Photo shows cute bear ‘splooting’ in Alaska. And then ‘splooting’ pet photos poured in
Wildlife officials shared a photo of a bear ”splooting” in Alaska and triggered a tidal wave of pet splooting photos on Facebook.
“Sploot happens…” National Park Service officials said in a Sept. 5 Facebook post sharing a photo of a brown bear lying face down on its belly, its back feet stretched out and facing the camera. “What the sploot? ‘Splooting’ is when an animal sprawls out, usually face down with all arms and legs sticking out.”
The bear in the photo was stretched out right in front of a river in Katmai National Park & Preserve, the photo shows.
“Why the sploot? It could be that an animal wants an all-body stretch, it’s simply a comfortable and relaxing position, or stretching out on a cooler surface may help lower their body temperature,” officials said. “Splootacular!”
Commenters shared photos and anecdotes about their own pets splooting.
“I agree with the cold thing,” someone said. “My dogs sploot most often after coming inside on a hot day. I think the cool feels good on their bellies.”
Photos of splooting cats and dogs dominated the comments section.
“Our 3 year old formerly stray male taught our kitten how to do it,” someone said with photos of the splooting cats in question.
Another photo showed a tabby cat with its front limbs outstretched toward a toy and back limbs stretched out as far as they could go.
“My Rory is a champion splooter,” Rory’s human said.
A similar photo shows a dog splooting as it munched a dog treat.
“Splooting is my dog’s favorite way to relax!” the dog’s owner said.
It wasn’t only cats and dogs, either. One person said their bunnies are also splooting champions.
Others said their pet squirrels do it, and someone even said they’ve seen wild squirrels sploot on their back patio. Another person said their pet rat sploots when it’s cozy or stressed.
Perhaps the most iconic is the Corgi sploot. And of course a Corgi owner weighed in.
“My Corgi does sploots,” they said. “So cute, no matter what animal does it.”
Some said they were happy to learn the term for the big stretches they see all types of animals doing.
“Thank you for giving us important terminology we can use in our daily lives!” someone said with a photo of their dog splooting.
“I am so glad that this very important term has been recognized by the NPS!” another person said.
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