32 Nebraskaland • December 2022
food. Some of that is for immediate consumption, but a lot
of it gets stored underground for later. Their burrow system
includes multiple entrances and exits. If you're looking to dig
up a kangaroo rat to eat, savvy predators know to look for the
holes that are plugged up, not the ones that are left open.
Lesser earless lizards are also big fans of open sand. Their
tunnels can be found along the edges of blowouts and other
patches of bare ground, especially on south-facing slopes
that catch plenty of sunshine. They hunt the multitudes of
insects and other invertebrates looking to warm up in that
same sunshine. When threatened, they can scamper into
holes or vegetative cover or just quickly bury themselves in
loose sand.
Other animals make their homes in blowouts, too, but
most are small and easy to overlook. There are a number of
small sand wasps, for example, that dig nest burrows out
in the middle of vast expanses of sand. Those entrances
are often closed up by blowing sand, but the wasps have
an extraordinary ability to fi nd and re-open their tunnels
anyway. That's important, since females of some species
make numerous trips to and from those nest burrows carrying
fl ies for their kids to eat.
Several species of tiger beetle are commonly seen in the
exposed sand of blowouts. The larvae of some species make
tunnels in the same sand, where they position themselves at
Lesser earless lizards are well adapted to the hot expanses of open ground in blowouts.
Toads are commonly seen in blowouts, probably drawn by
an abundance of insects.
