A popular koala sanctuary in Queensland, Australia is no longer allowing visitors to cuddle its koalas.<\/p>\n
The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane announced that it had ended its koala-holding experience from 1 July after “increasingly strong visitor feedback”.<\/p>\n
The sanctuary will replace it with a new experience, which will focus on meaningful connections and extended time in the presence of the iconic Australian animal.<\/p>\n
General manager Lyndon Discombe said there was a shift among both local and international guests to experience Australian wildlife up close, but not necessarily personal.<\/p>\n
They wanted to see what the animals do best – eating, sleeping and relaxing within their own space.<\/p>\n
“We have absolutely seen an increase in demand for educational programs and guided experiences, focussing on the ability to witness the natural behaviours of koalas,” he said.<\/p>\n
He told\u00a0Morning Report\u00a0<\/i>that visitors wanted to have more time with its koalas, have a more immersive experience and learn more about them and their keepers.<\/p>\n
“This is just purely a business decision from our sanctuary to change the offering that we provide,” he said.<\/p>\n
In other Australian states, including New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, it is illegal to hold a koala.<\/p>\n
Discombe said people will still be able to hold them at other sanctuaries in Queensland<\/p>\n
Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A popular koala sanctuary in Queensland, Australia is no longer allowing visitors to cuddle its koalas. The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane announced that it had ended its koala-holding experience from 1 July after “increasingly strong visitor feedback”. The sanctuary will replace it with a new experience, which will focus on meaningful connections and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10577,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575\/revisions\/10577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}