Animal Diaries Archive

Big Boys' Bachelor Pad

29 July 2005

Introducing our koala Bachelor pad! From left to right we have Kramer, Jag, Cosmo, Minti and Luca. These five boys are all very young, aged between 2-4 years (they only reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age).

All the boys live pretty harmoniously together in an enclosure that we refer to as the Big Boys. Members of the public are able to walk around this enclosure and view the boys' daily activities which include 14 hours of sleeping with an extra 4-6 hours devoted purely to rest after that! Don’t despair however; here at Australia Zoo our koalas are involved in extra curricular activities! From early in their life, our joeys are in and around people and become very comfortable with (sometimes even craving) human contact. Once they are old enough they are also handled by our staff to get used to meeting guests.

After this, the next step is to be held by guests at the photo studio while smiling at the camera! You can also catch our little guys in the arms of our rovers, and if you ask nicely our rovers might let you have a bit of a pat! Each day they may work for a whole half an hour before it's knock-off time, and after three days of hard work they are given a day off! As our koalas get older however, they tend to specialize in different areas. Jag, Kramer and Minti for example, are excellent photo boys, sitting nicely and posing for photos. Cosmo (who never quite mastered the art of looking at the camera!) is primarily used at the end of the KoalasLIVE show as a patting koala for all interested listeners. Luca is our all-rounder who has mastered photos as well as walking around the Zoo with our rovers, and on Cosmo's days off he is the star of the KoalasLIVE show!

Each of these boys has a different character and personality; Luca is definitely a sook, often coming out of his tree for a cuddle. Cosmo loves to sit in the highest fork and can be found looking quite amused as a keeper struggles up a ladder to fetch him! Jag is the biggest and laziest boy who often falls asleep on top of people when he is supposed to be looking at the camera! Minti however is a little show pony, rarely missing a shot and Kramer is a very curious little boy who often becomes distracted during photos by something else far more interesting such as coins clinking in a nearby drink machine!

When you come to Australia Zoo, make sure you're at the 2:30pm KoalasLIVE show so you can see all of these cute and funny boys in action!