For the past few weeks, temperatures in many parts of the world have been almost unbearable, and not only people are suffering, but the animals too. Particularly in the warmer urban areas, scorching temperatures have led to a seemingly bizarre behavior: splooting.
Splooting, or more technically dumping heat, is a process in which animals stretch their hind legs back and lie on cooler surfaces to reduce their body heat. It’s often done by squirrels and sometimes by dogs, and it’s not a cause for concern, it’s just a sign that the animal is warm and trying to cool down.
The New York City Parks and Recreation Department sent out a tweet telling people not to worry about the behavior if they see squirrels doing it.
Sploot Season
When the tweet went viral, many people focused on the word as well. Splooten, is that something? Well, like other words like boom or mlem, it’s strangely descriptive. Secure, dump heat is the more technically correct term, but the animal is just kind of…sploot. The word seems to be at least semi-legitimate, as the Collins dictionary lists it as a slang word meaning “to lie flat on the stomach with the hind legs extended behind the body”. Also, as it turns out, it’s also more common than you think.
It’s not uncommon behavior for mammals — just like how humans sometimes spread out in the AC to cool down. Mammals usually have less fur on their bellies than on other parts of their bodies, so coming into contact with a cooler surface can help them dissipate some of their heat. Marmots in the wild do it too, and corgis (and other dogs with relatively short legs) seem particularly adept at it — although it can also be done for stretching, not just cooling.
Larger animals, such as bears, do too, as highlighted in this National Park Service Instagram post. The NPS said it’s official “sploot season” and adds:
“There are different types of sploot. Who knows?
There is the full sploot, with both hind legs spread behind the animal. Then there’s the side part when one back leg sticks out to the side while the other leg sticks in, and finally the half part where one back leg sticks straight out and the other is tucked under their stomach. Whether you’re a bear, squirrel, or even tortoise, it’s officially spawning season.
Splootacular!”
As you can imagine, an official US agency’s tweet about splooting sent Twitter into a frenzy, with many people sharing their own photos of splooting. Cats don’t do it that often, but when they do, they turn themselves into a pancake.
Others were quick to share their own observations of gushing squirrels:
No matter how immobile they seem, squirting squirrels should be fine.
Sometimes birds seem to do it too, as evidenced by one of the replies to the NYC Parks and Rec post. However, this behavior is usually limited to younger birds as more mature birds are aware that this makes them very vulnerable to predators. Adult birds will instead “perch on their feathers and fluff and extend their wings to allow air to flow through and cool.”
While this behavior is nothing to worry about, temperatures will eventually rise, affecting animals. The more the temperature rises, the more animals have to deal with more heat stress and adjust their overall behavior accordingly. Splooting is a fun little behavior – but the world is getting hotter, and this isn’t fun at all.
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