Your Most Exciting Zoo Sighting: Koala Edition

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
For folks who have seen koalas in zoos (or the wild for that matter), what is you most exciting koala experience?

I ask because I was at the LA Zoo today watching the koalas sleeping (all 6 of them) and my wife said that she wanted to go see koalas in the wild. I responded that we would likely need to spend thousands of dollars, get on a plane and fly for 18 hours, drive hundreds of miles into wild koala habitat and then we would see pretty much what we were looking at in front of us at the LA Zoo.

Has anybody ever had an extraordinary experience watching koalas that went beyond watching a cute ball of fur sleep?

To be fair, it is fun to watch them eating when they are awake. I have also heard males bellowing and that is quite cool.
 
I have only ever seen them sleeping or nearly-sleeping, both captive and wild. That's pretty much what they do most of the time. But when they are active apparently they are quite interesting, especially the males roaring and when they (rather clumsily I should imagine) leap from one branch to another branch. I've heard a wombat roaring which was unexpected.

A few years ago Monty linked to a youtube video he took of roaring koalas. I can't remember where on the forum it was though.
 
Mine was seeing koalas for the first time ever, in Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay. There was a moving sidewalk going past and even though they were just sleeping, my seven year old self was speechless at seeing them.
 
I've seen koalas many times in both Australian and American zoos, and I can clearly recall seeing a koala climb down from its tree and advance across the ground and then climb into a second tree at both Cleland Wildlife Park in Adelaide and Wildlife World in Sydney. The greatest experience was when my wife and I held Walter the koala at Kuranda RainForeStation in Queensland. For a fee of about $15 we ended up with a great photo of Debbie holding "Wally" while I petted his back, and I think that Queensland might still be the only Aussie state that allows people to not only touch but to actually hold a koala. Just last month my wife and kids visited her father in Melbourne and while on the Great Ocean Road they saw approximately 50 wild koalas sleeping in trees at intervals right alongside that scenic roadway.
 
Several things come to mind. On a trip to Australia, I went out early one morning and found a wild koala munching in a tree, that was pretty neat. On that same trip, we visited Philip Island and a group of Japanese tourists were looking up at a koala and it urinated on one of them. They all squealed with delight!
When the Los Angeles Zoo received 2 females, the male had not been with a female since he left Australia. After quarantine, the girls were brought to the enclosure and the male was sleeping in a tree. He suddenly woke up sniffed the air and was in hot pursuit of his new companions.
 
We went on a Great Ocean Road trip from Melbourne we went into some woodland where there were wild koalas which were quite active and one made a dash along the ground between two trees.

We also went to some sort of rescue/sanctuary type place, possibly on the way to Phillip Island, we thought someone was arriving on a 50cc motorcycle but it was a male koala roaring, very surprising at the time because they all appeared to be rolled up sleeping fur balls.

I did get a pic taken stroking one at the Habitat in Port Douglas.

We'd spent a 3 weeks in Australia keenly looking for wild kangaroos, koalas, cassowary and not seen any & in one trip to the Great Ocean Road we saw the wild kangaroos, koalas and an echidna!
 
Here is my video of the most active Koalas I have seen.


I think that was in March and it must have been mating season as Koalas were moving around and roaring a lot and I saw quite a few on the ground changing trees.

There are quiet a lot along the Murray River near me and I could see up to 5 at a time without moving near my camp. If I went for a walk I would easily see 10
 
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snowleopard said:
I think that Queensland might still be the only Aussie state that allows people to not only touch but to actually hold a koala.
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You can hold them in South Australia as well.

I'll give my koala stories later - I want to try to find the video I shot of them bellowing.
 
I never appreciate koalas because I've seen so many in my life. I remember the first time I saw wild (alive) koalas was at tower hill. Everyone talked it up by saying that you'll definitely see at least one koala while you're there. We didn't expect to see about 10 while we were still in the carpark. The place is crawling with them. The best captive koala experience I can think of is at the Koala Conservation Park on Phillip Island. Boardwalks take you right up into the tops of live trees to see them as they would be naturally. It's a nice change from a couple of branches with gum leaves attached.
 
OrangePerson said:
isn't it supposed to be bad for them?
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Hmmm.... I am not a koala expert, of course, so maybe MRJ or Steve can assist.

What I do know is that there are strict guidelines as to how long they can be used for photos, and how often. At Australia Zoo, they told me that they have to provide their logbooks to some official body (don't recall which) for auditing purposes.
 
OrangePerson said:
isn't it supposed to be bad for them?
Click to expand...

Many Koalas are easily stressed, and being held can upset them. When I worked in the Koala Encounters area at Taronga I used the following analogy to explain it to the public: Imagine a 12month old baby being picked up by a stranger and held, then passed to another stranger, then another and another for an hour. Most babies would be upset very quickly.

Some Koalas are fine with it, but many are not and exhibit signs of stress after a short time. So most state govts have guidelines which include touching but not holding, limited access times, and regular rotation of individuals.

If South Australia permits the holding of koalas, then I would expect the zoos and parks that allow this have staff that can quickly recognise the stress signs and remove the koalas immediately.

:p

Hix
 
What do Koalas do when stressed. Do they lick their front legs like Kangaroos.
 
Regarding exciting koala sightings your best chance is when they are being fed. Yesterday a visitor proudly showed me a photo of a koala mid flight as it jumped between branches to get to fresh leaves.

Regarding stress it doesn't seem to be a problem if handled properly, and certainly we have no problems. In Victoria koalas can't be held by the public, we have them on a stand and people can cuddle right up to them. This is partly because our koalas are considerably bigger than Queensland koalas, about 12 kg against 7 or 8 kg. Actually I feel it is a better experience anyway as people can concentrate on the koala, and can position themselves for better photos. Anyway our koalas would only be involved with this for 5 to 30 minutes maybe twice a day at the most. We do have one koala, who if he is awake and alert to it will jump off his perch and run out of the gate to climb onto the stand.

I can't comment on the holding side of it as I have never been involved with that. I do have it on good authority from a senior koala researcher who has done a lot of research at Lone Pine that there are no stress problems, and no difference in life spans for instance.

I do know that Queensland parks do get complaints from tourists who, expecting a "soft toy" experience, don't like the koala's claws digging into them. That is quite apart from the occasional urinating episode!
 
Chlidonias said:
have a look here, section 5.7.1: http://www.aszk.org.au/docs/koala.pdf
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I would have also added that, if you're holding them, they try to return to the branch and struggle to do so, try to climb down you to the ground, or bite. Of course, some handraised koalas will be sitting in your arms perfectly happy and will then bite you, not because they are stressed but because they are the spawn of Satan.

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
I would have also added that, if you're holding them, they try to return to the branch and struggle to do so, try to climb down you to the ground, or bite. Of course, some handraised koalas will be sitting in your arms perfectly happy and will then bite you, not because they are stressed but because they are the spawn of Satan.

:p

Hix
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Or try and climb over the top of your head. . . If you have seen those claws up close you can understand why most states don't allow people to hold koalas. In NSW I believe it is a maximum of three hours per day, three days per week for encounters and during those encounters they must be on a perch at all times (that can be a fork in the tree, or a staff member trained in recognising stress).

I am fortunate enough to be able to handle a koala every day I work. He loves coming out for his walks. It is at a point where I have to get another staff member to get the echidnas (who share the enclosure with the koala) because as soon as I approach the door he goes from being sound asleep to jumping and running accross branches and be waiting at his station by the time I unlock the gate and get to him, even if I'm not going in their for him.

Has to be one of my favourite Aussies.
 
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