Our Next Adventures- Update

I have terrible news to report......

There will be NO koala-hugging during our upcoming Aussie trip. None. Not a hug to spare for a marsupial-loving American girl.

Apparently it is against the law in Victoria for tourists to touch Koalas. So despite a lifetime of looking enviously and longingly at other people's photos hugging the oh-so-cute not-actually-a-bear Koala Bear I will not be updating my facebook profile with an adorable picture of me loving on a cuddly Australian friend.

While the disappointment is palpable, I will survive. My friend B's little sister K. has informed me that Koala hugging opportunities are plentiful where she lives in North-East Oz, so it seems like there will be a repeat trip down under in my future.

So with that, I will leave you with some Koala fun-facts borrowed from the Internet:

• Koalas are not bears. They are MARSUPIALS, which means that their young are born immature & they develop further in the safety of a pouch.
• There is a myth that koalas sleep a lot because they ‘get drunk' on gum leaves. Fortunately, this is not correct! Most of their time is spent sleeping because it requires a lot of energy to digest their toxic, fibrous, low-nutrition diet and sleeping is the best way to conserve energy.
• There are well over 600 varieties of eucalyptus. Koalas eat only some of these. They are very fussy eaters and have strong preferences for different types of gum leaves. Within a particular area, as few as one, and generally no more than two or three species of eucalypti will be regularly browsed (we call these 'primary browse trees') while a variety of other species, including some non-eucalyptus, appear to be browsed occasionally or used for just sitting or sleeping in.
• Koalas don’t normally need to drink as they get all the moisture they need from the gum leaves. However, they can drink if necessary, such as in times of drought when the leaves may not contain sufficient moisture.

One last complaint....on the Save the Koala website, where these fun facts came from, and where the advocate against koala-touching, there is in fact a picture of someone gleefully hugging a koala. Hypocrisy! Don't tell me its wrong then make it look so right.