A new study describes koala drinking behavior for the first time, finding that they lick water running down the smooth surface of tree trunks during rainfall - a phenomenon called ‘stemflow’
A female koala licks water off the smooth trunk of an eucalyptus tree after a rainfall in the You Yangs Regional Park, Little River, Victoria, Australia in this undated photo released on May 4, 2020. Echidna Walkabout and Koala Clancy Foundation/Handout via REUTERS.
“I think the main message is that behavioral observations in the wild are very important to establish what is normal and what is unusual, and to truly understand what animals need. If we watch them carefully, they will tell us,” said University of Sydney ethologist Valentina Mella, lead author of the research published this week in the journal Ethology.
“Koalas have been alleged to never drink free water in the wild, or to drink only occasionally. Drinking behavior has often been considered unusual and attributed to disease or to severe heat stress,” Mella said.
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