Nobody has ever really documented how koalas hydrate themselves. For all we know, they just stayed at the treetops for a long time with the gum leaves that they love to eat, and still manage to stay hydrated from up there? So how do they do it? Through his paper published over at Ethology, a researcher from the University of Sydney shows how these marsupials get their water.
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“For a long time, we thought koalas didn’t need to drink much at all because they gained the majority of the water they need to survive in the gum leaves they feed on,” said Dr Valentina Mella, in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. “But now we have observed them licking water from tree trunks. This significantly alters our understanding of how koalas gain water in the wild. It is very exciting.”
More details about this study over at EurekAlert.
(Image Credit: Photo by David Iliff. License: CC BY-SA 3.0/ Wikimedia Commons)
Source: neatorama