NATURE investigates what goes into making a home when you're wild and cost is not a factor. They may be single-use, multi-generational, or multi-purpose; they may be anything from a small depression in the sand to a many-chambered tunnel, a nest, a burrow, or a mound, but for animals big and small, these dwellings are always impressive home sweet homes. Included: beavers, which can construct massive dams; prairie dogs, which create underground communities that can stretch for miles; and Socotra cormorants, which nest on desert islands off Arabia. Also: ants, including leaf-cutter ants and army ants; termites; and New Guinea’s Vogelkop bowerbirds.
