Monday, August 4, 2014

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane

I'm a little slow getting this post up (our visit was Easter this year) but I hope once you see all these cute, furry faces you'll forgive my tardiness.

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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:

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Or this:

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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:

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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.

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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:

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No wait, come back!

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Sob. Where's my lunch?

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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.

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We attended the Bird of Prey demonstration:

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Sea Eagle

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Barking Owl has just seen Nicki Minaj's latest album cover

There's a large walk-through park area with emus:

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And lots and lots of kangaroos:

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They are very tame and love a scratch behind the ears:

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You can also buy a bag of feed which they will eat from your hand:

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Joey in mama's pouch:

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If you're very lucky you'll get a special show:

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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.)

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À bientôt!

8 comments:

Susan said...

Looks like you all had a 'fun' time! Love that last photo- Skippy!

colesworth said...

Hmm. I've lived here nearly 10 years and we've never been - might be something for us to do on Ekka day next week!

Eva said...

Hehe, love the Koala lunch drama and that it had a happy ending! :-)

Katy Cameron said...

ROFL, loving a bit of roo action

Betty said...

That sea eagle is huge!
And a cuddle with a koala, awwwww
As for the reproduction bit: no, I cannot say that here

Annie Cholewa said...

Koala claws ... yikes!

Didn't anyone tell the love birds to get a roo-m? (Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

Lauren said...

Once again, I'm blown away by your photos. I particularly love the first photo of the koala and the one of the emu. Didn't know that emus have curly feathers on their heads. Your account of your family's visit is also highly entertaining.

Marg said...

I still haven't been to Lone Pine and I've lived in south east Queensland since 1994! I think it's about time I should go.
I'm still not able to see koalas without thinking of Shay!!!!

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