News, Don’t worry about that squirrel ‘splooting’ — it’s just trying to beat the heat : detailed suggestions and opinions about Don’t worry about that squirrel ‘splooting’ — it’s just trying to beat the heat .
Last week, during California’s worst September heat wave on record, Akvile DeFazio noticed the squirrels in her La Verne neighborhood acting weird: “just plastered on the sidewalk,” she said, not moving.
“It was just really bizarre behavior I hadn’t seen before,” DeFazio said. “I’ve seen squirrels all of my life, and I’ve never seen squirrels splat down like that.”
At first, she said, she worried they could be sick, so she kept her distance. But a few days later while scrolling Twitter, she saw an article about the phenomenon that’s become known as “splooting,” a way squirrels and some other animals sprawl out to stay cool when temperatures rise.
“Bears do it, squirrels do it, rabbits do it, dogs [too],” said Daniel Blumstein, a professor at UCLA’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “They get really flat when they’re trying to shed heat.”
