Far below our feet, animals are quietly shaping the ground into labyrinths that function like villages, towns and even cities. I look at 11 species whose underground engineering rivals human suburbs, complete with nurseries, food stores and waste dumps. Their hidden architecture is reshaping soils, influencing ecosystems and challenging how we think about what a “city” can be.
Ants
Ants construct vast underground colonies that operate like multi-level cities, with separate chambers for brood care, food storage and waste. Research on animal architecture notes that such engineered shelters have been influencing evolution for hundreds of millions of years, and ant nests are a prime example. Some species create ventilation shafts that regulate temperature and humidity, while others carve out deep vertical shafts that protect queens from floods and predators.
Scientists studying how animals build cities without blueprints point out that ants rely on simple local rules, like dropping soil where they smell certain pheromones, to generate complex, city-like patterns. For land managers and architects, these self-organised systems offer clues to designing efficient ventilation, traffic flow and even disaster-resilient housing without central planning.
Prairie dogs
Prairie dogs are classic examples of mammals that build true underground towns, known as “prairie dog towns,” that can stretch for miles. Reporting on animals that build describes how each town is divided into neighbourhood-like family territories, with separate chambers for sleeping, rearing pups and escaping predators. Entrances are often raised into small mounds that help with drainage and act as lookout posts.
Additional coverage of these rodents explains that prairie dog burrows form conurbations with dedicated nursery chambers and emergency bolt-holes near the surface. Their construction aerates soil, redistributes nutrients and creates microhabitats for snakes, insects and burrowing owls. For ranchers and conservationists, these towns are both a management challenge and a keystone of grassland health.
Meerkats
Meerkats live in cooperative groups that share extensive burrow systems, creating something close to a small village beneath arid ground. Accounts of meerkat groups describe how multiple entrance holes connect to communal sleeping chambers and escape tunnels. These networks allow sentry animals to dash underground within seconds when they spot eagles or jackals.
Their burrows also buffer extreme desert temperatures, keeping pups cool by day and warmer at night. Because meerkats often re-use and expand older systems, their engineering gradually reshapes patches of Kalahari soil, concentrating organic matter and moisture. For ecotourism operators and local communities, understanding these underground “villages” is essential to protecting both the animals and the fragile landscapes that attract visitors.
Naked mole-rats
Naked mole-rats are famous for living in eusocial colonies that resemble insect societies, and their tunnel systems function like subterranean cities. Reports on incredible underground animals highlight how a single colony can excavate several kilometres of tunnels, with specialised chambers for the queen, workers and food storage. The tunnels are narrow and winding, which helps maintain the high carbon dioxide and low oxygen levels these rodents tolerate.
Because they rarely surface, naked mole-rats depend entirely on this engineered environment for survival, using their teeth as digging tools and their bodies to compact soil. Their city-like colonies provide a natural laboratory for studying ageing, cancer resistance and cooperative behaviour. For biomedical researchers, the way these animals manage air quality, waste and social roles underground offers insights into human health and even closed ecological systems.
European badgers
European badgers build “setts,” sprawling burrow complexes that can be occupied for generations and expanded into multi-entrance towns. Guides on how to identify note that badger setts often have large, D-shaped entrances, well-worn paths and spoil heaps from years of excavation. Inside, there are nesting chambers lined with grass and leaves, plus side tunnels used as latrines or temporary refuges.
Some setts become multi-family hubs where several social groups share parts of the network, creating a kind of underground neighbourhood. This long-term occupation can stabilise slopes, alter drainage and influence which plants grow nearby. For farmers, foresters and road planners, recognising badger setts is crucial when assessing land use, because disturbing these entrenched “towns” can trigger legal protections and ecological knock-on effects.
Rabbits
Wild rabbits construct warrens, interconnected burrow systems that house multiple adults and litters of kits, functioning like compact underground villages. Coverage of animals that dig explains that rabbit warrens typically feature several entrances, sloping tunnels and nesting chambers lined with fur. The layout allows quick escapes from foxes and birds of prey, while deeper sections provide stable temperatures for raising young.
