Cuddling Koalas in Australia

Last week I was lucky to be given a chance to visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and cuddle with one of the cutest animals on earth. I was able to see them being fed, go inside the enclosure to take photos and also cuddle with one for a photo!

Here are some facts about koalas:

• Koala's aren't actually bears. They are called Koala Bears since they look like Teddy Bears, they are actually a marsupial mammal.
• There are only 2,000-8,000 koalas left in the wild
• Koala's can sleep for up to 19 hours a day!
• They live, sleep and eat in Eucalyptus trees
• They eat up to 1KG of Eucalyptus leaves each day, this doesn't provide much energy, so that is why they sleep so much
• There are over 800 different species of Eucalyptus leaves but Koala's will only eat 50 of them

The setting at Lone Pine is perfect for learning about and seeing all the animals. It's a smaller sanctuary so it doesn't take as long to get around and doesn't have an many tourists to fight through. I went at the very beginning of the day so there was hardly anyone there. Midday on the weekends can be busier but weekdays are great if you like a quieter experience.

Here are some facts about the Koala's at Lone Pine:

• They have approx 130 koala's
• They are split up into Boys (teenaged), Kindergarten (toddlers) and Retirement (older ones)
• Lone Pine has 4 eucalyptus plantations around Brisbane. Each day 2 leaf cutters visit one of them and cut 3/4 of a tonne of leaves for the koalas
• They have a strict policy about how long each koala works (pose in photos with people) They aren't allowed to work longer than 3 hours a day and no more than 3 days a week.
• Queensland is the only state in Australia that let's you cuddle koala's. You won't be able to experience this in Melborne or Sydney!
• There were photos on the wall of all the celebrities that have come and held koala's here. They included: Pope John Paul II, John Travolta, Queen Mother, Janet Jackson, Eric Clapton, Taylor Swift, Marilyn Manson and many more.

Special thanks to Lone Pine & Tourism Queensland for this awesome experience!

Check out their sites here:

http://www.koala.net/

http://blog.queensland.com/

Here are some more photos from Lone Pine: