Should koala cuddles be banned? This zoo thinks so

For what looks like 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 desires 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’ll now not supply “koala maintain experiences”.

Lone Pine mentioned the transfer is in response to more and more sturdy 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 finest – consuming, sleeping and enjoyable inside their very own area,” mentioned Basic Supervisor Lyndon Discombe.

Animal rights teams say they hope this can be a signal that the follow – which they argue is “merciless” – can be phased out nation-wide.

They quote research which have discovered that such encounters stress koalas out – particularly on condition that the creatures are solitary, principally nocturnal animals who sleep a lot of the day.

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 value A$3.2bn ($2.14bn; £1.68bn) every year and help as much as 30,000 jobs.

Nevertheless the once-thriving marsupial is in dramatic decline, having been ravaged by land clearing, bushfires, drought, illness and different threats.

With as few as 50,000 of the animals left within the wild and the species formally listed as endangered alongside a lot of the east coast, there are actually fears the animals can be extinct in some states inside a technology.

And so defending koalas, each within the wild and in captivity, is an emotional and complicated subject in Australia.

All states have strict environmental protections for the species, and lots 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 immediately on… or [be] immediately 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’ll snap an image cuddling a koala, from Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld for A$29.95 to the internationally famend Australia Zoo for A$124.

However the Queensland authorities say there are clear guidelines round this. For starters, the koalas can’t be used for pictures for greater than three days in a row earlier than they’re required to have a day without work.

They’ll solely be on obligation 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 setting minister, that our koalas have the very best union round,” mentioned Queensland Premier Steven Miles.

Proper teams have welcomed the choice – however some have referred to as for such points of interest to be eliminated altogether finally.

“The way forward for wildlife tourism is seeing wild animals within the wild the place they belong,” mentioned 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 alternative 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 transferring away from outdated, irritating selfie encounters.”

The Worldwide Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Australia additionally says that “within the perfect world, koalas would by no means have contact with people”, including that they’d “prefer to see this 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 informed 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 direction of a state-wide ban seems to have been scuppered.

A authorities spokesperson informed the BBC there is no such thing as a intention of adjusting the regulation.

Nevertheless WAP says it’ll hold piling stress on different venues to go away the koalas on their timber.

“Finally, we want the Queensland Authorities to consign this merciless follow to the historical past books.”