9/10 - Australia Zoo with a Koala Cuddle

9/10/2012 - To Beerwah and Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.  Warning - this is a long post!

The day dawned cloudy, but that worked well for our visit to the Zoo.  This zoo is one of the best we have ever seen - the animals are well cared for and the trainers are amazing!  Hats off to Steve Irwin's family for keeping his efforts going!!!

We got there later than we usually do, but well before most of the other visitors so we were able to scope out and plan for the shows and beasties we wanted to see. 

We had to wander through the American Alligators to get to the tortoise area - there was a "Daisy" (born in the 1960's)... nothing like Dazee dog, but a Daisy none the less.

Allison - came to Oz in 1933

These gators are OLD (and cranky) gators!




 


The tortoise feeding was great... Goliath was ready for his brekky, but his brother, Igloo, was being cranky & was a no-show. 

The trainer was very good with Goliath.  It was so cute - she told us the tortoise has very sensitive skin and his shell is also sensitive.  She rubbed his front legs and he raised himself up like a kitty to stretch for more.  He did the same when she massaged the armor plates of his shell.

Goliath Sharing with a Lizard!

After that we headed over to the elephant area for the morning feeding session.  There were lots of people, but the elephants knew the drill and we humans learned quickly so it went fairly smooth.  Di got her piece of corn cob and held it out - it was taken with a moist 'kiss' of sorts and went directly into the pachyderm.

Red Panda

Then Di washed her hand - the 'kiss' was a rather sloppy one, we looked at a red panda, and wandered through the tiger area. 


We couldn't do the tiger show, but the trainers were in with the cats and they were chatting up the crowd while the tigers strutted their stuff!  Beautiful creatures!

"Lion" King? This guy disagrees with that!

We had lunch and then watched the Wildlife Warrior's Show...  Wowee Zowee!  We had a pre-show visit with a Water Dragon (I think) in our bleachers. 







It started with the snake...

then came the birds...

And then came Graham! 

Graham is either the only croc or one of 2 crocs that ever bit Steve Irwin and another handler at the zoo.  Graham is HUGE (300 KG or 750lbs)!

                

                 And Graham does tricks for treats!  










After this great show, we trekked over to the Otter Show... the Small Clawed Asian Otter show.  These 3 girls, 2 sisters and an outsider (with the brown whiskers) that the sisters finally accepted, were really cute.  The trainer said they are quite a handful!

Then we stopped at the Koala Talk and met the males - kept separate from the females because they can be a scrappy bunch.   These guys were cute and you can tell the trainers really like working with them.

After that, we headed off to see Scrappa (a croc born at the Zoo) and he put on a good show.

 It was almost time for the big Cuddle so we headed for the Information area to meet with the photographer and go over to the Koala girl's area.

They introduced us to the girls and what a cute group... this one had switched baby's with another Koala, but both babies and moms seemed content.






Then came time for the cuddles.  There were 4 Koala Cuddlers and I was last.  Ellen is the Koala and she's an old hand at cuddling.   The trainer shows you how to place your hands, then puts Ellen in place.  Ellen weighs 5 kg (11 pounds) and she is solid!  Koalas have no body fat so they have 3 layers of fur. 


Each cuddler or their partner took photos of the other cuddlers... the pictures from the zoo were OK, but ours were all better.

They allowed the spouses to come in and share the experience... So Cool!

I think Ellen was comfy.  We each got 2 separate cuddles and then Ellen needed a dinner break and probably a nap.



THANKS ELLEN!!!





We wandered by the snake area on the way to the photo pick up point.

                               This is a very large python - love the color.


But below is one of the nasty ones...
not only is he a cranky thing that easily gets pissed off, but
he also does multiple lightning strikes and he's one of the most venomous in the country.  There are lots of venomous snakes, but this guy really shows the attitude!







As we left the zoo, Di got caught by one of the biggest crocs...







So we decided to go visit the hospital. 

Though they wouldn't work on me, they are available 24X7 every day of the year.

They had a couple of Koalas in splints and were doing surgery on a joey and a snake.

This was a great day - very emotional and very wonderful!