The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is located here in Brisbane and is the world's largest and oldest koala sanctuary.
They have 130 koalas in a multitude of display enclosures, which makes for great viewing.
Normally, whenever we see koalas in a zoo, we only see this:
Or this:
Not unexpected given koalas need to sleep about 20 hours a day.
At Lone Pine we were delighted to see plenty of koala goings-on:
The koala presentation (given twice a day) should not be missed for all sorts of interesting info on the life of these little critters. (Did you know you can identify koalas by the patterns on their bottom fur?)
You can have a cuddle with the koalas too, and have your photo taken. The koalas only spend about 10 minutes 'on duty' giving cuddles before they are swapped back to their enclosure.
Here's one of the keepers collecting a fresh koala for cuddles.
The black sleeve protects the keeper's arm from the koala's claws.
She explained that because it was lunch time, they were all expecting her to give them their lunch:
No wait, come back!
Sob. Where's my lunch?
Luuuuuuuuuuunch!!!
Another keeper brought their lunch (huge bunches of fresh gum leaves) moments after this photo.
There are plenty of other Australian animals to see, not only koalas.
We attended the Bird of Prey demonstration:
Sea Eagle
Barking Owl has just seen Nicki Minaj's latest album cover
There's a large walk-through park area with emus:
And lots and lots of kangaroos:
They are very tame and love a scratch behind the ears:
You can also buy a bag of feed which they will eat from your hand:
Joey in mama's pouch:
If you're very lucky you'll get a special show:
Ahem.
Our older kids were in stitches over this, and I'm happy to report that every single tourist, of all nationalities, raced over to take a photo. Global unification through kangaroo nooky.
Because nothing I can write could possibly top that, I'll say goodbye. (And don't forget to visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary when you come to Brisbane.)
À bientôt!
