Keeping cool with poop: Urohidrosis lowers leg surface temperature by up to 6°C in breeding White storks

Abstract

AbstractStorks (Ciconiidae) are renowned for defecating on their legs when exposed to high temperatures, a phenomenon known as “urohidrosis.” Previous work suggested that this behavior can cool down the blood supply to the legs and thus prevent hyperthermia in captive storks when overheated. However, no study has quantified the magnitude or duration of its evaporative cooling effect in free‐ranging birds. Here, we combine urohidrosis data with thermal imaging and microclimate data to investigate the thermoregulatory significance of urohidrosis in White storks Ciconia ciconia during the breeding season. We show that urohidrosis can reduce leg surface temperature by up to 6.7°C (4.40 ± 1.04°C). Yet its cooling effect was of short duration (lasting no more than 2.5 min) and decreased with time since defecation. Thus, for urohidrosis to significantly contribute to heat dissipation, storks must perform it repeatedly when overheated. Indeed, an individual can perform up to 11 urohidrosis events per hour; our estimates indicate that repeated urohidrosis could represent a significant amount of heat loss during short time span, equivalent to 4% of daily field metabolic rate for an adult stork. Our results point to an absence of differences in the cooling efficiency of urohidrosis between adults and nestlings, probably because all nestlings were recorded during the last phase of the ontogeny of thermoregulation. Besides, during the hottest days, adult storks delivered water to their nestlings, which might allow them to replenish body water reserves to sustain urohidrosis and other heat dissipation behaviors such as panting or gular fluttering. Our results indicate that urohidrosis might buffer the impact of high temperatures in breeding storks, preventing overheating and lethal hyperthermia. Gaining knowledge about behavioral thermoregulation in the heat is therefore crucial to better predict the future persistence and vulnerability of species under different climate warming scenarios.