Life in the soil food web

Megafauna: the giants (cm scale)

The largest animals associated with the soil are known as megafauna. This group includes burrowing mammals such as moles, as well as larger animals like badgers, foxes, and birds that use soil for nesting or hunting. Although many of these animals spend only part of their lives underground, they depend on healthy soils for food, shelter, or reproduction. Moles, for example, are highly adapted to life below ground, with powerful digging limbs and poor eyesight, and feed mainly on earthworms.

Upper left: © Red fox by Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0, no changes were made to the original photo.

Upper right: © Insect larva – Larva sobre tierra by Federico Rodriguez, CC BY 4.0, the original photo was cut on the right side.

Bottom left: © Burrowing owl by Ron Knight, CC BY 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo.

Bottom right: © Small sandpit mining bee (Andrena argentata) by gailhampshire, CC BY 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo.