Breaking News English

Scientists have one of the secrets as to how koalas stay cool and dehydration in the intense heat of Australian summers. They hug trees. For decades people the cuddly marsupials to trees simply because they were tired and somewhere to nap. Researchers from Melbourne University have now new light on the tree-hugging habits of the koala. Lead researcher Natalie Briscoe said there is a five-degree difference in temperature between a tree trunk and the air. Koalas utilize the cooler surface by themselves out on large branches or by the trunk. Ms Briscoe said: "Access to these trees can about half the water a koala would need to cool on a hot day."

Briscoe the behaviour of 37 koalas on an island off the Melbourne coast. She is part of a team to identify how koalas might higher temperatures by global warming. Her observations and conclusions regarding the cooling effects of the trees as a surprise to her. She that the koalas sat upright in cooler weather, hugged branches when it became warmer, and then themselves around the tree trunk when it got hot. The animals even to different trees that had cooler trunks. She said the trees are probably cooler because of the water they up from the ground. The koala's cooling technique could be one way for humans to increasingly hot summers.