Koala Sanctuary

6 May
Magnetic Island
Sunny and very warm on the 5th
Morning showers on the 6th

We woke up today to rain and cloudy skies, the first day of really poor weather in our travels thus far. The weather system that's been sitting off the coast a hundred kilometers or so appears to finally be moving inland, so there's rain all along the Queensland coast, from Brisbane to Cairns. Since the brunch the students planned is an indoor event, there should be no problems with it, but I know that a group was planning to go horseback riding on the beach this afternoon, so we'll have to see what the day brings to them. I have little planned, apart from course business and laundry.

Yesterday, we visited the Bungalow Bay Koala Sanctuary, located at the Magnetic Island YHA near Horseshoe Bay. In past years, we have often gone to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, in Brisbane, but as we did not visit Brisbane this year, we substituted Bungalow Bay instead.
I had asked our apartment managers to arrange this for us, and they seemed to agree to do so, but I had no evidence that it was happening, so I went ahead and booked it myself. It's easy enough to get there, as it's right on the bus line and we all have passes for the three days, and there's no reason for me not to do it, apart from the fact that when the lodging managers make the booking they earn a 10% commission. But when planning this course, I depend on people doing what they say they will do. So, it was a little disappointing.

But it changed nothing as far as the students were concerned. Our tour began at 10am, and lasted about two hours. Our tour guide Tony led us out to the exhibits, beginning with two small estuarine crocodiles. They were about 2 feet long, typical for three-year olds. We each had a chance to hold one of them. On the course blog (http://ecaustralia09.blogspot.com), I posted a photo of one of the students holding one; I had a chance to hold it, too. The croc skin feels smoother than one might imagine, though I suspect that the older crocs feel rougher, owing to the years taking their toll and adding scar tissue. When I held it, it closed it eyes and appeared to go to sleep.

Tony editorialized a fair amount during his talk, but he did make an interesting point about global warming. Crocs have been around for hundreds of millions of years. They have endured ice ages, periods of mass extinction, and other global calamities. Perhaps crocs have a lot less to worry about from global warming than we do.

We next went to a central patio area where there were a couple of cockatoos, a black cockatoo we were able to hold and feed, and a sulfur-crested cockatoo with a bit of an attitude. The black cockatoo would perch on a person's arm, who would then hold a sunflower seed between his/her lips. The cockatoo would then take the seed, giving the illusion of the bird and the person kissing. Several of us did this, too.

There was also a rock wallaby running around, too: an orphan rescued when its mother was killed on the road. It had no fear of people at all -- it attacked my shoes, biting at my shoelaces and the loop at the back. It was a cute little rascal.

In the next exhibit, we saw some bearded dragons, a blue-tongued lizard, and an echidna. The echidna is an unusual animal; it is a monotreme, an egg-laying mammal, like a platypus. They are an ancient mammal, with a line diverging from the rest of the mammals not long after the mammals and the reptiles split. Their bones are lighter and some skeletal features are similar to reptiles. The echidna has a long tongue used to get into termite and ant mounds for its staple diet. It's covered with extremely coarse and thick hairs that appear to be spikes; it thus has few predators. Its hind legs are oddly constructed, facing backwards. when threatened, the echidna will dig into the ground quickly, leaving only its coarse hairs above ground, so that it appears to be a small bit of scrub grass. I have long wanted to get a picture of an echidna for the course booklet, and got plenty. So, that was nice.

We next moved to the koala exhibit, where the students had the opportunity to hold it and be photographed. This experience a little from the other places that offer such an opportunity in a couple of ways: (1) we all held the same koala; and (2) it was a male koala that we held. At Lone Pine and at Rainforest Station, the koalas are rotated so as to minimize the stress the holding session puts on them. Koalas have a pretty primitive brain, their behaviors are somewhat limited, and they have a grouchy nature, so stressing them increases the chance that they might misbehave in some way and harm the holder. That it's a male koala can only compound the problem, as the males can be aggressive when provoked. In addition, the males have a scent gland on their chest used for marking trees, so holding a male might result in getting ones clothes a little smelly. Nevertheless, the students enjoyed it, and no one got hurt.
The final exhibit of the tour was the python. The one that Tony brought out was about 5 feet long, so it was pretty small. Quite playful, too, and very comfortable being handled. I think by the time it was my turn, it was a little tired, so we cut my holding it short, but it was still a fun experience. One of the things hat Tony pointed out after we had held the koala was that while the python had never bitten anyone, the koala had bitten 35 people over the last three years.
After we were done, we went our separate ways, with some students heading back to Nelly Bay for lunch, while others staying to have lunch there at the hostel. I walked over to Horseshoe Bay for a quick bite and an unsuccessful hunt for a good internet cafe. Later in the day, one of the students told me about a spot a few blocks from our apartments, so I was able to upload the previous entries and a few photos.

It's now 11:30 in the morning. We've had a very nice brunch, and several of the students have left for their adventures for the day. Though the skies look a little gloomy, we've had no rain since early this morning, so we hope that they will have a good time. I'm doing a little laundry and phoning ahead to get ready for our next destination, Cairns.