Now, have you ever wondered why koalas hug trees? And apparently, according to a new scientific study it is to stay cool.That discovery was made by researchers from the University of Melbourne who were looking at how koalas regulate their body temperature.

現(xiàn)在，你們曾想過考拉為什么喜歡抱樹嗎？根據(jù)一項新的科學研究，很明顯考拉抱樹是為了保持涼快。這一發(fā)現(xiàn)是由墨爾本大學的研究人員提出的，他們研究了考拉如何調節(jié)他們的體溫。

And one of my students Natalie Briscoe, her PHD was focused on this question in terms of the koala.

（Natalie Briscoe）是我的一個學生，她在博士期間專注于和考拉有關的一個問題。

And one of the questions we want to ask about the koala is, do they use behavior at all to regulate their temperature, are they able to choose places in their trees that make them a bit more comfortable.

也是一個我們都想問的問題，即考拉是否要做出一些專門舉動來調節(jié)體溫呢，它們是否能在樹上選擇一些讓他們舒適一點的地方呢？

And how did you go about finding this out?

那么，你們是怎么得出這一發(fā)現(xiàn)的呢？

Well, initially we went about this by putting a little weather station on a very long pole and lifting that weather station right up next to the koalas that we had radio transmitters on, and at the same time going around to other random places in their habitat and measuring the conditions in the trees of those locations.

是的，剛開始我們在一條非常長的竹竿上安裝了一座小型氣象站，并舉到考拉身邊，在考拉身上也安裝了無線電發(fā)射器。同時，隨機檢測考拉生活的區(qū)域其他樹木的狀況。

But what Natalie noticed was that the koalas in the hot weather would come down and will go to the thicker trunks.

但是（Natalie）注意到的是在炎熱的天氣下，考拉會從樹上爬下來，選擇更粗的樹干。

And they would flop onto those trunks and drop them limbs there.

他們會跳上去并抱住這些樹干。

And we couldn't quite understand why they were doing that, but she also sought to measure the tree trunk temperatures and we found that they are actually quite a bit cool than the air.

我們剛開始不太理解為什么它們要這么做，但是她也檢測到了樹枝的溫度，而且我們發(fā)現(xiàn)樹枝的溫度實際上稍稍低于氣溫。

And then we took a special kind of camera that takes pictures of heat and tells us the temperature of every service in the picture.

然后，我們選用特殊照相機，拍下熱量的照片，顯示出各種讀數(shù)。。。

And it was so obvious once we got those pictures back.

我們有了這些照片就很清晰明了了。

What the koalas were doing? They were putting their bottoms into the trees and dumping all their excess heating to the tree.

卡拉在做什么？考拉的身體緊貼著樹木是為了把多余的熱量傳給樹木。

And were you surprised by what you found because it's known or presumably zoologists know that the fur on the stomach of the koalas is a lot thinner than it is elsewhere.

你們對這一發(fā)現(xiàn)感到吃驚嗎，因為我們知道或者說動物學家知道，考拉腹部的皮毛要比它身上其他的部位薄得多。

Yeah, well, we knew that and we thought, well, maybe they, I guess one idea was that they just expose that during the hot weather so that heat comes out their chests into the air.

是的，我們知道?？赡艽蠹視J為，炎熱的天氣下考拉會把胸前的皮毛暴露在空氣重，從而釋放熱量。

What we didn't realize was how much cooler the tree trunks were than the air temperature.

但是我們并未意識到樹干的溫度要低于空氣溫度這一事實。

That wasn't obvious to us.

一開始我們也沒注意到。

It was obvious when we looked at the trees with the special camera, but it wasn't before that.

直到使用相機觀察樹木才發(fā)現(xiàn)，之前是不明顯的。

And then it made a whole lot of sense.

使用相機后一切都解釋的通了。

And it's really surprised a lot of biologists.

這確實讓許多的生物學家吃驚。

And it's always eucalyptus trees, is it?

考拉抱的樹總是桉樹嗎？

No, it's not.

不，不是的。

And not all eucalyptus trees is good as each other for this purpose, so we measure a whole, a few different species of eucalypts in their habitat where we did the study and also another kind of tree called acacia.

不是所有桉樹都適合考拉，所以我們在研究基地檢測了考拉生存環(huán)境中幾種不同的桉樹類型，而另一種樹叫刺槐。

And it turned out that the acacia was actually the best one.

而事實上刺槐才是考拉的最佳選擇。

But they don't eat the leaves of the acacia trees, they only eat the leaves of the eucalypt trees.

但是它們不吃刺槐樹葉，只吃桉樹葉。

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