After more than 5 years from the environmental disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, on 20 April 2010, Gulf of Mexico, the British Petroleum (BP) agreed to pay a penalty of 18.7 billion dollars in order to end once for all the legal action the United States and other federal states took after the worst
Why do koalas hug trees?
Australian research reveals that koalas hug trees to reduce their body temperature, by clinging to tree branches that are cooler than the temperature of the air.
In the Australian Outback the temperature can exceed 40°C during summer. The thick fur of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) can represent a real problem to face such extreme temperature.
However, these funny animals don’t go into hiding in their lairs to lower their body temperature like other marsupials do; they hug trees instead. Pictures of koalas clinging to eucalyptus branches are pretty typical, but now scientists are giving a new explanation.
“If we all had infrared vision, we’d have known all along what koalas are doing,” says Natalie Briscoe, assisant of the lead author of the study, Dr Michael Kearney, senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Melbourne. Briscoe, using a thermal-imaging camera to measure the microclimates of koala habitats, has discovered that the tree trunks to which koalas clung were on average over 5°C cooler than the surrounding temperature.
Researchers monitored 37 individuals using radio-collars, in order to control koalas’ behaviour and measure surrounding temperatures. Thanks to data collected, scientists have noticed behavioural differences depending on climate. In the coolest days, up to 25°C, koalas sit on the highest leafy branches, whilst in the hottest day they favour lower branches, where they lay down in order to cool their body temperature down.
In hot weather koalas climb down their favourite trees, the eucalyptuses (from which they obtain food and liquids, by eating up to 1 kg of leaves per day), to move to acacias, which have cooler trunks. The study, published in the journal Biology Letters, shows that koalas hugging trees can reduce their body temperature by 68 per cent, thus reducing the need to evaporate precious water.
This smart cooling strategy is likely to be used by other animals, said professor Michael Kearney. “Cool tree trunks are likely to be an important microhabitat during hot weather for other tree-dwelling species, including primates, leopards, birds and invertebrates,” he said. These results will help biologists forecast animals’ adaptation strategies in order to face the ongoing temperature increase, providing important information on the most important habitats to be saved.
Siamo anche su WhatsApp. Segui il canale ufficiale LifeGate per restare aggiornata, aggiornato sulle ultime notizie e sulle nostre attività.
Quest'opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale.
Il Paese africano ha bruciato oltre una tonnellata di zanne e corni confiscati per esprimere la tolleranza zero per il bracconaggio.
He has already invested 1 billion dollars in tens of projects and innovative realities for the development of renewables all over the world. Maybe not all investments had the success and outcomes desired, but they have certainly been money well spent, since they set a guideline within the energy industry. With this in mind, the world’s richest man,
Una nuova ricerca ha dimostrato che il contatto con la natura inibisce la formazione di pensieri negativi che possono sfociare in gravi patologie come la depressione.
People are increasingly committing themselves to protect one of the Planet’s most important pollinators: bees. And in Norway they are creating a green corridor exactly for them.
100,000 lives were lost in the Sahel region of Africa between 1972 and 1984 due to a long lasting drought and the famine it caused. A recent scientific study shows that global warming has more recently increased rainfall in the area, temporarily relieving it from drought. This has led many, such as Forbes contributor James
L’Unione Internazionale per la Conservazione della Natura ha aggiornato la propria Lista Rossa delle specie minacciate, il leone è in pericolo, in ripresa la lince iberica.
The Lax Kw’alaams live not far from Canada’s border with Alaska, in the northern part of the province of British Columbia. The indigenous community has turned down an offer of $1 billion (Canadian dollars) and lands worth $108 million, i.e. $320,000 for each of the group’s members, for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export hub
Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home is the title of Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, the second one to be published during his papacy, after the Lumen Fidei on 29 June 2013. The encyclical will be officially released on 18 June, but the Italian magazine l’Espresso has published the