Animal houses
Beaver Home
An underwater tunnel leads into the house where beavers sleep and stay
warm.
Where do the animals go when winter winds blow, when snow is in the air
and on the ground? Where do they hide when it’s wet outside? Are little
animals out when dangerous animals are about?
Some mammals need no house of any kind. Whales do not. Neither do many
of
the hoofed animals, such as moose and musk oxen.
Some mammals look for shelter only at night or when they are having
their young. Most monkeys sleep in trees. The elephant looks for a
hidden spot to have her baby.
But some mammals make houses to keep out the sun or the wind or snow or
other animals. The prairie dog digs a burrow with many rooms. The
prairie is hot, but the burrow is cool. It is safe, too. Around the
doorways are heaps of dirt. The prairie dog sits on these to look around
for danger. The dirt heaps also keep out floods.
In winter, the fox is safe in its burrow deep in a sandy bank. If snow
covers one, two, or three doorways, it can go out through four or five
others. The muskrat’s summer home of wet grass and weeds turns into a
winter home of ice.
The beaver makes a house of branches and twigs. The house is often in a
pond. The top of the house freezes in winter. Wind and snow and hungry
animals can’t get in. But the bottom of the house doesn’t freeze. The
beaver goes in and out to get the food it has stored at the bottom of
the pond. An animal’s house of whatever kind is just right for the
animal that lives in it.
Squirrel Home
Some squirrels have homes in hollow trees where they store food for the
winter.
Prairie Dog Home
A prairie dog sleeps and stores food in little rooms around a tunnel.
