After 4 months of waiting, I finally persuaded Sev to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and it was better than either of us expected! There were many animals other than koalas at the sanctuary, all of them native to Australia, and plenty of opportunity to get up close and personal!
The whole reason I've been wanting to go to the sanctuary is because I read that you can get your picture taken holding a koala. This proved to be true! It was very cuddly and held on to me with its claws!
Koalas are not bears at all, but marsupials, which means their babies are born undeveloped and hang out in a pouch until they grow enough to be outside on their own. Kangaroos and Tasmanian devils are also marsupials. This is a female in the "breeders" section - an all female section of koalas that have babies from time to time. We didn't see any babies here, but maybe they were all still in the pouch!
This is a male from the "bachelor pad" section. The males need to be kept alone because they will fight each other if they're together. I bet the poor guys was lonely!
Later, the bachelor was roaming around - the only koala we saw that was on the ground and not in a tree - and posed for us! Notice it looks like he has two thumbs on each paw - those claws are for grooming himself! He also has a dark colored patch on his chest, which is a gland that leaves a smell on the trees everywhere he goes - to mark his territory and attract females to mate with!
Koalas are quite slow moving and seem to just sit around and eat leaves all day.
They're also apparently not very adventurous - none of the koalas (except the bachelors) were in cages but they never seem to go anywhere! This one is using its grooming claws to brush out extra fur.
This is the koala I held. The keeper explained to us how she grooms herself on the top part of her body which is why it's all grey and thinner, but she can't reach the bottom part so there is some extra white fur in there.
They roll into a little ball and wedge themselves in between branches to sleep. I can't believe they never fall!
This one even held onto the branch while she slept!
As to be expected, I wanted to take one home but wasn't able to maneuver that.
This is a hairy nosed wombat. It looks like a mix between a pig and a pitbull - cute of course! This little guy never stopped roaming around his home, making it hard to get a picture! He's drinking water here, which is why he stood still!
This is the other hairy nosed wombat, cuddling his blanket. They live in burrows, so this pipe is an artificial burrow for it.
This ostrich walked right up to me before I took this picture! I was scared!
It made a funny noise, and Sev thought it looked like a dinosaur!
Sev told me to pet this one, but this is as close as I was willing to get!
This youngster was officially my first kangaroo sighting!
Kangaroos have very long and strong tails, and lean on them for balance and stability when they're standing up. Notice how tiny their front legs are!
The kangaroos at the sanctuary are clearly domesticated and spoiled - they lay around all day and get fed and pet by tourists like us! Kangaroos are all vegetarian.
Sev didn't want to pet them but I sure did!
Another example of the long, thick tail!
They have huge feel and only three toes.
Sev finally decided to pet one - a baby! He also fed it some grass!
I pet the same baby and it was so soft!
What an exhibitionist! I was surprised to learn that the opening to the kangaroo's pouch is a hole in the middle of her abdomen. The cartoons have it all wrong!
Some girls gave me a piece of bread to feed to the prima donna (I doubt kangaroos are supposed to eat bread, but I couldn't resist!)
Sev fed her some bread too. He sure warmed up to the kangaroos after a while!
This is a cassowary, one of the three largest birds in the world (along with ostrich and emu).
They are supposedly shy but this one wasn't!
There are different theories about why they have the large horn, or casque. These include: to attract a mate, to protect their head from falling fruit and brush while running through the forest, and to amplify sounds.
There were dozens of beautiful birds, but of course it was difficult to get good photos of them. This red tailed black cockatoo flew right up to Sev and literally said hello to him!
Blue winged Kookaburra.
I can't remember what kind of bird this is!
Pink cockatoos.
A dingo - it looks just like a domestic dog!
Dingoes were introduced to Australia from India about 5,000 years ago and because of interbreeding there are almost no pure dingoes in existence anymore.
We saw this lizard on the path and Sev noticed that it has no tail! I wonder how that happened!
There was a sheep dog demonstration, since wool used to be the biggest export from Australia before mining came along. Interestingly enough, the mining is why we are here!
The dogs climb on the sheep's backs in the pen to herd them when there's no room to run on the floor!
This black and white dog is 13 years old! They were all very friendly and of course I had to cuddle with them!
This platypus was swimming laps in its pool so fast I could barely get a picture, as you can see! It was much smaller than we expected, only about 14 inches long. The platypus is one of the only venomous mammals, with a spur on its hind foot that delivers venom!
Last but not least, the Tasmanian devil!!!! Of course, it was sleeping peacefully in its burrow. We did learn, though, that they are marsupials and can give birth to up to 40 rice-sized babies (or joeys) at a time! They also earn their reputation from essentially being nature's garbage disposals, eating their entire prey (bones and all!) and having loud, vicious fights among themselves!
