Urohidrosis as an overlooked cooling mechanism in long-legged birds.

ABSTRACT: Behavioural thermoregulation could buffer the impacts of climate warming on vertebrates. Specifically, the wetting of body surfaces and the resulting evaporation of body fluids serves as a cooling mechanism in a number of vertebrates coping with heat. Storks (Ciconiidae) frequently excrete onto their legs to prevent overheating, a phenomenon known as urohidrosis. Despite the increasingly recognised role of bare and highly vascularised body parts in heat exchange, the ecological and evolutionary determinants of urohidrosis have been largely ignored. We combine urohidrosis data from a scientifically curated media repository with microclimate and ecological data to investigate the determinants of urohidrosis in all extant stork species. Our phylogenetic generalised linear mixed models show th

SUBMITTER: Cabello-Vergel J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8501033 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature