We saw a koala! In the wild! Right near our house!!!

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We do a walk most Wednesdays but it's rare that we see anything that's exciting enough to justify its own full post. Today was different - we saw a koala!

We live in a part of Australia where koalas do live in the wild. However, with attacks by dogs, urban growth that lops down the rare handful of (gum) trees that are their own food source and the out-of-control spread of chlamydia our beloved Australian icon is genuinely facing extinction.

Thus, these two Aussies, who have both seen koalas many times before were ecstatic to see one in the bush nearby to our house this afternoon!

Brad tried to get some good photos with his (newer-than-my) phone but without disturbing our new buddy too much. It was tempting, of course, to want to get close. There's something about our gorgeous furry mammals that makes me want to cuddle them. (That said, I have held koalas and they have very sharp claws; they need them to climb up those huge trees they sleep in!)

Eventually, our friend slowly made its way up this big tree, clearly indicating to us, "Okay guys, photo shoot is over. Off you go." So we did, with big grins on our faces and our hearts wide open with renewed hope for the fate of this little one.

Meanwhile, we still got to see more of our other marsupial friends; I think we saw both the red-necked wallaby and the swamp wallaby today as well. It's kinda hard to tell which is which when they're tucked in between the trees as they're a similar size and colouring, but they're also super cute and I (imagine) cuddly!

As long as we don't scare them too much when they hear us coming then they'll often stand very still while we take Brad takes a handful of photos. Then something will spook them, a new sound or we'll shift our weight, and they look for their best exit and they're off!

And if a koala and a big handful of wallabies wasn't enough to make for two happy Wednesday Walkers then the veritable sea of these purple flowers was 😊

Thank you to my walking buddy, life buddy and photo extraordinaire, @new.things. What would I do without you? 😘

hive-155530 brisbane australia nature bushwalking koala animals vyb pob neoxian
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49 comments
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We are so lucky to have a decent chunk of bush so close.
!LUV
!ALIVE
!LOL

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So lucky. I !LUV it. Thanks for inviting me to live you babe 😘😘😘

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!LUV
!LOL
!ALIVE

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How special! Most certainly a sightings worth writing home about!

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Indeed 🙌 Seems I've written "home" to my fellow Hiveans !LOL

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Sorry for the generic reply this week I have some issues limiting how much I can type

Thanks for joining Wednesday Walk :), I truly enjoy exploring the world virtually each Wednesday seeing walks from all around the globe and feeling I am there and experiencing it all myself, such as I did in your post just now :)

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What an awesome walk indeed! Jealous you guys are so close to the wilds. I am going to get a bit sappy here but it is dang awesome that you guys are so I'm touch with the environmental challenges your ecosystem is facing.

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It is wonderful indeed to be so close to the bush. We feel very fortunate.

And you don't feel like you're very aware of the issues in your part of the natural world @pixelhuntersam?

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Oh I'm very aware, painfully so. But I've noticed that it is not the case with a lot of people. There is either willful ignorance or apathy a lot of times. Which breaks my heart.

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Ah, I see. My guess is that many people feel like the problem is too big, too overwhelming so their nervous system shuts down in order to protect them from big emotions that are too scary to feel (like powerlessness). I'm getting better at noticing what I notice in regards to the problem, noticing what I notice in regards to what I can do to help right now, and asking myself to let go of the sense of responsibility to fix everything now.

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That's so exciting! I've only ever seen a koala out in the wild once and it was so high up in a gumtree we could barely see it.. it was still pretty exciting but these photos are so much better! This one was so big! Good job with the photos friends!

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I can feel your excitement !LOL 😁

Thanks for the kind words, Adam. I was going to ask if you're well but I guess I could go look for recent posts from you too 😂

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How fantastic. I’d be delighted to have them as neighbours. Mind you we’ve seen Deer very close to our house here in England.

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Oooooh. I'd be delighted to have deer near our house (if they were native here that is!). How fun! !LOL

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That’s the thing, because they are so abundant here in the U.K. I kind of imagine they are all over the world. Which they aren’t of course! lol

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!LOL It's so easy to forget that "our" normal isn't "the" normal everywhere! Like I'm so used to looking for snakes in the bush in summer. It's totally normal. Totally expected. Watch where you put your feet. But when I see videos of runners in the U.S. and they're looking out/calling out for bears as a "normal" potential hazard during a forest run I'm like WTF?! Haha. So different. And isn't it wonderful that it's so different?

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Gosh I'm sorry I'm late fir this one! What great shots!!! I have an overwhelming urge to cuddle those koalas but I believe it's a terrible idea in reality 😳😳😳

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