Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How do animals move through loose sand or soil?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Locomotion
These birds largely reside in coastal areas of North America, although some populations live in the continent's interior along large rivers.
Animals move through loose sand or soil using different strategies depending on their anatomy and whether they are creating permanent tunnels or simply traversing the medium.
Surface Movement and Swimming
Some animals, such as specific lizards and snakes, navigate friable sand by "swimming" through it. This movement is possible because, while the sand is compact, it lacks strong cohesiveness. For example, certain desert lizards literally dive and swim into the slipfaces of sand dunes to forage.12
Fossorial (Burrowing) Locomotion
When animals move through soil to create tunnels, their methods vary by class:
- Mammals: Fossorial mammals, such as moles and gophers, typically use their enlarged, flattened forelegs to dig. They may use a breaststroke motion to extend the leg forward and retract it in an arc, compacting the loosened soil against the burrow walls. Other species that forage above ground may use dorsoventral digging movements, pushing soil beneath their bodies to the surface.3
- Reptiles and Amphibians: These animals are often legless or have reduced limbs, relying on axial movement. They typically use patterns analogous to the contract-anchor-extend method of invertebrates. Common techniques include driving the snout forward and raising the head to compact soil against the roof, or shoving the snout forward while swinging it from side to side to shave the tunnel walls.3