December 22, 2017, Brisbane, Australia

December 22, 2017 -- The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

A short drive from Brisbane is located Australia's largest Koala Sanctuary, named Lone Pine (https://koala.net/en-au/), a visit to which we substituted for the missed wine tour, and found it very rewarding. We didn't get to hold one, but at least this one, four-year-old Hamlet, was awake. We learned that koalas spent much of their time asleep (see below).

How does he not fall off the branch?

And they sleep in clusters--three of them in this case.

There were many species of birds (Australia grows some really big birds), and we can't name them all, but thought this one had an attitude (and he was right outside others of his type that were in a big cage, so might be an escapee.

In addition to the birds and koalas, we saw other native Australian species--dingoes, wombats, Tasmanian devils, crocodiles, etc. But a large mob of kangaroos were available in a field for feeding, picture taking and general socialization (these were not the very large ones). Lots of the moms had joeys in their pouches--mostly legs akimbo, looking most uncomfortable (see below). Cap found this sign about their mating habits interesting--talk about family planning!