When the Earth Moves Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fossorial

Fossorial creatures are those with limbs or feet adapted to digging and who spend most of their life underground. Badgers, moles, meerkats and rabbits all fall under this criteria. Aquatic animals live near or in the water, arboreal animals spend their time in trees and cursorial animals are adapted to running.

Answer: Coypu

Pika, groundhog and jerboa are all burrowing animals that live in a dry habitat. The coypu is a large rodent which is also called the river rat or nutria. It is native to South America although it has been introduced to other continents including Europe, Asia and Africa.

The animal has webbed hind feet which aid swimming as it looks for aquatic food. It has easy access back into its burrow entrance which is normally at river level.

Answer: Town

Prairie dogs are social animals which live in a large community called a town. Each town contains a warren of tunnels and chambers, with multiple openings, sentry posts, and even includes separate sleeping, feeding and toilet areas. They are family orientated and often grouped together to make a coterie. Several coteries make a town.

The five species including black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs are all native to North America.

Answer: Lugworm

There are up to a million different species of worm which are broken down into three main groups: flatworms, roundworms and segmented worms. The common earthworm can be found in many areas and has a slimy, reddish-brown segmented body that is capable of burrowing underground. They aerate soil as they tunnel, and this allows the earth to break down, allowing water and nutrients to reach deep within the ground.

The lugworm, or sandworm, is a marine worm which live in burrows under the sand. Within their burrow, they consume sediment and once the nutrients have been ingested, they then expel any unwanted matter. It is this pile of excrement that forms into coiled castings on top of the sand.

Answer: Sand martin

The majority of birds nest in trees or ground cover but there are some species which burrow, especially in their breeding colonies. The puffin, burrowing owl, belted kingfisher and fairy penguin are just a few. The sand martin (Riparia riparia) is a small brown and white bird which belongs to the swallow family.

They burrow approximately a metre deep into steep sandy cliffs and build their nest in a chamber at the end where they lay up to five eggs. They spend their spring and summer in the northern hemisphere, including America, Europe and Asia, and then over-winter in the southern hemisphere including South America, Africa and India.

Answer: Disposal of excess soil when building new tunnels

The mole is a small brown burrowing animal with broad front paws which allow it to tunnel underground. Their name was taken from the Old English word "moldwarp" meaning molde (earth, soil) and weorpan (to throw). They grow between 11-16 cm long from nose to rump and have dark brown fur covering their cylindrical bodies.

They are native to Asia, Europe and North America. They are hard workers and can tunnel up to 20 metres per day. They compact the soil below ground but as they near the surface, the excess soil appears in mounds above ground and these are commonly called mole hills.

The mole hill above their nesting site is much larger and called a fortress. The chamber below this is filled with leaves and other material ready for when they breed. Moles are able to re-breathe their own expired air which is why they are adaptable to life underground.

Answer: Sea urchin

The sand dollar is a very flat sea urchin. They belong to the Echinoderm family which also include sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers. Other names for them include sand cake, pansy shell and sea biscuit. When the sand dollars are alive, they are covered with a very fine layer of hairs which enable them to move across sand and burrow underneath.

They are approximately 8 cm across and often stand on their edge unless they burrow to hide from predators. The distinctive five-point petal pattern on one side are in fact podia which aid their movement and respiration.

When they are dead, the sand dollar exoskeleton appears smooth and white and can often be found washed up on the shore where people take them home as souvenirs.

Answer: False

Despite its name, the kangaroo rat is in fact a rodent and not a marsupial. They were named because of their appearance, with their powerful hind legs allowing them to hop and jump at great speeds. These small mammals are only 35 cm long (including tail) and weigh up to 170g.

They are native to the arid regions of North America with many species living in California. The kangaroo rat can survive with very little water and spend most of their day in underground burrows, coming out a night to search for food.

Their main diet is made up of seeds which they carry back to their tunnels by storing in two cheek pouches.

Answer: Maternity den

A maternity den is a specially adapted burrow or shelter. They are used by some animals as they approach the birth of their young, as well as afterwards, when they are nurturing their young during their first few weeks. Maternity dens are used by red foxes, wild dogs and polar bears. Polar bears living in Arctic regions dig deep burrows into snow drifts, with a tunnel leading into one or more chambers.

Her litter will be one or two cubs, born blind, and living within the den for the first three months of their lives.

Answer: Hyrax

Thy hyrax is a chunky looking mammal, similar to a rodent but distantly related to the elephant. Their natural habitat is the rocky terrain of North Africa and the Middle East. The aardvark, giant shrew and fennec fox are all burrowing animals which live in Africa.

The aardvark, with its distinctive snout, lives in the bottom two-thirds of Africa. Their sharp claws allow them to dig for termites as well as making shelter in burrows. The giant shrew with its pointed nose lives throughout the central section of Africa.

The fennec fox with its large ears live in the Sahara Desert. They tunnel beneath the sand where they can keep cool and where they can remain hidden from predators. They appear at night when they search for food including small rodents, birds and insects.