Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary – Review

 

Location – 708 Jesmond Road, Fig Tree Pocket, Queensland, Australia

Entry Price - Adults $33.00AUD Children (3-13) $22.00AUD Pensioner $24.00AUD

Opening Hours - 9.00am to 5.00pm. Open from 1pm to 5pm on Anzac Day 25^th April

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary web page 

 

Layout

Nestled alongside the Brisbane River, this is a compact wild life sanctuary specialising in Australian animals with a focus on koalas . At the front of the park near the entrance is where you will find bat, bird, Tasmanian devil, possum, wombat and dingo enclosures mixed in with an impressive range of koala exhibits. This is also the location of a large platypus enclosure. The centre of the park is the location of the main koala enclosure where presentations and photo opportunities are scheduled daily. The one cafe onsite is also located near the centre of the park. Towards the back of the sanctuary is a large kangaroo feeding area where visitors can walk with and feed the kangaroos, ducks and emus.   

The park also includes sheep shearing demonstrations, wild lorikeet feeding, bird of prey shows and a domestic animal barn, all located at the back right corner of the sanctuary. Rest rooms are available at the cafe and a gift shop is located near the entrance / exit of the park. 

 

Park map

Extra Activities

Lone Pine Wildlife Sanctuary provides a large range of activities and shows  during the day including  koala presentations, animal feeding times, snake presentations, sheep shearing demonstrations and lorikeet feeding. For a full list of shows and times please check their web page. Mirimar Cruises do a daily boat cruise form Lone Pine to Brisbane City – please see link for further detail.

 

One of the many koalas on site

Breeding Programs

Being an Australian wildlife sanctuary, Lone Pine specialises in the protection of all local wildlife. They have an extensive conservation programe specialising in the Tasmanian devil breeding program and of course koalas.

 

Energetic Tasmanian Devil running around enclosure ( would not pose for photo)

Stu’s Favourite Bit

I honestly can't pick one thing that stands out about this park. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary does not pretend to be anything other than a wildlife sanctuary. They tell a simple message of conservation and give you the opportunity to connect with their animals through cleverly designed open enclosures. That is what I loved about this park and why I am happy to endorse their philosophy of "keep it simple". It works every time. 

Go HERE to see a selection of animals found at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary at Stu @ the Zoo TV

Stu’s review and tips  

This Park is the jewel in the crown for wild life sanctuaries in South East Queensland and it is not hard to see why they have such a great reputation.

The animal presentations are very informative and conservation focused.  There is a great selection of animal encounter experiences scheduled throughout the day and well worth attending. The kangaroo feeding area is huge with a good selection of kangaroos and emus to feed. The ducks make sure they get their fair share of food as well, they are very persistent!

 

The ducks and kangaroos share the love

 

The cafe food was very good and the service was quick. When having lunch make sure you eat at the Koala Forest that is adjacent to the cafe giving you a unique opportunity to have lunch with the koalas, and maybe a pesky brush turkey or two. The grounds are well presented and well signed for easy navigation.The staff were very friendly and happily gave me information about any of the animals when asked. 

All in all this is an excellent park and well worth a visit. If you are a visitor to Australia looking for a park that gives you the quintessential Australian experience or a local looking for somewhere to enjoy a relaxing few hours you can’t go past Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. 

 

Must See Animals 

 

Kangaroo

Cassowary

Platypus

Koala 

Tasmanian Devil 

Emu

Wombat 

 

 

© May 2013-Stuatthezoo.blogspot.com.au

Alma Park Zoo - Review

Location – CLOSED

Entry Price - Adults $37.00AUD Children (3-13) $27.00AUD Pensioner $29.00AUD

Opening Hours - 9.00am to 4.00pm. Closed Christmas Day and open from 1pm to 5pm on Anzac Day 25^th April 

Alma Park Zoo web page

Layout 

Entrance is via Alma Road, with a ticketing station located at the end of a long tree-lined driveway. Cars can park in one of two parking zones located within the zoo after paying at ticketing station. There are two sections to the zoo, left of the car parks and right of car park. Right of the car park is where you will find koalas, Friendship Farm ( a children's section of the zoo), a selection of primates, deer, wombats and camels. Left of the car park is the location of Lemur Island, the sun bear, red pandas and a selection of Australian mammals, birds and reptiles. This area is where you will also find the cafe - gift shop, presentation area and an ATM.

