Animals That Don't Break A Sweat

I was out watering plants that look like toast after our week absence.  Sweat was rolling into my eyes when a butterfly flitted by looking totally at home with the 102 degrees it was.  

 

A black beetle scooted by my feet, also looking nonplussed by the weather.  Well, of course they weren’t, not being warm blooded (homeothermic) as mammals and birds are, they literally don’t sweat the small stuff!  Cold blooded animals (poikilothermic ) as many of us know, must use their environment to cool down or warm up. I am sure that beetle would soon be heading under the mulch, where I must say it still must be 100 but that is within their range of tolerance.  These are Texas beetles after all, they wouldn’t be here if they couldn’t take it.

But how about those other mammals around you, most of them are using other methods than sweat to do the cool down trick.   If your body is covered in fur, than sweating under that would only make matters worse.  We all know our dogs pant to shed their heat to some degree, but they also sweat between the pads of their feet.  Cats have them too between their pads. Note the little wet cat or dog prints that are in the house when there is no rain without.  But here is something new I learned.  When your dog or cat is licking, licking and licking their legs, and you think, “Enough already, you’re clean!” they are really  just doing what your sweat glands do.  Putting moisture on top of their fur that then will cool down as it evaporates.  I never knew that.  I thought my dog had arthritis or some ache he was trying to ease.  Kangaroos lick their fore paws too. Should you find yourself in Australia in the presence of a licking kangaroo you will be well informed!

My squirrels are always sprawling on the railing of the deck, cooling off that underbelly, but they also claim that a curled tail over their back helps too.  The under part of the tail is light colored and so absorbs less heat than when the dark side is showing.  Which is why you will always see me dressed in beige and white the whole summer through, the equivalent of a squirrel with its tail turned up.

Being long and skinny as lizards and snakes are helps them with a more rapid heat exchange.  The shape allows them to cool down faster or warm up more quickly so it works for both extremes.  Cold blooded animals need far less input of energy to keep their cooler fires burning so no need to dash about all day capturing fly after fly, just lay low and chill out and you will indeed chill out. 

 

Birds have higher internal temperatures than you or I, more like 105 to our 98, so this weather must mean they feel the same on the inside as the out.  But they also have a higher rate of metabolism so you will see them doing their own form of panting on hot days, rapid respiration that dispels some of the heat.  Bare patches on their face, their legs etc. allow the heat to transfer more quickly and then, of course, how grateful they are when you provide a birdbath and shade trees. 

African elephants have huge veins in those large ears so all the flapping is to cool their blood down.  Jackrabbits with those long, almost transparent ears, are using a similar technique with the veins close to the surface shedding the excess heat.  Even whales living in a cool ocean have to overcome the insulating blubber when a fast paced swim has them heating up.  Their blood is shunted to large veins in the fluke where close contact with the water will work as their AC.

No end of diversity then in this manner of cooling off.  Shall we not mention that the vultures around here will urinate on their legs to get relief from the heat? No feathers there and you don’t see them at your birdbaths so, a birds gotta do what a birds gotta do. 

 It does seem, however, that I will be the only one out there mopping my brow unless, of course, I come in to write about it as I just have and ahhh, I am much more comfortable now.