Column: Wildlife finds creative ways of staying cool in summer

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 4, 2026

It is fun to watch how various animals cope with heat extremes. One of the funniest ways that animals cool down: splooting. This is most often seen with gray squirrels. They spread their body out across the cool ground, splaying their legs and tail out to help dissipate their body heat. Another common heat-dissipating behavior you’ll see from pets is panting, but watch for this with wildlife too. One other cooling technique, but I wouldn’t recommend that any readers attempt, is called urohidrosis. It is a cooling mechanism in which birds defecate on their own legs to cool themselves off. Through evaporative cooling, the fluid waste pulls heat from the birds’ legs which dissipates as it evaporates. ~ Doug Hitchcox