It’s so hot! We have air conditioning, but what about the animals?

What does the word summer remind you of? Watermelon popsicles, sunshine, beaches and swimsuits?

Summer in the second dimension is always beautiful, but in the third dimension, before summer passes quietly and leaves its little secrets behind, we have to face its most terrifying side - heat.

Heat will not only make you sweat profusely and feel sore all over, but if you are not careful, you may also suffer from heat stroke due to the high temperature, or even die due to metabolic disorders caused by high body temperature. In order to fight the summer heat, we have invented a variety of tools, from simple umbrellas, fans, and cool mats to air conditioners that "if you turn them on, I will feel hot, but if you turn them on, you will feel hot too", which provide us with a lot of convenience to cool down.

I wonder if you have ever thought about this: humans, a species with sparse body hair, well-developed sweat glands, moderate body shape, and excellent heat dissipation ability, are so powerless in the face of the hot summer. How do those animals that are covered with hair and "look hot" cope with the scorching heat?

Even though your cat may look hot and furry, don’t shave it casually. | ajmexico / Flickr

Summer is hot, suitable for bathing

The first choice of heat-relief measures is naturally to take a bath. Speaking of water, the biggest use is that it can take away body heat. And as long as you soak in water, you can effectively avoid direct sunlight , which can naturally prevent the body temperature from rising further. Therefore, under certain conditions, many animals will choose to take a bath as the first choice for heatstroke prevention and cooling.

Soaking in water makes you feel crisp and juicy丨Derek Keats / Wikipedia

Speaking of animals that soak in water, we have to mention hippos. The large hippos may even stay in the water all the time when the weather is hot. The eyes and nose located on the top of the head allow them to immerse almost their entire body in the water, leaving only the nose and eyes above the water, breathing and observing the surrounding environment. The thick fat also prevents hippos from getting hypothermia due to soaking in the water for too long - of course, if they feel a little cold, they will still leave the water to warm up a little.

Because the water is not deep enough, some hippos will choose a more comfortable posture to cool off丨Animal Antics / YouTube

In addition to hippos, animals with the word "water" in their names, such as capybaras, otters, and panda-colored Malayan tapirs, also like to escape the heat in the water. However, animals living in the wild may still need to be more careful before taking a bath - after all, if you are not as big as a hippopotamus, it would be no fun if you encounter a crocodile that also likes to take a bath while taking a bath...

Capybara is a real bathing uncle丨needpix

The crocodile's mouth is ready丨Pexel

A mud spa is also good

Although it is nice to spend a leisurely day soaking in the water, if you are large and it is not easy to find a suitable bathtub, or if you are not good at swimming, you may need to think of other ways. Taking a mud bath is a good choice. The water-containing mud can also take away the heat, and applying it on the skin can also prevent sunburn from direct sunlight and mosquito bites. It can be said that there are many benefits.

I love mud wraps, they make my skin so good! | Charlie Marshall / Flickr

The simplest way to take a mud bath is to find a mud pond and roll in it, just like a marshmallow rolling in molten chocolate, and just wrap yourself in a layer of mud. Animals such as rhinos and wild boars especially like to use this method to escape the heat. When the water source is not so sufficient, hippos will also join their team.

Elephants, who are so large that it is difficult to find a mud pond to soak their whole bodies in, choose another way to take a mud bath. They use their trunks to throw mud (mud) onto their bodies , and if conditions permit, a little water spray will make it perfect.

Some elephants just wrap themselves in mud. Some elephants just roll around in the mud. |elephantnews / YouTube

If I can't bear it, can't I hide from it?

Of course, both of the above luxurious cooling methods have a prerequisite - water. But it is not easy to find sufficient water as a heatstroke prevention measure in all places. When encountering hot and dry conditions , animals often choose another simpler and more direct way to deal with the heat - just avoid the sun.

For example, if you only come out at night when there is no sun , you won't have to suffer from the harsh sunlight. Of course, if you still want to come out during the day, you can find a cool place where the sun doesn't shine and the temperature is relatively low .

The desert cat (Felis margarita) lives in the desert and hides in cool caves during the day, only to come out and kill at night. Matt Underwood / Flickr

But what if you can't find a cool place for a while? A compromise is to dig one yourself. In the desert, which is hot and dry all year round and has a huge temperature difference between day and night, many animals live in caves. During the extremely hot daytime, they can avoid the heat in the ventilated and dry caves underground, and come out to move around when the temperature drops at night - in fact, humans hiding in air-conditioned rooms actually adopt a similar strategy.

Let's go out when the weather is cooler丨Pixabay

Friends at the zoo, are you hot?

The previous article introduced some tips for cooling down in the summer that are commonly used by wild animals. So how do animals living in zoos survive the hot summer?

First of all, a good zoo will arrange some cooling conditions similar to those in the wild when designing cages based on the actual conditions of the animals: such as a huge pool, a deep enough mud pit, and some intricate caves.

"It's so hot, I'm going to take a bath." | Pxhere

However, since they are artificial conditions, they can naturally enjoy some artificial cooling methods that do not exist in the natural environment: air conditioning is a must, large chunks of ice are also possible, and how about some iced watermelon?

Of course, you have to eat ice cream in summer! 丨Smeet

Hold my ice cube丨S.samana.AR / Wikipedia

However, even with artificial intervention, it is still very difficult to raise polar animals that adapt to cold climates in temperate or even subtropical areas. Therefore, for these animals, the most suitable way to escape the heat is to stay in their perennially frozen home, rather than being kept in a zoo and suffering from the heat.

I want to go back to the Arctic丨Petra Maldet / meinbezirk.at

Author: Wing Wolf Elang