People Are Going Wild Learning All About Squirrel Splooting
The internet can be a wondrous place. Scary at times, I find myself learning something new and oftentimes useless information that I'll likely never need.
During my afternoon internet consumption, which let's be honest in the business of broadcasting no matter how convicted we may get about not getting online it is simply a necessary evil in the industry, I ran across the term 'Squirrel Splooting'.
This afternoon I have learned about 'squirrel splooting'. Hesitantly clicking a story link, I opened to read that it wasn't the grotesque image that my mind originally conjured when I saw the term 'splooting'.
Hot weather is what typically causes a squirrel to sploot. In other words, the animal lays prone and spread eagle to take advantage of as much of a cooler surface as possible in order to regulate body temperature.
It's something that many of us have watched our pets do on occasion, laughing at the display, but it is actually a thing for wildlife as well. When we had prairie dogs we watched them sploot quite often.
The NBC affiliate from Austin did a great story about squirrel splooting recently that you should check out to learn the science behind it all, or you can just take a look at the examples below and get the gist of what 'squirrel splooting' means.