From ARC
All this hot weather means our birds need to find ways to stay cool! Many of our ambassadors love a good soak in a bath, a fresh drink, or a cool misting. One of our residents, however, has a pretty unique strategy: Lavinia the Black Vulture.
Lavinia excretes liquid waste (a mix of urates and feces) right onto her legs. While that might sound a bit gross to us, it's actually a super effective process called urohidrosis. As the moisture evaporates off her skin, it pulls heat away from a dense network of blood vessels near the surface, quickly cooling her down.
Once the water evaporates, a chalky white layer is left behind that helps reflect sunlight instead of absorbing it. So when you look at Lavinia's bright white legs, that isn't her natural scale color. It's just her built-in cooling system at work!
4 Comments
state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 36d
Bloody double standards. When a vulture does it, it's fine. But when I do this at the beach, people call the police.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 36d
Well now you are armed with the knowledge to tell them you have urohidrosis and you can't help yourself! I can almost guarantee they won't know what that is, so you should be in the clear to wizz away!
Regna@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 36d
That was very interesting and enlightening. Thank you, as always for your great posts with pictures and accompanying information from many sources.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 36d
I'm glad you are still learning and enjoying it all! Knowledge and understanding allows us to be better friends to all of those we share this world with.