Scientists from the University of Melbourne in Australia recently found out why koalas love hugging trees.
According to the study, koala bears hug trees to help regulate their body temperatures, especially on hot days. Prior to this finding, the science community thought that the animals hugged trees because that's where they eat and sleep. Koalas were observed to generally spend most of their time on trees. This new discovery was made by Michael Kearney, an ecologist from the University of Melbourne and his colleagues when they sought to study how creatures in the woodland of French Island regulate their body temperatures during warmer seasons.
Natalie Briscoe, a doctoral student who also worked on this study, started gathering data by taking measurements of shade and wind levels. She didn't find anything at first, but when she switched to infrared thermometer, she found out that the temperature of the trees were much cooler than the temperature of the surroundings. She also observed that koalas tend to hug acacia trees as well, despite the fact that they feed on the leaves of the eucalyptus tree.
"As it got hotter the koalas went farther down the trees and started to really hug onto the tree trunks," Kearney said to Live Science. "That seemed strange to us until we figured out that the trees are a bit cooler."
Koalas that hug trees saved as much as 50 percent of their stored water that could have disappeared due to excessive panting. Kearney and his team concluded that the tree-hugging mannerism of the koala bear was essential for their survival as it helped them cool down without depleting their water supply. Researchers predicted that the tree-hugging behavior of the koalas will eventually change as the climate gets warmer. The results of the study could pave the way for better conservation efforts for the preservation of koala bears.
Details of the study were published on the June 2 issue of Biology Letters.
