regulates body temperature through raising or flattening its fur, to save energy managing thermoregulation, since its diet of thousands of termites a day provides very little energy.A new study found numbats could only spend 10 minutes in the sun on a hot day before overheatingConservation estate managers are taking greater steps to address climate change at wildlife sanctuariesBut this could soon bring challenges in a warming climate.
"To be able to survive in a particular place, animals like numbats need to be able to be active for enough time to get the energy, water, and nutrients they need," Dr Briscoe said. Dr Cooper said the next stage of the research would be climate and habitat modelling to better understand which numbat populations could be at greater risk than others from hotter weather.
Numbats were reduced to just two wild populations in the Dryandra Woodlands and another region of Western Australia, the Upper Warren.