Cooldown — spore

Soothing Song almost halfway through its cooldown

Cooldown is the term given to the amount of time a tool takes, after its use, to recharge and become usable again. In the Creature Stage, all non-social abilities have cooldown timers, with Bite being least, then Spit, Strike, and Charge having the longest cooldowns. In Galactic Adventures, there is also a similar effect with Captain weapons.

In the Stages

Cell Stage

Ability	Cooldown
Call Mate	No cooldown

Creature Stage

Consequence Abilities

Ability	Trait	Cooldown
Siren Song	Herbivore	5 minutes from use
Summon Flock	Omnivore	6 minutes from use
Raging Roar	Carnivore	4 minutes from use

Utility Abilities

Ability	Cooldown
Mating Call	No cooldown
Jump	As soon as the creature lands on solid ground
Sprint	25 seconds after sprint meter depletes or ability manually cancelled
Sneak	25 seconds after detection or ability manually cancelled
Glide	1 second per flap (if airborne)/as soon as the creature jumps again (if landing)

Combat Abilities

Ability	Cooldown
Bite	1 second from use
Charge	10 seconds (1-level charge) seconds from use 12 seconds (2-level charge) seconds from use 10 seconds (3-level charge) seconds from use 8 seconds (4-level charge) seconds from use 6 seconds (5-level charge) seconds from use
Strike	4 seconds from use
Spit	3 seconds from use

Tribal Stage

Ability	Trait	Cooldown
Refreshing Storm	Herbivore	5 minutes from use
Fireworks	Social	5 minutes from use
Flying Fish	Omnivore	5 minutes from use
Beastmaster	Adaptable	6 minutes from use
Traps	Carnivore	5 minutes from use
Firebombs	Predator	6 minutes from use

Civilization Stage

Space Stage

Archetype Abilities

Ability	Archetype	Cooldown
Soothing Song	Bard	10 minutes from use
Static Cling	Diplomat	20 minutes from use
Safari Vacuum	Ecologist	20 minutes from use
Summon Mini-U	Knight	2 minutes from use
Gravitation Wave	Scientist	20 minutes from use
Return Ticket	Shaman	1 minute from use
Cash Infusion	Trader	20 minutes from use
Raider Rally	Warrior	20 minutes from use
Fanatical Frenzy	Zealot	30 minutes from use

Other

Tool	Cooldown
All Terrasculpting tools	20 seconds from use
Shield	?? minutes from use
Cloak	?? minutes from use

Notes

If you do not want to wait until the cooldown ends, simply save the game and play it again. This will "finish"/"reset" the cooldown instantly. This is particularly handy when using consequence abilities as it can completely mitigate their long cooldown timers.
In the Creature Stage, the Sprint ability technically has two cooldown timers: the ability itself, and the sprint meter, which do not refill at the same rate. Using Sprint as soon as it recharges due to the sprint meter depleting will result in having only 30-40% of the normal duration.