Everyone needs a place to live, but some aren’t happy with the great outdoors, they look for some home comforts – they use extraordinary specialist building skills to construct the perfect home. Homes have many uses. They can prove a bolthole to escape predators, a safe nursery in which to raise young, a food store and a shelter from bad weather.

Animals of many shapes and sizes build their own homes. Perhaps the biggest construction projects are those undertaken by ants. Hundreds of thousands work together to construct their home.

Small mammals are expert diggers. Meerkats and hamsters both excavate elaborate tunnels where they can stay out of harm’s way and raise their young, though the hamster likes to work alone while the meerkats prefer to have the company of an entire clan.

When it comes to making a nursery, it’s birds who steal the show. In just a few days they can construct a basket of twigs – a nest that can support their growing family and keep them out of harm’s way.

There is one other good builder in the animal kingdom – us. Did we learn our skills from the animal home builders?