It’s So Hot in Texas that the Poor Squirrels Are Splooting Again

It's so hot in Texas...the squirrels are melting?

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but no, seriously, the heat is so bad in Texas that we're under excessive heat warnings almost every day- and we are also home of the Heat Dome.

While we all scramble to find ways to beat the heat- thank you refrigerated air conditioning- I have to stop and wonder: what about the poor animals?!

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Animals all have different ways of keeping cool but I think that the way squirrels do it is kind of genius! The Texas Parks and Wildlife Instagram page shared a video of a squirrel at Inks Lake State Park splooting.

Adorable, right? Splooting is, as the Washington Post describes it is:

“VERB (intransitive): (of an animal) to lie flat on the stomach with the hind legs stretched out behind the body."

The term, which the Washington Post says is another way of saying "heat dumping",  started floating around a year ago when another video of a squirrel (this time in New York) was seen splooting and people got concerned thinking that the squirrel died!

Fortunately, the squirrel was okay, and now it looks like we're seeing squirrels splooting in Texas!  The squirrels perform this move to reduce body heat on cool surfaces. Which sounds kind of genius.

Other animals that are splooting? Dogs! You might see dogs stretching their hind legs more this summer, and possibly other animals; so don't be alarmed if you do see animals splooting! When it's over 100 in the Lone Star state I may also end up splooting!