Breakdown of Звери, обитающие в этом лесу, прячутся в глубокие норы.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
зверь
wild animal
лес
forest, wood
Questions & Answers about Звери, обитающие в этом лесу, прячутся в глубокие норы.
How do we unpack the active participle обитающие back into a который clause?
You would say которые обитают. The participle обитающие (living/inhabiting) is in the nominative plural to agree with the subject звери. Since it is an active present participle, it elegantly replaces the relative pronoun которые and the present-tense verb обитают.
Why does лес end in -у here (в этом лесу) instead of the standard prepositional -е?
Лес is one of a small group of short masculine nouns that takes a special locative ending (sometimes called the second prepositional case) when combined with the prepositions в or на to indicate a physical location. Therefore, it is always в лесу.
Why is the destination в глубокие норы (accusative) rather than в глубоких норах (prepositional) if they are hiding inside them?
In Russian, the verb прятаться (to hide oneself) strongly focuses on the action of getting into a hiding spot. Because it describes this direction of motion (where into), it triggers the accusative case for the destination rather than the prepositional case used for static location.
Could I use животные instead of звери to mean animals in this sentence?