Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Last major animal excursion for the trip: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. It's a smaller wildlife center than the other ones we'd been to, but they had shows and demonstrations going every half hour or so which made it feel like there was a lot to do, and we actually ended up spending most of the day there. 

I really enjoyed the wild lorikeet feeding. The staff put solutions of nectar into little containers and we got to hold them up for the birds to land on. They were fierce, loud little creatures and gobbling up the food like a storm. Sometimes something would spook them and they would all fly away together and swoop back around in a loop. 

Next we went by the barn to see the baby chicks and guinea pigs and sheep and goats. They allowed little kids to hold the babies and they were so adorable! The chicks would cheep and the guinea pigs just sat there looking sad and not moving. I didn’t know they could stay so still. Afterward was the sheep dog and shearing presentation. The border collie was super fast and herded the sheep around the obstacles quite well. The other dog was used for rounding them in at the end to the enclosure. And then he could stand on top of the sheep to keep tabs on them. Seeing a sheep get sheared was an interesting experience. Poor sheep. 

We pet some kangaroos and took pictures of the wallabies that didn’t want to be touched. Then was the wildlife encounter with birds and a dingo, the birds of prey show which was fun because there were real, wild birds overhead (called kites) that were scaring the birds in the show, and a koala presentation where we learned some facts about koalas. We had to get the photo holding a koala -- at least the money is going to a good cause. It was heavier than I thought it would be and the smell of eucalyptus was quite strong (the trainer was feeding it leaves to keep it pacified). Finally, we saw the platypus and Tasmanian Devil presentations and checked out the rest of the animals. It started raining just as we were headed to the gift shop.