Some species reshape their environments in ways that are easy to overlook, even though the effects are wide reaching. Their routines influence soil health, water flow, plant growth, and the movement of other wildlife, often without drawing much attention.
These animals may not be the largest or the most visible, yet their impact plays a meaningful part in keeping ecosystems balanced. Many of these changes happen slowly, through habits repeated day after day.
Burrowing, grazing, travelling in groups, or building shelters can transform landscapes over time. Understanding how these quiet forces work helps reveal the hidden structure behind healthy habitats and the roles different species play in maintaining them.
This article is for general knowledge only and is based on information from online sources. Ecosystems vary widely across regions, and the influence of specific species can differ with climate and habitat conditions. Photos are for illustrative purposes only.
1. Prairie Dogs
These chubby rodents build underground cities that stretch for kilometres beneath grasslands. Their tunneling aerates soil, allowing water to penetrate deeper and helping plants grow stronger roots.
Abandoned burrows become homes for burrowing owls, black-footed ferrets, and countless insects. Without prairie dogs, grassland soil would compact, reducing plant diversity and affecting dozens of other species.
Scientists consider them a keystone species because their presence supports over 150 different animals. When prairie dog colonies disappear, entire grassland communities can collapse within just a few years.
2. Earthworms
Beneath every garden and forest floor, these quiet workers process organic matter into nutrient-rich castings. Their constant tunneling creates channels that improve drainage and bring oxygen to plant roots buried deep underground.
A single earthworm can move through 36 tonnes of soil during its lifetime. They break down dead leaves and plant material faster than natural decomposition alone.
Forests without earthworms often have thick layers of undecomposed material covering the ground. When earthworms arrive, they transform the entire soil structure, sometimes changing which plants can survive there.
3. Sea Otters
Floating lazily on their backs, these marine mammals munch sea urchins all day long. This seemingly simple behaviour protects vast underwater kelp forests from being devoured by urchin populations.
Kelp forests shelter hundreds of fish species and provide nurseries for commercial seafood. When sea otters vanish, urchins multiply rapidly and create barren underwater deserts called urchin barrens.
Researchers discovered that coasts with healthy otter populations support 10 times more marine life. Their appetite for urchins maintains balance across entire coastal ecosystems, benefiting everything from tiny plankton to grey whales.
4. Dung Beetles
Watch these determined insects roll balls of manure across the landscape like tiny custodians. They bury animal waste underground, recycling nutrients back into soil where plants can access them.
Without dung beetles, pastures would suffocate under layers of accumulated droppings. They also reduce fly populations by removing the moist habitat where flies breed.
In Australia, introduced cattle created waste problems because native beetles couldn’t process it efficiently. Scientists imported African dung beetles, which transformed pasture health within a generation by breaking down millions of tonnes annually.
5. Beavers
With just their teeth and determination, these rodents reshape entire river valleys. Their dams create wetlands that filter pollutants, store floodwater, and provide habitat for fish, amphibians, and waterfowl.
A single beaver family can maintain multiple dams across several kilometres. The ponds they create raise water tables, keeping surrounding forests hydrated during droughts.
When beavers return to landscapes where they were previously hunted out, biodiversity increases dramatically. Their engineering creates complex water systems that benefit dozens of species, from dragonflies to moose browsing on aquatic plants.
6. Elephants
These giants knock down trees, dig waterholes, and scatter seeds across vast distances. While their destruction seems harmful, it actually maintains the mosaic of forests and grasslands that supports Africa’s incredible biodiversity.
Elephant pathways become roads for smaller animals and channels for water flow during rains. Their dung carries seeds dozens of kilometres, helping forests regenerate in new areas.
Without elephants, many African landscapes would transform into dense thickets unsuitable for grazing animals. Their feeding habits create openings where grasses thrive, supporting zebras, antelopes, and countless other herbivores.
7. Ants
Colonies numbering millions move soil particles, disperse seeds, and hunt other insects with military precision. Their underground nests aerate soil similarly to earthworms, improving water infiltration and root growth.
Leafcutter ants cultivate fungus gardens underground, creating nutrient hotspots where plants grow more vigorously. They process more vegetation than any other animal group in tropical forests.
Some ant species protect certain plants from herbivores in exchange for nectar or shelter. These partnerships shape which plants dominate an area, indirectly affecting birds, mammals, and countless other organisms throughout the ecosystem.
8. Parrotfish
Coral reefs echo with crunching sounds as these colourful fish scrape algae off rocks using their beak-like teeth. They prevent algae from smothering coral, keeping reefs healthy and vibrant.
Each parrotfish produces hundreds of kilograms of sand annually by grinding up coral skeletons while feeding. That white sand beach you love probably passed through a parrotfish first.
Their constant grazing creates space for new coral polyps to settle and grow. Reefs with healthy parrotfish populations recover faster from bleaching events and storm damage, maintaining the complex structures that shelter thousands of marine species.
9. Woodpeckers
The rhythmic hammering of woodpeckers creates homes for dozens of other species. Their abandoned nest cavities become shelters for owls, squirrels, bats, and insects that cannot excavate wood themselves.
By stripping bark from dead trees while hunting insects, woodpeckers speed decomposition and nutrient cycling. They also control beetle populations that might otherwise damage healthy trees.
In forests where woodpeckers have declined, cavity-nesting bird populations drop significantly. Their carpentry work maintains biodiversity by providing nesting sites in areas where natural tree cavities are scarce or take decades to form.
10. Wolves
When wolves hunt, they change how prey animals behave across entire landscapes. Deer and elk avoid open valleys where they are vulnerable, allowing vegetation to recover in those areas.
This behaviour cascade affects rivers, birds, and even insects. Yellowstone National Park saw aspen and willow forests return after wolves were reintroduced, stabilizing stream banks and creating habitat for songbirds.
Wolves also kill coyotes, which allows smaller predators like foxes and hawks to thrive. Their presence restructures food webs from top to bottom, demonstrating how one predator can influence everything from trees to butterflies.
11. Termites
These tiny insects build towering mounds that become oases of fertility in otherwise poor soils. Their nests concentrate nutrients, creating hotspots where plants grow more luxuriantly than surrounding areas.
Termite tunnels improve water infiltration across vast regions, helping landscapes retain moisture during dry seasons. They break down dead wood faster than fungi alone, recycling nutrients back into ecosystems.
Many animals rely on termite mounds for shelter, from mongooses to monitor lizards. In some African savannas, vegetation patterns are determined entirely by termite activity, with their mounds supporting different plant communities than the surrounding grassland.
12. Bats
Every night, these flying mammals consume vast quantities of insects, providing natural pest control worth billions of dollars to agriculture. A single bat can eat thousands of mosquitoes and crop-damaging moths in one evening.
Fruit bats pollinate flowers and disperse seeds across distances other animals cannot reach. They are essential for rainforest regeneration, spreading fig seeds that become keystone food sources for countless species.
Bat guano accumulates in caves, creating nutrient-rich ecosystems that support unique invertebrate communities. When bat populations decline, insect pest numbers soar, forests regenerate more slowly, and cave ecosystems collapse.
