Healesville Sanctuary turns to thermal cameras to check on hibernating pygmy-possums
Healesville Sanctuary is using thermal cameras this year to see where hibernating mountain pygmy-possums are denning without waking them. In Victoria's alpine zone the possums usually sleep under snow for up to seven months; at the sanctuary they live in a climate-controlled possum lodge. Threatened Species Keeper Amie Hindson said she wanted to experiment with thermal imaging this year to double-check the possums' temperatures as they rested. "When in torpor (hibernation), mountain pygmy-possums can reduce their body temperature to two degrees Celsius," Hindson said. They curl into a ball with their head tucked into their chest or abdomen, she said, and sometimes the females tuck their noses into their pouch.
The mountain pygmy-possum is critically endangered, with fewer than 2,000 left in the wild, and thermal imaging lets keepers track their temperature through hibernation without disturbing them.
Source: Zoo uses thermal cameras to monitor hibernating possums (mykxlg.com).
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