Species That Can Breathe Underground | Complete Guide
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Species That Can Breathe Underground
Skin, Blood, and Burrow Design Built for Life Without Open Air
Underground air isn’t like the air above it. Soil limits airflow, oxygen runs lower, and carbon dioxide can build up fast in a sealed tunnel. Animals that live below the surface have found real, distinct solutions to that problem.
An earthworm has no lungs at all and breathes entirely through its moist skin. A mole’s blood is packed with extra oxygen-storing protein, letting it tolerate burrow conditions that would leave most mammals gasping. A prairie dog doesn’t change its own biology at all, it builds its burrow with multiple openings shaped to create natural airflow using nothing but wind and mound design. Each approach solves the same core challenge in a completely different way.
💡 Quick Fact
This guide covers why underground air is so different from surface air, several standout species and their breathing strategies, and answers to common questions.
Why Breathing Underground Is So Different
Soil doesn’t exchange gas with the atmosphere nearly as freely as open air does, which creates real, measurable challenges for anything living beneath it.
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Lower Oxygen Levels
Sealed or poorly ventilated burrows can run noticeably low on oxygen
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Higher Carbon Dioxide
Without airflow, exhaled carbon dioxide can build up quickly
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Structural Solutions
Some species solve the problem through burrow design, not biology
What’s notable is that not every solution here is biological. Some species adapted their bodies, while others simply engineered their homes to solve the airflow problem for them.
🔬 Underground Breathing by the Numbers
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% of an earthworm’s oxygen intake happens directly through its skin
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times more myoglobin a mole’s muscle tissue can contain compared to many surface mammals
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years a cicada nymph can spend breathing underground before ever reaching the surface
Standout Underground Breathers
These species show some of the clearest, best-documented solutions to breathing below the surface:
🪱 Earthworm: Breathing Entirely Through Its Skin
Earthworms have no lungs at all. Instead, oxygen and carbon dioxide pass directly across their moist skin in a process called cutaneous respiration.
Moisture dependency: dry skin can’t exchange gases effectively, which is why earthworms need consistently damp soil to survive.
Surface emergence after rain: heavy rain can flood burrows with water low in oxygen, prompting worms to surface temporarily.
No specialized respiratory organs: unlike most animals, an earthworm’s entire outer surface functions as its breathing organ.
🐹 European Mole: Blood Built for Low-Oxygen Tunnels
Moles have unusually high concentrations of myoglobin, an oxygen-storing protein in muscle tissue, along with blood adapted to tolerate the higher carbon dioxide levels typical of sealed burrows.
Extra oxygen storage: high myoglobin levels let moles store and access more oxygen within their own muscle tissue.
Elevated carbon dioxide tolerance: their blood chemistry is adapted to function normally even with higher carbon dioxide levels than most mammals could handle.
Efficient tunnel design: moles also dig extensive tunnel systems that provide some degree of natural air movement.
🐾 Prairie Dog: Solving Airflow Through Architecture, Not Biology
Rather than relying on special blood or lungs, prairie dogs build burrows with multiple entrances and distinct mound shapes that use wind to create passive, natural airflow through the tunnel system.
Mound-driven ventilation: differently shaped mounds at each entrance create different wind pressure, driving air circulation through the tunnels.
Multiple entrance strategy: having several openings at different points allows air to flow in one entrance and out another.
No biological adaptation required: this ventilation strategy means prairie dogs don’t need the specialized blood chemistry seen in species like moles.
More Underground Breathers Worth Knowing
Beyond the most well-known examples, several other species have their own way of managing life underground:
🎯 Explore Another Underground Breather
🐭 Naked Mole-Rat: Extreme Tolerance for Crowded, Low-Oxygen Burrows
Naked mole-rats live in densely packed underground colonies with limited airflow, and can tolerate oxygen levels that would be dangerous for most other mammals.
Group living pressure: large colony sizes in a single burrow system mean oxygen is shared among many individuals at once.
Metabolic flexibility: their cells can shift to alternative energy pathways under especially low oxygen conditions.
Reduced pain sensitivity to carbon dioxide: unlike most mammals, high carbon dioxide levels don’t trigger the same discomfort response, letting them tolerate stuffier burrow air.
🦗 Cicada Nymph: Years of Underground Breathing Before Ever Surfacing
Cicada nymphs spend years underground feeding on root fluids, breathing the entire time through a network of internal air tubes called tracheae.
Tracheal breathing system: air moves directly through small tubes to tissues, an entirely different respiratory system from mammal lungs.
Extremely long underground stage: depending on species, this underground nymph stage can last anywhere from a couple of years to well over a decade.
Soil gas dependency: nymphs rely on small air pockets within soil structure for the oxygen their tracheal system needs.
🐿️ Pocket Gopher: Blood Adapted for a Life Almost Entirely Underground
Pocket gophers spend nearly their entire lives in sealed underground tunnels, relying on blood adapted to function efficiently in consistently lower-oxygen conditions.
Rarely surfaces: pocket gophers spend the overwhelming majority of their life underground, more so than many other burrowing mammals.
Efficient oxygen extraction: physiological adaptations allow them to extract oxygen effectively even from air with reduced oxygen content.
Tunnel plugging behavior: they often seal off sections of tunnel, which can further reduce airflow in the specific areas they occupy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does an earthworm breathe if it has no lungs?
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Earthworms breathe through their moist skin in a process called cutaneous respiration, absorbing oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide directly across their skin’s surface. This is why earthworms need to stay damp, since dry skin cannot exchange gases effectively.
Why do underground burrows tend to have low oxygen and high carbon dioxide?
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Soil naturally limits airflow compared to open air, and the breathing of burrow-dwelling animals themselves gradually uses up available oxygen and adds carbon dioxide. Without regular ventilation, gas levels inside a sealed burrow can become quite different from the surface air just above it.
What makes a mole’s blood different from a typical mammal’s blood?
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Moles have unusually high concentrations of a protein called myoglobin in their muscle tissue, which helps store and manage oxygen more efficiently in low-oxygen burrow conditions. Their blood is also adapted to tolerate higher carbon dioxide levels than most other mammals could handle comfortably.
How do prairie dogs get fresh air into their underground burrows?
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Prairie dogs build burrows with multiple entrances at different heights and mound shapes, creating natural airflow driven by wind passing over the uneven mound structures. This passive ventilation system helps circulate fresh air through the tunnel system without any active effort from the animals themselves.
Can any animal survive underground without any air exchange at all?
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Very few, and typically only for short periods. Most underground species rely on some combination of skin-based gas exchange, blood adaptations, burrow ventilation design, or periodic trips to the surface, rather than surviving with zero air exchange for extended stretches.
Do underground insects breathe the same way as underground mammals?
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No. Insects like cicada nymphs breathe through a network of internal tubes called tracheae that carry air directly to tissues, a completely different system from the lungs and blood-based oxygen transport used by underground mammals like moles.
Compare by Breathing Strategy
Different species rely on different core strategies to breathe underground. Pick one to explore:
Conclusion: Different Problems, Different Solutions
Breathing underground isn’t solved just one way. An earthworm relies entirely on its skin. A mole relies on specialized blood chemistry. A prairie dog solves the whole problem through smart burrow architecture instead of biology at all.
Together, these species show that survival underground depends on whichever solution, biological or structural, fits a species’ specific underground lifestyle best.
Want to learn more?
Look into research on burrow ecology and subterranean animal physiology, and share which species on this list surprised you the most!
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