By Tiffanie Turnbull, BBC Information, Sydney
![Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary/Getty Images Taylor Swift (L) and the Pope (R) with Koalas](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e26c/live/edf2ccd0-39de-11ef-bbe0-29f79e992ddd.jpg.webp)
For what looks as if time immemorial, giving a fluffy little koala a cuddle has been an Australian ceremony of passage for visiting celebrities, vacationers and locals alike.
And for a lot of of them, a wildlife park in a leafy pocket of Queensland has been the place making goals come true.
The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary has entertained everybody from pop large Taylor Swift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However as of this month, the small zoo – a Brisbane icon which payments itself because the world’s first koala sanctuary – has determined it can not provide “koala maintain experiences”.
Lone Pine stated the transfer is in response to more and more robust customer suggestions.
“We love that there’s a shift amongst each native and worldwide company to expertise Australian wildlife up shut, however not essentially private, simply doing what they do greatest – consuming, sleeping and stress-free inside their very own area,” stated Basic Supervisor Lyndon Discombe.
Animal rights teams say they hope this can be a signal that the follow – which they argue is “merciless” – will probably be phased out nation-wide.
They quote research which have discovered that such encounters stress koalas out – particularly provided that the creatures are solitary, largely nocturnal animals who sleep a lot of the day.
To have or to carry?
Koalas are a a lot beloved nationwide icon – priceless in biodiversity phrases, but in addition a golden goose for the tourism trade, with one examine from 2014 estimating they’re price A$3.2bn ($2.14bn; £1.68bn) every year and help as much as 30,000 jobs.
Nonetheless the once-thriving marsupial is in dramatic decline, having been ravaged by land clearing, bushfires, drought, illness and different threats.
Estimates differ significantly, however some teams say as few as 50,000 of the animals are left within the wild and the species is formally listed as endangered alongside a lot of the east coast. There at the moment are fears the animals will probably be extinct in some states inside a technology.
And so defending koalas, each within the wild and in captivity, is an emotional and complicated matter in Australia.
All states have strict environmental protections for the species, and plenty of of them have already outlawed koala “holding”.
For instance, New South Wales – Australia’s most populous state – banned it in 1997. There, the foundations state {that a} koala can’t be “positioned straight on… or [be] straight held by any customer for any objective”.
However in Queensland – and a choose few locations in South Australia and Western Australia – the follow continues.
For these prepared to fork out, they will snap an image cuddling a koala, for instance at Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld for A$29.95 and the internationally famend Australia Zoo for A$124.
Steve Irwin even went on the report to argue that these experiences assist conservation efforts.
“When individuals contact an animal, the animal touches their coronary heart. And immediately, we’ve gained them over to the conservation of that species,” the late conservationist as soon as stated.
And the Queensland authorities say there are clear guidelines round this. For starters, the koalas can’t be used for images for greater than three days in a row earlier than they’re required to have a day without work.
They will solely be on responsibility for half-hour a day, and a complete of 180 minutes every week. And females with joeys should not be dealt with by the general public.
“I used to joke, because the surroundings minister, that our koalas have the perfect union round,” stated Queensland Premier Steven Miles.
![Getty Images Tony Abbott and Vladimir Putin with koalas](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/cba5/live/b49ff5d0-39c4-11ef-9e10-6d54d928d7d8.jpg.webp)
Proper teams have welcomed Lone Pine’s determination – however some have referred to as for such points of interest to finally be eliminated altogether.
“The way forward for wildlife tourism is seeing wild animals within the wild the place they belong,” stated Suzanne Milthorpe of the World Animal Safety (WAP).
Wild koalas keep away from interactions with people, however at these points of interest haven’t any selection however to be uncovered to unfamiliar guests, sights and noises, says WAP – a London-based group which campaigns to finish the usage of captive wild animals in leisure venues.
“Vacationers are more and more shifting away from outdated, tense selfie encounters.”
The Worldwide Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Australia additionally says that “within the preferrred world, koalas would by no means have contact with people”, including that they wish to see this method “adopted throughout the board”.
“As cute as they’re, koalas are nonetheless wild animals in captivity and are extraordinarily vulnerable to emphasize,” Oceania director Rebecca Keeble advised the BBC.
“Their welfare is paramount and as they’re an endangered species we have to do all we are able to to guard them.”
However the hope that Lone Pine’s transfer would add momentum in the direction of a state-wide ban seems to have been scuppered.
A authorities spokesperson advised the BBC there isn’t a intention of adjusting the legislation – and Lone Pine itself has additionally clarified that it helps the legal guidelines as is.
Nonetheless WAP says it can preserve piling stress on different venues to depart the koalas on their timber.
“In the end, we want the Queensland Authorities to consign this merciless follow to the historical past books.”