Urohidrosis

 ( Bird Behavior ) 

Urohidrosis (sometimes misspelled "uroh ydrosis") is the habit in some birds of defecation onto the scaly portions of the legs as a cooling mechanism, using evaporative cooling of the fluids. Birds' droppings consist of both feces and urine, which are excreted together through the cloaca.

---

Etymology Hidrosis" is the medical term for from Greek language,

(1993). 9780198612711, Oxford University Press. . ISBN 9780198612711

and the word "urohidrosis" was coined by M. P. Kahl in 1963:

...Because of its apparent functional similarity to true sweating, I suggest the term urohidrosis (Greek: ouron = urine; hidrōs = sweat) for this phenomenon.

---

Examples Several species of and New World vultures exhibit this behaviour. This behaviour leads to accumulation of droppings around leg bird ringing on ringed birds, which can lead to injury.

The term is also used to describe the analogous behaviour in Pinniped that cool themselves while basking by urinating on their hind flippers.

Post Comment