Even
in the tropics, where the difference between winter and summer is minimal,
temperatures can vary significantly between the rainy and the dry seasons. Organisms have developed all sorts of ways of
dealing with those variations. They
hibernate or estivate or migrate. They
dissipate heat through panting or conserve it by growing thicker coats of
fur. Honeybees warm themselves by
contracting the muscles in their thorax.
Wood storks cool off by defecating on their own legs. (In very hot
weather, wood storks may excrete on their legs as often as once a minute.)
(from The Sixth
Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert)
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