Koala joey Albert has been reintroduced to his real mother Elsa at the Australian Reptile Park for the first time since he was rescued.
Albert is the tiniest koala joey ever hand-raised at the Australian Reptile Park.
He had to be looked after for the past five months by Australian Reptile Park life sciences manager and part-time koala mum Hayley Shute because his mum Elsa fell ill when he weighed a mere 280g.
With Albert now weighing 3kg, he has transitioned from bottle feeding to munching on eucalyptus leaves, and has even made a few koala friends at the Park's Koala Preschool.
Hayley Shute carefully orchestrated the reunion with his mum Elsa today.
After a quick snuggle, Shute took Albert into the yard that Elsa calls home.
Once they entered, Elsa was quick to notice the little joey and her keeper Hayley and climbed down the tree to greet them.
After Elsa locked eyes with Albert and gave him a few quick sniffs, she knew her baby had come home.
A little-known Aussie animal is taking steps to return to the wild after being raised by human carers.
Bonnie, a Rufous Bettong has been in care at Aussie Ark on the NSW Central Coast since October, after she was abandoned by her mother.
Aussie Ark Operations Manager Dean Reid was her first "dad" and shared Christmas with Bonnie, engaging her with baubles, tinsel and tree decorating.
Wildlife Ranger Riley Tydeman took over care in the New Year, and she was a crowd favourite during open Ddays at the Ark.
The Rufous Bettong is a little-known nocturnal marsupial which has been decimated in the wild due to feral predators.
They are an ancient member of the kangaroo family; they hop like a roo, have a pouch for young, but growl like a bear when agitated and carry nesting material in their monkey-like prehensile tails.
"They are truly amazing animals and it has been a highlight of my career helping to hand-raise Bonnie," Tydeman said.
Bonnie is now moving to Aussie Ark's Species Recovery Unit and the organisation's Rufous Bettong breeding and rewilding program.
As Santa makes his way down under this Christmas Eve, baby animals at the Australian Reptile Park are marking their first ever Christmas.
In this photo, Albert the Koala opens his Christmas gift early this year at the NSW wildlife home.
Click through for more adorable photos.
Baby lion cubs are making their debut at Taronga Western Plains Zoo!
The 11-week-old cubs have been enjoying exploring their enclosure after hours but soon the public will be able to see them.
The three cubs are named Bahati, Jabari and Zawadi.
Their mother is lioness Marion.
They have now met their father Lwazi and big sisters Amali, Imani and Mara.
Guests will be able to see the cubs from December 23 between 10am and 2pm daily at the zoo near Dubbo.
There will also be a lion keeper talk at 11.30am.
The cubs were born at a different zoo to the ones that escaped in Sydney last year.
The five lions were spotted outside of their main enclosure on November 2, after there was an "integrity issue" with a containment fence.
An extremely rare leucistic white alligator has been born at Gatorland in Orlando, the park has announced.
Gatorland said it's the first white leucistic gator born in human care, and as far as the park knows, it's one of only eight in the world.
The new baby is a female, weighs 96 grams and is 49 centimetres long. Her parents are named Jeyan and Ashley, and she was born along with a normal-colored brother of the same size.
Leucistic alligators are the rarest genetic variation in the American alligator. They differ from albino alligators, which have a complete loss of pigment
Melbourne Zoo have welcomed two new additions to their Meerkat pack.
The pups have been spending their first weeks alive huddled with mum Toto and dad Malu in their den.
The two pups, born on October 17, are the first Meerkat pups to be born at the zoo in five years.