Wildlife finds creative ways of staying cool in summer

 Piping plovers at Higgins Beach in Scarborough. (Photo courtesty Maine Audubon by Megan Maher) The summer heat is here and it can be fairly limiting in the ways, or especially times, that we get to enjoy nature. Last week I was out “in the field,” teaching at a Hog Island Audubon Camp for teens where we spent time both on an island off the coast and in the North Maine Woods. It was fun not only to find ways for us to brave the heat but also to watch how various animals cope with the extremes. I want to highlight a few of those to hopefully inspire readers if the heat is getting to you. First off, getting to the coast is a great reprieve but beware of who else is sharing this habitat with you. Sandy beaches are the only places where two of Maine’s most at-risk birds nest: the endangered piping plover, and threatened least terns. These summer weekends see the highest traffic on beaches, just when plover and tern chicks are nearing their independence but unfortunately are still, for the many of them, at their most vulnerable stage of life. Plover chicks are precocial, meaning they are born in a fairly advanced state, having feathers and being able to walk and feed themselves. But they are still dependent on their parents for protection, and they aren’t able to fly yet, so they are at risk from predators and threats from unknowing beachgoers. Unlike altricial young (those born featherless, that won’t leave their nests until ready to fledge), plovers are capable of covering large areas of the beach, from the dunes to the water, as they forage and grow. Maine Audubon’s efforts to manage plovers on our beaches have been a huge success but human-wildlife conflicts are still a big problem for plovers, so please keep dogs leashed, carry out your trash and give plovers plenty of space. Enjoy the cool ocean breeze and keep an eye out for the cutest chicks on the beach. Away from the shore, we got to see what I think is 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. Many mammals will do this, including pet cats and dogs, which is a helpful adaptation especially for species that don’t have sweat glands like humans. The other common heat-dissipating behavior you’ll see from pets is panting, but watch for this with wildlife too. Birds are also in this sweat-gland-free-camp, and though you won’t see them splooting, you’ll see them panting to cool themselves down. I should mention that sometimes it might _seem_ like birds are splooting, sitting on the ground with their wings spread out, but instead of trying to cool their bodies, they are killing parasites. Sunbathing has been documented in a wide variety of birds, with research increasingly showing that the exposure to heat and UV radiation is beneficial for controlling feather mites.  Related [Have questions about birding in Maine? Ask Maine Audubon in our live Q&A](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/06/30/ask-maine-audubon-all-of-your-questions-about-birding-in-our-live-qa/) One other cooling technique that we enjoyed teaching campers about, but I wouldn’t recommend that any readers attempt, is called urohidrosis. Coined by the zoologist Marvin Kahl, who studied storks, the term comes from the Greek ouron (urine) and hidros (sweat), and is a cooling mechanism in which birds defecate on their own legs to cool themselves off. Through evaporative cooling, the fluid waste (technically not urine, with birds) pulls heat from the birds’ legs which dissipates as it evaporates. I suspect you are more likely to be cooling off at the beach than trying out urohidrosis, so please be mindful of the wildlife sharing that space. Remember that piping plovers are completely reliant on sandy beaches for nesting, so they have no other choice where to spend their nesting season. You do have a choice, so if you are going to the beach, please keep watch and share that space with the birds that need it, too.  _Have you got a nature or wildlife question? It doesn’t have to be about birds! Email questions to [\[email protected\]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection) visit_[_maineaudubon.org_](http://www.maineaudubon.org/)_to learn more about birding, native plants, and programs and events focusing on Maine wildlife and habitat. Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox and other naturalists lead free bird walks on Thursday mornings starting at 8 am, at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm Audubon Sanctuary in Falmouth._   Copy the Story Link