Yes, you can pet a kangaroo.

We went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and saw most of the famous Aussie critters. They had a large fenced area where kangaroos, wallabies and emus were hanging around. A kangaroo's coat is surprisingly soft, almost like a rabbit.

 

A wallaby.

 

 Chillin'.

(They had a special cordoned off area where the animals could go to get away from human contact. Their motto is "Earth is not only for humans")

One of several momma kangaroos with Joeys in their pouch. That's his head and his back feet sticking out.

 

The main mission of the Sanctuary is to rescue and care for Koalas, but it's also a small zoo. There's only one species of Koala and they only live in fragmented habitats on the eastern coast of Australia.

Eucalyptus leaves are a low energy food source, so Koalas sleep about 19 hours a day. They are cute, but not very exciting (and pretty stinky).

A Kookaburra

When these birds start "laughing" it sounds the trees are full of monkeys.

 

They had several kinds of cockatiels, this is the first black one I've seen. They also had a white one that was saying hello to everyone with an Aussie accent. I had no idea these birds could "talk" but a couple of them had a whole list of words and phrases they could vocalize.

 

 

Emu.

A cassowary. An endangered bird slightly smaller than an Emu. Doesn't this look like a dinosaur/bird link?

Australia has a lot of cool lizards.

I think Dingoes are a lot prettier than coyotes. The white one was howling a bit while we were there.