thumb|upright=1.35|A buffalo wallowing Wallowing in animals is comfort behaviour during which an animal rolls about or lies in mud, water or snow. Some definitions include rolling about in dust, however, in ethology this is usually referred to as dust bathing. Wallowing is often combined with other behaviours to fulfil its purpose; for example, elephants will often blow dirt over themselves after wallowing to create a thicker "coating", or pigs will allow the mud to dry before rubbing themselves on a tree or rock to remove ectoparasites stuck in the mud.
thumb|upright=1.35|A buffalo wallowing Wallowing in animals is comfort behaviour during which an animal rolls about or lies in mud, water or snow. Some definitions include rolling about in dust, however, in ethology this is usually referred to as dust bathing. Wallowing is often combined with other behaviours to fulfil its purpose; for example, elephants will often blow dirt over themselves after wallowing to create a thicker "coating", or pigs will allow the mud to dry before rubbing themselves on a tree or rock to remove ectoparasites stuck in the mud.
==Functions== thumb|Common warthog|Nolan warthog (Phacochoerus africanus africanus), [[Senegal]] thumb|White rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum) wallowing in mud. Many functions of wallowing have been proposed although not all have been tested by rigorous scientific investigation. Proposed functions include: Thermoregulation – domestic pigs (Sus scrofa), great Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), warthogs (Phacochoerus aethiopicus), elephants (family Elephantidae) Providing a sunscreen – pigs, warthogs, elephants Male-male conflict social behaviour – elk (Cervus elaphus), European bison (Bison bonasus), deer Removal of ectoparasites – white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), American bison (Bison bison), warthog Social cohesion – American bison Relief from moulting – European bison, elephant seals (genus Mirounga) Relief from biting insects – tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis), American bison, tapirs (Tapirus bairdii), warthog, elephants Play in young animals – American bison Skin maintenance (preventing dehydration) – hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) Camouflage – warthog Scent-marking – Some animals urinate in a wallow before entering and rolling in it, presumably as a form of scent-marking behaviour Skin microbiome selection – Horses
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).