Fossorial

Fossorial animals live underground and for a variety of reasons: amongst others to feed on soil flora and fauna, to avoid predators, or to hide away from the extremes of climate that exist above ground. So, a British mole avoids the worst of the winter cold in its tunnels, whilst a naked mole rat in Africa gets protection from the heat. And both have some protection from roaming predators.

Watch video clips from past programmes (6 clips)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

Featured in the following TV programmes

See all

About

A fossorial organism is one that is adapted to digging and life underground such as the badger, the naked mole rat, and the mole salamanders Ambystomatidae. It is an adjective most commonly used as to describe the habit of living underground, even if the physical adaptations are minimal - thus, most bees and many wasps are called "fossorial Hymenoptera", and a great many rodents are considered fossorial. Some organisms are fossorial to aid in temperature regulation, while others utilize the underground habitat for protection from predators or food.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

Explore the BBC

BBC © MMIX

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.