Over time, warrens can become extensive, with abandoned sections collapsing and creating hummocky terrain that affects grazing and machinery. Their digging mixes soil layers and can improve infiltration, but in croplands it may undermine ditches and embankments. Landowners therefore have to balance the ecological benefits of rabbit engineering with the risk of erosion and crop loss, especially where populations are high.
Ground squirrels
Ground squirrels, including species like Richardson’s and California ground squirrels, build multi-entrance burrow systems that serve as communal towns. Photo-led explainers on underground homes describe how these rodents create separate tunnels for nesting, food caching and hibernation. Entrances are often clustered, with lookout mounds that allow quick scanning for hawks and coyotes.
Their burrows can extend several metres horizontally and are frequently shared by multiple related females and their offspring. This architecture not only protects individuals but also shapes predator behaviour, as snakes and weasels learn to patrol the same networks. For ranchers and transport authorities, dense ground squirrel “towns” can weaken levees, airstrips and embankments, forcing costly reinforcement while also providing habitat for protected species like burrowing owls.
Moles
Moles are solitary compared with many animals on this list, yet each individual maintains a tunnel system so extensive that, at landscape scale, it resembles a dispersed underground city. A blog on wildlife underground notes that moles create both deep permanent tunnels and shallow feeding runs just below the surface. The deeper passages are used for nesting and travel, while the upper ones are constantly expanded as the mole hunts earthworms.
Although each network is defended from other moles, overlapping territories can result in a dense mesh of tunnels that aerate soil and improve drainage. Gardeners often see only the surface ridges, but below lies a complex three-dimensional structure. For soil scientists and turf managers, mole activity is a double-edged sword, enhancing soil health while disrupting lawns, sports fields and root systems.
Voles
Voles, such as bank voles and field voles, weave shallow tunnel systems that form tight-knit neighbourhoods just under the grass. Identification guides on small mammal holes describe their entrances as about 3 cm wide, often hidden under vegetation and linked by runways on the surface. Inside, short tunnels connect nesting chambers and food stores packed with seeds and roots.
While each burrow is modest, dense vole populations create a fine-grained network that influences how water moves through topsoil and how predators like owls and foxes hunt. Their constant nibbling and digging can damage young trees and crops, so foresters and farmers monitor vole “villages” as early warning signs of potential outbreaks. At the same time, these rodents are vital prey, underpinning food webs in grasslands and woodland edges.
Pocket gophers
Pocket gophers are powerful diggers that sculpt long tunnel systems, effectively turning prairies and fields into underground cities for a single resident. Articles on burrowing animals emphasise that gophers use their cheek pouches to transport roots and bulbs into side chambers, creating stocked pantries. Their main tunnels can run for tens of metres, with vertical shafts leading to fresh feeding zones.
The mounds they push to the surface are only the visible tip of a much larger engineering project that mixes soil layers and redistributes nutrients. Ecologists have likened their impact to that of small-scale ploughing, which can increase plant diversity but also disturb crops and irrigation lines. For farmers and conservation planners, pocket gophers are both ecosystem engineers and pests, forcing trade-offs between soil health and infrastructure damage.
Termites
Termites are best known for towering mounds, yet many species also build deep, city-like tunnel networks that radiate from central nests. Analyses of fossils show that such insect-built structures have been altering landscapes for hundreds of millions of years, influencing how plants and other animals evolve. Termite tunnels connect food sources, ventilation shafts and fungus gardens, creating a fully enclosed world where workers rarely see daylight.
These subterranean highways can extend many metres from the mound, stabilising soil and enhancing water infiltration in dry regions. At the same time, when termite “cities” intersect with human foundations, they can cause severe structural damage. For climate scientists and land managers, termite engineering is increasingly important, because their soil turnover affects carbon storage and the resilience of savannas and tropical forests to drought.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
