The white sifaka lemur embraces the base of some trees to dissipate heat, with the base of the trunk being up to 5°C cooler than the ambient air.
Lemurs embracing trees at the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve in southwestern Madagascar.
Chloe Chen-Kraus
Lemurs seem to hug trees to keep cool on scorching days.
In the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve in south-west Madagascar, Chloe ChenKraus of Yale University and her colleagues observed that the white sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) clings to the base of tree trunks on very hot days.
“When we initially saw it, it was quite uncommon because they are arboreal monkeys,” she explains.
Due to the fact that sifakas have fewer sweat glands than most…
