TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The herbivorous Koala spends most of its day time sleeping on the branch of a tree in a dangling or hugging position. A recent study published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters has revealed that Koalas hug trees to dump their body heat.

The scientists, led by University of Melbourne, used thermal cameras to reveal that, in hotter weather, the tree-hugger animal moved to the lower, cooler parts of the trees. The measurements of the temperatures of the tree trunks showed that, on days as hot as 39C, they were up to seven degrees cooler than the air.

"When we got the images' back it was so obvious what the koala was doing," explained Dr Michael Kearney from the University of Melbourne, as quoted by BBC.

"You could see the koala sitting on the coolest part of the tree trunk with its bottom wedged right into the coolest spot."

The research was an important effort to understand the factors of the animals’ resilience after a quarter of the animals’ population have died in 2009 heat wave.

"Access to these trees can save about half the water a koala would need to keep cool on a hot day," said researcher Natalie Briscoe as quoted by Daily Mail.

"Our results highlight the important role of tree trunks as above ground 'heat sinks', providing cool microenvironments not only for koalas, but also for all tree dwelling species."

BBC|Daily Mail