Splooting Squirrels and the Practice of Paradox
I learned a new word last week and I think it’s my new favorite. It describes a position that many animals use, especially mammals, to cool their bodies when they’re too hot.
As humans, we sweat when we’re hot. But as Kai McNamee highlights on NPR, “animals that can't sweat have to resort to other behaviors to cool off. Dogs pant. Birds dunk themselves in water. And squirrels sploot.”
A splooting squirrel on a deck to release heat from its core. Image source: Flickr
Even if it weren’t my new favorite word, that phrase deserves repeating: Squirrels sploot.
The thing is, 'sploot' isn't just a useful word - it's a delightful one. It has that perfect combination of sounds that makes you want to say it again and again. Sploot. It's playful and a little silly, which somehow makes it even more perfect for describing this endearing animal behavior.
And maybe that's what I love most about it - that playfulness, that permission to lean into lighthearted, especially about a concept that actually highlights something quite serious: because of the dangerous, extreme temperatures in the area, people in the Southern U.S. are reporting an uptick in splooting squirrels.
Maybe this is one of those small but important life skills we don't talk about enough - how to hold lightness and gravity at the same time. Grief and hope. Anger and curiosity. How to let ourselves find delight in a word like 'sploot' while also acknowledging that those splooting squirrels are adapting to a world that's heating up faster than it should. But it is possible - and actually serves as a valuable way to deepen our resilience in the face of challenge.
Our nervous systems are designed to look for threats in our environment, alerting us so that we can respond appropriately through fighting, fleeing, or freezing. For our systems to function most efficiently, however, they need to return to a calm state once the threat has passed - the same concept as sleeping at night after a long day's work. As Harvard Health Publishing explains, the parasympathetic nervous system acts like a brake, promoting the "rest and digest" response that calms the body down after danger has passed.
It can be incredibly difficult to allow our systems to relax when we’re acutely aware of the chaos that surrounds us. This can create a state of nearly constant agitation - which is not only unpleasant, but unhealthy and unproductive, as well. But finding joy in a word like sploot, or allowing ourselves to lean into curiosity without ignoring our grief, helps us tap into that sense of relaxation that our systems need to function well. And when our systems are efficient, we can enjoy our own lives, and help others do the same - squirrels included.
And the world needs this from us. It needs us to find this balance so that we can find it within ourselves to take effective action, again and again. And again. Because while splooting is sweet and a fun thing to say, it’s unfortunately not enough.
But our actions can be. What we do matters, and maybe that's where the real magic happens - when we hold both the delight of 'sploot' and the urgency of climate action, we become people who can show up consistently, joyfully, and effectively for the world we love.