Picnic areas are provided throughout the park including barb-e-ques and picnic tables in a rain forest setting. Bathroom facilities are located in both sections of the park.

Extra Activities

Presentation and feeding times are scheduled daily and posted at each enclosure and the main presentation area - they are included in your entrance fee. Opportunities to get your photo taken with a koala, snake or crocodile are scheduled over the day and cost extra.

Breeding Programs

The main focus is on koalas, tamarins and the tasmanian devil. The zoos resident sun bear, Maly was the first sun bear to be born in captivity in Australia and was born at Perth Zoo as part of its sun bear breeding program.  

 

Malayan Sun Bear

Stu’s Favourite Bit

For me the best bit about this zoo is the Friendship Park Children’s section, it is small but well set out and has a good variety of domestic animals including calves, sheep, goats and baby chickens. Feed bags can be purchased on entry for one dollar each.

Go HERE to see a selection of animals found at Alma Park Zoo at Stu @ the zoo TV 

 

Some of the farm animals at Friendship Park

Stu’s review and tips  

I have to say right from the top that I was very disappointed in some of the enclosures at this zoo and was very close to not doing a review on this zoo at all.The reason I started this blog was to promote zoos that educate their visitors on the importance of conservation of both the animals and their environments. A good zoo can do this by building a connection between visitors and the animals. They will provide you an opportunity to look into inviting enclosures that mimic animal’s natural environs showing you not only the animals but giving you an insight into their habitat and how they live in the wild. At the very least when you leave a zoo you should have an understanding of some of the animal’s predicaments in the wild and at the very best you may even change your own habits just enough to help in the preservation of our environment. In short  a visit to the zoo should be a fun adventure that inspires and educates. Although Alma Park Zoo does have some good enclosures mainly for koalas and kangaroos I found a lot of the enclosures to be small and unnatural looking and some of the animals looked bored. 

 

 Himalayan Baboons in their cage

 

For a small zoo, Alma Park Zoo has a good collection of primates including marmosets, spider monkeys, baboons and tamarins. However they are all housed in mesh covered small cages that makes it next to impossible to see the animals properly and looks far from natural. To be honest that seemed to be the main feature of most of the non-Australian animal enclosures that I viewed–  small cages covered in wire, mesh and plastic making it very hard to see the animals. This style was most evident at the Macaw's enclosure where it was hard to see what colour it was let alone any specific features. Other bird enclosures were just boring and the caged birds looked just as bored.   

 

Hairy - Nosed Wombat

Lemur Island is surrounded by a beautiful lake featuring ducks, water dragons and turtles. But the feature on the island is an old cubby house style enclosure that dominates the island and in my opinion takes away from any natural look that may have been achieved. The island looked far to small to house the amount of Lemur's they had on display. The sun bear enclosure looked terrible and the sun bear on display looked totally bored and uninterested . Despite my opinion about the style of the enclosures and the animals welfare, the whole zoo was immaculately clean.

 

 

The grounds are set in lush tropical gardens with free range brush turkeys and peacocks roaming throughout. It is the perfect place to bring the family for a barb-e-que picnic but make sure you also bring the insect repellent as the mosquitoes can get a bit annoying. People with disabilities or not so quick on their feet may find it difficult to negotiate some of the paths that are a mixture of gravel or in some cases uneven paved bricks. 

Lemur Island

 

I waited for 15 minutes to see the sun bear being fed – once the keeper arrived, food was unceremoniously thrown over the fence – nearly hitting the poor bear. I would have thought this was an excellent opportunity to engage with the many people waiting for the advertised feeding time.  It would have been nice to have heard a little about the sun bear – what do they eat?  What is that thing you are throwing at it?  Where did this sun bear come from? Unfortunately she did not say anything to either the bear or the visitors - not even a hello. Hear is the Video of the sun bear feeding time at Alma Park Zoo   

  

Friendship Park was a great little children's section and the kangaroo walk through where people could interact with and feed the kangaroos was also a crowd-pleaser. The reptile enclosure however totally missed the mark with a few fish tanks acting as enclosures placed in a wood hut, housing a small variety of reptiles. I have to say I have seen better displays at some Australian pet stores. 

