One lazy morning in Brisbane, I was really excited to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary! The Sanctuary was established in 1927. But besides that, I have been longing to meet Koalas ever since I had landed in Australia! Later on, me and my parents hopped off the bus from Brisbane City Center and got a full explanation about all the things that we can do in the Sanctuary, I found out that there are Kangaroos as well!
At the entrance gate, from the ticket checker, we got to know that there was some show called the Raptor Show, so we decided to go there first. When we reached the place, I found a group of Kangaroos lying down on the ground, sunbathing! They were so cute with their small eyes looking at all the people surrounding them taking pictures! Even then, I was still afraid to touch it as I knew that they could give pretty hard kicks to people if they wanted to!
After taking a few pictures of us standing next to the Roo ( informal slang for Kangaroo in Australia), we went to sit on the bench in the meeting place and waited for the moderators to come and start the show. When they did come, one of the moderators announced that they are going to show the first bird of the show. Suddenly, an Owl zoomed above the crowd, right onto the moderator’s hand! A chorus of “oohs” and “aahs” was heard from the audience. The moderator explained that the owl on her hand is called the Masked Owl and that is why the Owl’s face looks like a heart. The Masked Owl has phenomenal hearing, according to the moderator, so, it depends on its hearing more than its eyesight for hunting. After flying a few more times from and to the two moderators, the Masked Owl flew back into its nest.
Then, the moderator in front of the audience announced that another bird called the Barking Owl is going to be flying on across our heads in a few seconds. The Barking Owl is called that as it makes a sound which sounds like a bark. But while it was flying, I didn’t hear any barks from the bird.
Afterwards, the moderator said that the next bird we were going to see is a really fast bird, and it is called the Peregrine Falcon. Almost immediately, a blur of a black bird zoomed over few of the audience heads. One of those heads were that of mine! The bird was very fast, that I was just in time when I ducked my head as the bird zoomed past me! The moderator also said that it is the fastest animal on the planet! I thought that the fastest animal was a cheetah, but it turned out to be a Peregrine Falcon.
After the Raptor show, I asked my parents if we could go and feed the Kangaroos, but they said that we will go and see the animals in the barn first. When we went inside a shed, I saw lots of barn animals in the cages. When I looked inside the first cage I saw lots of Chicks running around! They were so cute with their yellow fur and tiny eyes! Right next to the cage, there was the Hen. There were also Donkeys, Hamsters, Rabbits, and lots of other barn animals as well. After this, just as my parents agreed, we went into a field where all the Kangaroos were. The first thing we saw when we entered the field was lots of people with small packets filled with tit bits to feed the Kangaroos. Seeing that, I got excited, until the moment when I realized that we were supposed to buy it at the general store we saw at the entrance of the Sanctuary! That realization was really disheartening to me as I was really looking forward to feeding the Roos!
In just a couple of seconds, all my excitement turned into fear, as I was a little afraid to touch the Kangaroos because I thought that only after feeding them a bit of food, then only they will get friendly with us and let us touch it. For a few minutes, I was just hovering around keeping my distance, but I still tried to get a closer look at them. Noticing my inhibition, another kind man shared his packet of food with me, and I was able to feed a handful of treats to the kangaroos. Eating the food from my hand, in reality was tickling me with a tongue! It was a wonderful experience feeding Kangaroos and touching them as well. Also, their fur is as soft as cotton balls!
When we walked out of the exit of the field, I rubbed some sanitizer all over my hand, as I had touched and fed the Kangaroos. When we walked a bit more further, I saw Koalas hanging on trees for the first time in my life! They were so cute with their pink, small noses! I felt like touching them, but we weren’t allowed to. It actually looked like they were hugging on the trunks of the trees. All the Koalas were doing any one of these: eating eucalyptus leaves, sleeping, or just sitting there staring at us, like they were stuck!
On the contrary, there were big birds roaming around for food as there was a restaurant nearby. We were pretty hungry from our trip so far, so we bought some chips from the restaurant and carried on with our trip after eating it.
Nearby, there is an Amphibian house. My mom didn’t want to go inside as she doesn’t like seeing reptiles and amphibians, so me and my dad went in. The first thing we saw was a Snake. It was curled up on a branch of a miniature tree. We also saw a group of green Frogs. Unfortunately, there were no other Amphibians inside the house as they had been taken somewhere else. Just outside the shed there’s an Iguana and a Monitor Lizard. We weren’t able to see the Monitor Lizard, as it wasn’t in its cage as well. When we walked a bit more further, we saw huge crowd, so out of sheer curiosity, we went to see what it was for. It was a place for people to touch the Koalas, but unfortunately, we had to pay for it so we decided not to go for it as we found it a bit expensive.
While we were walking, I was thinking what other animals we will be seeing, but at that time we had already reached the souvenir shop! After a quick look around the souvenir shop, we went to the bus stop and rode back to the city excited to spread the story about our visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to you, readers.
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