Heermann's kangaroo rats are burrowing animals, and they manipulate the tunnels already made by other burrowing animals to make their own, such as tunnels made by ground squirrels ("Spermophilus"). The extent of the burrowing behavior depends on the type of soil present: in areas with fine deep soil their tunnels average long and up to beneath the surface, whereas in shallow rocky soils the average length is and they do not extend deeper than . Additionally they have one to four escape routes besides the main entrance.