Lemurs hugging trees on the Bez脿 Mahafaly Special Reserve in south-west Madagascar Chloe Chen-Kraus
Lemurs seem to hug trees to keep cool on sweltering days.
, affiliated with Yale University, and her colleagues noticed that in the Bez脿 Mahafaly Special Reserve in south-west Madagascar, a type of lemur called the white sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) hugs the base of tree trunks on particularly hot days.
鈥淲hen we first saw it, it was just so unusual because these are highly arboreal [tree-dwelling] primates,鈥 she says.
With sifakas having fewer sweat glands than most primates, the researchers wondered if hugging the…