 

Sulphur - Crested Cockatoo in its cage

There have been on again off again reports that this zoo will be moving for years now, with no firm announcements being made as yet.  I put a lot of what I have seen down to this possible move and subsequent delay to modernise some of the enclosures by adopting more modern animal housing practices. Alma Park Zoo has a lot of potential and that is the reason I chose to do this review, in the hope that their potential is realised, move or no move.
© May 2013-Stuatthezoo.blogspot.com.au

In Focus – Koala

Status: Least Concern 

Geographic Region:  Eastern states of Australia

Meaning of Name:  Comes from the aboriginal name gula - meaning no drink.

Habitat:  Eucalyptus woodlands of Australia

Threats:  Land development and disease

Left in Wild:  60,000 to 80,000

Koala at Alma Park Zoo

There is a common misconception that the koala is a type of bear due to their bear-like appearance, however they are actually a herbivorous marsupial with the wombat being its   closest relative. Eucalyptus leaves are the koala's main diet but provide little energy intake, resulting in koalas sleeping for up to 20 hours a day. Koalas rarely drink water as they get most of the water intake from the eucalyptus leaves. They have however been known to search out water during prolonged hot periods, even venturing onto verandas and into back yards in search of a drink.The picture below shows a firefighter giving a Koala a drink after a devastating bushfire destroyed its habitat - follow this link to read more about this story. 

Koalas can live for up to 14 years in the wild however male Koalas will rarely live that long due to their more destructive nature. The longest living koala lived for 23 years at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Koalas are asocial animals preferring to be on their own than socialising in groups. Male Koalas are very territorial animals and have been known to be aggressive towards humans who venture into their space. Males are significantly larger than females and will have territorial battles with other males. Size however does not have any bearing on who a female mates with as they are more attracted to males that can make a more impressive grunting noise.The more impressive the grunt the more manly the koala, so to speak. Size and colour tone does vary between koalas dependent on geographical locations as well. A Koala in the state of Victoria in southern Australia will be significantly larger with darker fur than Koalas found in the northern state of Queensland.

Koala at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Land development has played a large part in the destruction of the koala’s habitat across Australia and disease such as Chlamydiaceae has ravaged some populations across the country. The Koala was hunted to near extinction in the late 1800s for its pelts, but populations have been slowly recovering in some states. Unfortunately a cull of over a million individuals in Queensland in the 1920s halted the recovery of that population and it has struggled to have any meaningful recovery since. This has made the Queensland  koala more susceptible to drought, disease and environment destruction. In 2012 the Australian Government declared the Koala populations in both Queensland and New South Wales vulnerable, which is probably a gross understatement of its true status. Today it is very rare to see a Koala in the wild in Queensland.

Donation box at Alma Park zoo

Stu’s Zoo Pick for the Koala

Many wildlife sanctuaries and zoos in Australia have great koala enclosures. Here is a list of zoos that I have reviewed where you can see and even hold a koala.They are: Perth Zoo, Taronga Zoo, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Alma Park Zoo, Cairns Wildlife Dome, Australia Zoo and Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - the largest Koala sanctuary in the world.

 

Koala at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Daisy Hill Koala Centre, located south of Brisbane in the Daisy Hill Conservation Park, is also a great place to see and lean about the koala.You can view it's resident koalas as well as see interactive displays and information on the conservation efforts being employed to help save the Queensland koala.  The centre is run by the Queensland Government and is free of charge. The woodlands around the centre are a great place to have a picnic and observe  wildlife including kangaroos, wallabies and birds.

Ocean Park in Hong Kong will be receiving a number of koalas from the South Australian Government mid 2014. These koalas will be housed in a purpose-built $5 million themed enclosure with the park also growing a 13 hectare eucalyptus forest ensuring ample food for the new arrivals.
© May 2013-Stuatthezoo.blogspot.com.au