EnchantedLearning.com Animal Printouts

Underground and Burrowing Animal Printouts

Some animals live underground for all or much of the time. Living underground has many advantages, including protection from some predators, from extreme temperatures (both hot and cold), and from overly dry climates. Many animals also hunt for food underground, like tubers, roots, other plant material, worms, grubs, insects, insect eggs and larvae.

Some animals, like moles and earthworms spend their entire lives underground. Others, like the prairie dog, spend some time below ground and some time above ground. Some animals spend a portion of their life cycle underground (for example, some insect larvae).

Fossorial means relating to burrowing or living underground. Fossorial animals are adapted to living underground. Aardvarks, armadillos, and moles are fossorial animals

Some Underground and Burrowing Animal Printouts:

Aardvark Aardvarks are large mammals that eat ants. Simpler aardvark printout

Ant Ants are social insects that are found worldwide and in almost every environment.

Armadillo The armadillo is a small, burrowing, armored mammal.

Badger The badger is a nocturnal mammal with a black-and-white striped face. Badgers construct complex, long-lasting networks of tunnels and chambers called setts.

Bilby The bilby (also known as the rabbit-eared bandicoot) is a small marsupial with long ears.

Chipmunk Chipmunks are rodents that live in North America and Asia. Many chipmunks dig extensive networks of burrows.

Cicada Cicadas are flying insects that emerge periodically and simultaneously.

Cicada Book A short book about the life cycle of the cicada to print (for early readers).

Cicada Sequencing Cards Put the cicada life cycle cards in order, from egg to adult.

Cicada Printout - Simple Version A coloring printout picturing the life cycle of the cicada.

Cicada Label the anatomy and life stages of the Cicada. Answers

Clam Burrowing bivalves with a soft body.

Cony The cony (or pika) is a small, furry mammal that stockpiles food for the winter. Desert- and grassland-dwelling conies live in burrows.

Coypu Coypus (also called nutrias) are semi-aquatic rodents that are originally from South America.

Desert Tortoise A tortoise from southwestern North America. It spends most of its life underground.

Earthworm An earthworm is a little animal with a long, soft body and no legs.

Fennec Fox The Fennec fox is a small, desert fox with very large ears; it lives in the Sahara and in northern Saudi Arabia.

Ferret Ferrets are a type of weasel. They live in prairie dog burrows that they take over (usually after eating the prairie dogs).

Fox The fox is a meat-eating mammal that often lives in an underground den.

Gerbil The gerbil is a small, long-tailed rodent that is native to dry, sandy areas of Africa and Asia.

Groundhog The groundhog is a rodent that is also called the woodchuck.

Groundhog Day A Printable Activity Book for Early Fluent Readers A short, printable activity book on Groundhog Day for beginning readers, with pages on Groundhog Day, groundhog anatomy, word unscrambles, facts, and questions.

Hamster The hamster is a small rodent that some people keep as a pet.

Jerboa The jerboa is a small, long-tailed rodent that hops. It retreats to its burrow during both extremely cold and hot weather.

Kangaroo Rat A small rodent from North America.

Meerkat Meerkats (also known as suricates) are a type of mongoose that can stand upright. They build extensive burrows in which they live.

Mole Moles are almost-blind, burrowing mammals.

Mole Label Me! Printout Label the mole external anatomy diagram. Answers

Mongoose Mongooses are sleek, meat-eating mammals.

Naked Mole-Rat Small, almost hairless rodents who live in underground colonies in Africa.

Nutria Nutrias (also called coypus) are semi-aquatic rodents that are originally from South America.

Pika The pika (or cony) is a small, furry mammal that stockpiles food for the winter. Desert- and grassland-dwelling pika live in burrows.

Prairie Dog The prairie dog is not a dog; it is a ground squirrel - a burrowing rodent.

Pupfish A small fish from desert waters of southwestern North America. This fish burrows into mud and becomes dormant during cold weather.

Rabbit A fast-moving mammal with long ears.

River Otter River otters are streamlined, aquatic mammals from North America.

Sand Dollar Sand Dollars are echinoderms, disk-shaped spiny-skinned sea bed animals that have 5-part radial symmetry. They partly bury themselves under the sand, with an edge poking up out of the sand

Sea Cucumber Sea cucumbers are cylinder-shaped echinoderms.

Shrew Shrews are tiny mammals that are quite ferocious. Shrews are good burrowers.

Slow Worm The slow worm is a legless lizard that looks like a snake (it is not a worm at all).

Tarantula A tarantula is a large, hairy spider. Some tarantulas live in underground burrows.

Woodchuck The woodchuck is a rodent that is also called the groundhog.