News Climate

Numbats are built to hold heat, making climate change extra risky for the marsupials

Thermal imaging suggests how fast numbats’ core body temperature could rise to dangerous levels

A numbat, brown and black marsupial with white stripes and a pointy nose, sits on a log.

Numbats (Myrmecobius fasciatus) (one shown) feed only on termites, which come to the surface in heat of the day.

Christine Cooper

By Jake Buehler

Numbats are curious creatures. The only marsupials that are active solely during the day, when they scratch at soil and rotting logs for termites, these squirrel-sized animals are built to hoard body heat. But that same energy-saving trait may put the already endangered animals at risk as the climate warms, a new study suggests.