--- title: Koalas Hug Trees to Keep Cool in Hot Weather: Study description: Unlike panting and licking their fur, tree-hugging doesn't lead to dehydration canonical: https://time.com/2822022/koalas-hug-trees-to-keep-cool-and-look-cute/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-04T15:37:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:21.754Z og:title: Koalas Hug Trees to Stay Cool in Hot Weather og:description: Turns out they're not just being adorable og:url: https://time.com/2822022/koalas-hug-trees-to-keep-cool-and-look-cute/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte00d41aec2581a09/6986962113c79f829b19280c/114986383.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 114986383 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Koalas Hug Trees to Stay Cool in Hot Weather twitter:description: Turns out they're not just being adorable twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte00d41aec2581a09/6986962113c79f829b19280c/114986383.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Koalas Hug Trees to Keep Cool (and Look Cute) by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jun 4, 2014 3:37 PM UTC  Cutest Koala Cutest KoalaErik Veland / Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jun 4, 2014 3:37 PM UTC Turns out koalas aren’t just hugging trees so we can all marvel at how adorable they are — they’re actually hugging trees to keep themselves nice and cool in hot weather. Researchers tracked a group of koalas in their natural habitat in Australia during warm months. With the help of thermal imaging, they found that many of the creatures would cling to the coolest, lowest parts of the trees. Some tree trunks, it turns out, can be more than 5°C cooler than the surrounding air. Access to those trees can significantly reduce the amount of heat stress for koalas by reducing the amount of water they need to stay cool, according to the study, originally [published](http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/6/20140235) in the journal _Biology Letters._ The researchers confirmed that tree-hugging is an important cooling behavior and that tree trunks are an “important microhabitat” for other tree-dwelling animals as well. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that tree-hugging is just [really really cute](https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7604625152/h96DB9FE2/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2822022/koalas-hug-trees-to-keep-cool-and-look-cute/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2822022/koalas-hug-trees-to-keep-cool-and-look-cute/"},"headline":"Koalas Hug Trees to Keep Cool (and Look Cute)","datePublished":"2014-06-04T15:37:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:21.754Z","description":"Unlike panting and licking their fur, tree-hugging doesn't lead to dehydration","url":"https://time.com/2822022/koalas-hug-trees-to-keep-cool-and-look-cute/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Science topic","Summer","heat","trees"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte00d41aec2581a09/6986962113c79f829b19280c/114986383.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte00d41aec2581a09/6986962113c79f829b19280c/114986383.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"114986383","caption":"114986383","creditText":"Erik Veland / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2822022/koalas-hug-trees-to-keep-cool-and-look-cute/","name":"Koalas Hug Trees to Keep Cool (and Look Cute)"}}]}] ```