in contrast, are much more communal. They live in clans of up to one hundred individuals and inhabit shared communities comprising many dens. They sleep, mate, and socialize in their dens. Dens may be caves on rocky ground or holes dug by individuals as a clan grows. The individual cave or tunnel dens are often inhabited by one individual or a female with cubs. This is because extended pairing is unusual in spotted hyenas.
Lions and tigers, the largest predatory land carnivores, roam through large territories in search of game and inhabit dens of varying permanence. The dens are dense thickets, groups of rocks surrounded by thick underbrush, or caves whose entrances are screened by thorn bushes or dense underbrush. Dens are used to birth offspring and protect the big cats from the elements.
Primate Homes
Monkeys, which are native to Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, live in bands. These bands shelter in the forks between branches. African baboons are large, more highly organized, ground-living primate species. They live in groups called troops, which can be found living in rocky terrain or on cliffs. In many cases, group members inhabit convenient caves.
Gorillas, the largest, strongest, rarest apes, look almost human. They inhabit West African forests from lowlands to altitudes of ten thousand feet. Gorillas live in bands of up to twenty individuals. Each band claims a territory, which may be viewed as the band’s neighborhood. A band forages over several square miles each day and lacks permanent dwellings. Instead, its members build temporary shelters each night after a day of foraging for the honey, eggs, plants, berries, bark, and leaves that are their diet. When terrain and time permit, females and young sleep on temporary tree platforms made of branches and leaves. Mature males nest at the bases of these trees, to protect them.
Homes, Lifestyles, and Forms
The homes of animals depend upon their lifestyles, habitats, and forms. Many herbivores and omnivores range widely to find sustenance. Hence, they often lay themselves down to sleep wherever the search for food takes them. Animals that live in hot, relatively dry climates often sleep out of cover. However, similar species inhabiting cool to cold climates very often build or find burrows or dens to live in. Some animals have eating habits and sizes that cause them to live outdoors regardless of world location. This is typical of animals, such as zebras and reindeer, that graze daily over large areas and cannot restrict themselves to homes where they return each evening. In contrast, animals that hunt often prefer to have a safe haven where they can bring their catch home to devour in peace, while animals that live in cold climates use their homes to store food for the long winter.
Habitat Loss and Animal Homes
Habitat and home loss has been one of the leading causes of species vulnerability, endangerment, and extinction since the early twentieth century. When an animal is displaced, either because of human development or because of climate changes influences, its need to relocate makes them vulnerable to predators and also demands that they find new food and water sources. These complications can often lead to population decreases due to deaths and difficulties in finding mates and therefore reproducing. As the Earth's climate continues to change, so too do habitats and, in turn, the ways animals find and create their homes. Furthermore, increased instances of human-animal interactions can be determinantal to animal survival, as aggressive animals may be killed to save the life of the human.
For example, warming temperatures have melted ice caps and shrunk the hunting grounds in the Arctic for polar bears. Rising water temperatures are also changing the migration patterns of fish, lessening the populations of fish that need cooler waters to survive. Thus, polar bears are forced to leave their homes and habitats in search of food in other areas. This one issue becomes a domino effect that impacts animal homes for all species.
Principal Terms
artiodactyl: a hoofed mammal with an even number of toes
carnivore: an animal that eats only animal flesh
herbivore: an animal that eats only plants
mole hill: an earth mound a mole dug up in search of food.
omnivore: an animal that eats plant and animal matter
solitary: living alone
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