Lemurs hugging trees on the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve in south-west Madagascar Chloe Chen-Kraus
Lemurs seem to hug trees to keep cool on sweltering days.
Chloe Chen‑Kraus, affiliated with Yale University, and her colleagues noticed that in the Bezà 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.
“When we first saw it, it was just so unusual because these are highly arboreal [tree-dwelling] primates,” she says.
With sifakas having fewer sweat glands than most …
