An airy leaf nest high atop a tree. A cozy underground burrow. A little pottery-jug nest against the side of a cliff. A termite nest that rises like a skyscraper into the sky. These are just a few of the many kinds of homes built by animals. Why do animals build homes? For the same reasons people do, so that they and their young will have a shelter and protection.

Animal home-builders are different from human ones in a special way. People have learn how to build homes. But animals inherit their building skills from their parents. Guided by instinct, an animal builds the right home the first time it tries. Mammals are especially good home-builders. Some, like the gray squirrel, even have two homes. In winter, it lives in a tree hole, where it sleeps on a mattress of bark and leaves. In spring, it moves outside and builds a leaf nest high above the grounds. Mice, wolves, foxes and other mammals live part of the time in underground burrows. The kit fox, for example, uses a burrow as a temporary nursery den. When the pups grow up, the den is abandoned.

Some of the most interesting homes are built by newly hatched insect larvae called caddis worms. Caddis worms hatch from eggs laid in mountain ponds and streams. As soon as they wriggle out their eggs, they begin to build case-like dwellings where they live until they leave the water as adult caddis flies. The cases are built out of wood, pebbles, pine needles, or stone.

Some people think that birds sleep in their nest. A few birds such as owls and woodpeckers actually do live in their nests. But most birds live in the open. They build nest only during the breeding season and use them as a sheltered cradle for their eggs and young. The African weaver bird lives in the tropics. It builds a covered nest that hangs by a loop from the branch of a tree. The nest may contain more than 300 strands of grass woven tightly into a ball. Inside the nest, the weaver bird hollows out a nesting chamber.

Image by infomatique via Flickr

Cliff swallows build their nests of mud mixed with their own sticky saliva. They smear the mud against the face of a cliff or the wall of a building and shape it into a little pottery jug with an opening at the top. The inside is lined with grass, moss, and leathers to cushion the eggs.

Very few insects build nests. But they construct some of the architectural wonders of the animal world. African termites, for example, build towering skyscrapers that may rise 20 feet into the air. They are made out of soil that the termites chew and mix with their saliva, and the walls are as hard as concrete. Some termite mounds look like giant towers or mountain peeks.

Image via Wikipedia