Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary 4/30

I was very excited for today because we would be going to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I've been waiting to see and hold a Koala for awhile. When I thought of Lone Pine, I thought it would be only koalas and kangaroos. It surprised me to find out there was a wide variety of different animals.

The day started off a bit cooler but once we began walking to the bus station it got fairly warm out. By the time we got to the sanctuary it was very warm outside. There was many trees when we walked around so it did not seem that warm, until i stood right in the sun.

I learned a lot about the Koala today. To start off they are marsupials, and the females carry their babies called joeys in their pouches in the front of them. Second is the males have a scent gland right on the front of their chest, which is used to attract females. Another is they all look different because of a few key features such as their color, nose and ears. They also have spots on their bottoms used for camouflage. Another is they eat gum tree leafs, and eat about a half a ton of them. There are over 500 species of gum trees, but the koala will only eat 10-15 species. Lastly is the koalas can contract diseases similar to humans such as chlamydia, and cancer.

I spent a lot of time observing the kangaroos. I noticed they are very calm, and friendly. I did not expect them to allow us to get so close to them.

I had two encounters with the kangaroos. First, every time they saw a camera come very close to them they would get up. They would not jump away, but turn away. Second, I was bent down petting one kangaroo, and I felt something on my leg. When I turned I realized it was another one trying to lick my leg.

There was a lot of other animals. One animal that was memorable was the merino sheep. It is not something I want to remember but I will remember it because of what happened to the poor sheep. The sheep was locked in a small square and pulled out to get sheered. It was very sad to watch this happen because the sheep looked in pain. I do not like to see animals in pain, and wanted to help the sheep but I knew there was nothing I could do.

One thing I noticed about the sanctuary was even though the animals are in captivity, and is mostly about the koalas. The sanctuary did a number of things to help raise money for majority of the other animals there.

While I was petting the kangaroos, I heard a new word. The word is skippy, and it is another word for kangaroo.