Urohidrosis
Sign in to saveright|thumb|A white stork in [[Tsavo East National Park, Kenya. The lower parts of its legs are covered with whitish droppings]] Urohidrosis (sometimes misspelled "urohydrosis") is the habit in some birds of defecating 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.
Article
3 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Examples
- References
right|thumb|A white stork in [[Tsavo East National Park, Kenya. The lower parts of its legs are covered with whitish droppings]] Urohidrosis (sometimes misspelled "urohydrosis") is the habit in some birds of defecating 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 sweating from Ancient Greek, 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.