Pooping, splooting, spitting: How wild animals beat the heat
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Hottest day, hottest week, hottest month, and – increasingly likely – hottest year; 2023 has garnered unwanted records as the climate crisis escalates.
Hottest day, hottest week, hottest month, and – increasingly likely – hottest year; 2023 has garnered unwanted records as the climate crisis escalates.
Animals, like humans, are greatly affected by the rising temperatures. Species that have evolved tactics to combat the heat are relying on those behaviours to try to keep cool.
From peculiar methods like “splooting,” to changing physiology altogether, here are four ways different creatures are trying to beat the heat.
You might never have heard of it but if you're a cat or dog owner, you've almost definitely seen a “sploot.”
Also known as “frogging” or “pancaking,” splooting is the flat-out, spread-eagle posture beloved by many four-legged animals and animal lovers alike.
Yet splooting – which was added to the Collins Dictionary in 2021 – serves a purpose beyond comfort and cuteness. In scientific circles, it's known as “heat dumping.”
The term shot to prominence in August 2022 after pictures of squirrels splayed out on their bellies in New York City sent the internet into a frenzy. Scientists offered a logical explanation.
