Sydney Nimble had its first encounter yesterday with a wallaby joey, Olaf, at Symbio Wildlife Park.

Olaf is an albino and is indeed a rarity, with the chances of being born an albino estimated at 1 in a 100 00. He is the offspring of two proud red-necked wallaby parents!

Olaf was born seven months back but it took a while for zoo staff to recognise his albinism.

No they weren’t sleeping on the job, it just takes a while to pick out albino features as wallabies are on the tiny side at birth, around the size of half of your thumb.

This small joey is named after a character in the Disney film series franchise, Frozen.

We look forward to seeing Olaf becoming a full grown albino wallaby in the months and years ahead.

Whilst on the topic of joeys we couldn’t help but take a photo of a koala joey who was happily sleeping just before the 3pm koala exhibition. The arrival of fresh eucalyptus branches did however get the joey alert and moving.

Whilst at Symbio we came across a member of the Honeyeater family, an Eastern Spinebill. Note the long curved beak and warm colours.

These small pretty birds are not easy to photograph and move quickly so it was nice to see one first hand!

A staff member of Symbio made the task of taking a photograph easy as she was holding the Eastern Spinebill in the palm of her hand after the bird collided with a glass window at Symbio.

The bird was stunned and it was anticipated that the small bird would recover after a short period of rest, and fly off.

Fly birdie fly!

We wish the Eastern Spinebill a speedy recovery!

The final photograph from yesterday is of two dingoes who came unusually close to the fence. Its the closest I have been to a dingo!

a media star - announcement by Symbio was picked up local newstations and by several international media outlets

mum and son enjoying a grassy munch

so cute!

audience or no audience, happily dozing

a rare chance to see an Eastern Spinebill up close

another rare event - the dingoes do not generally come this close to the fencing at Symbio

An option on our Royal National Park private day tour is a visit to Symbio Wildlife Park where visitors can see a number of unique Aussie animals.

One of our favourites is the Tasmanian Devil, one of Australia's most well known native animals.

It is a marsupial, which is basically a mammal whose young are incompletely developed at birth and typically carried in a pouch.

They are only found in the wild in Tasmania, becoming extinct on the mainland around 3000 years ago.

When you look at the Tasmanian Devil’s head and face there are no devilish horns and the standout features include a moist black nose, many whiskers, dark deep eyes, two fang teeth near the corners of the mouth and large flappy ears.

The devil’s body has an attractive colouring of black fur with a white band running across the chest.

Their front legs are larger than their back legs which helps with climbing.

This difference in the front and back leg sizes can result in devils looking like they are galloping or skipping when they run.

A keen sense of smell allows devils to find fresh carcasses at night and they may travel many kilometres seeking out the recently deceased.

A great Australian scavenger story!

Devils are inquisitive and may look you directly in the eye, or just stand and sniff the air.

Tasmanian Devils have extremely strong jaws allowing them to eat all parts of an animal – fur, muscles, organs and bones. Nothing gets wasted.

Their dietary requirements do not go beyond the living or recently living and include wombats, kangaroos, rabbits, possums, birds and even insects. Plants need not apply.

The animals ears are unusual being pink in colour that will turn to purple colour if the devil is agitated.

So why then are these creatures called devils at all?

The answer lies in the noises they usually make at night, being primarily nocturnal.

Devils will ferociously fight each other over food or finding and keeping a mate, making growling, blood curdling noises in the process.

This behaviour explains their naming as a devil, but I would suggest a very likeable one. 

standing tall

Why does Sydney Nimble keep visiting me?

born to sniff at Symbio Wildlife Park

cute brute

Sydney Nimble Tours visited Wedding Cake Rock yesterday.

We then left the Royal National Park and headed to Symbio Wildlife Park. One option available with our Royal National Park Tour is to include a visit to Symbio.

One of the favourite animals at Symbio is the koala, which is a herbivorous marsupial native to Australia.

It is often a rush to make the park by 3.00pm for the Koala Presentation. The effort to see the koalas in an active state is time well spent.

Koalas sleep a lot (up to 20 hours a day) due to the poor nutritional value of the food they eat (mainly gum leaves). Sleeping conserves energy.

We were very fortunate to get some close up photos of the koalas whilst they were with staff for a short period, after the 3.00pm presentation.

These guys are a joy to behold and one of the cutest animals on the planet.

I like the look of those gum leaves

this is my domain

khaki shirts are so easy on the claws

would you like a cuddle

Sydney Nimble visited the Symbio Wildlife Park (Symbio), with three clients yesterday. The name Symbio is a shortened version of the word symbiosis. Symbiosis is a relationship between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.

Symbio is a well run wildlife park and has a good mix of native and non native animals. The native animals include: kangaroos and wallabies, dingoes, echidnas (including an albino echidna), koalas, cassowaries, emus, wombats, goannas, Tasmanian Devils, and a variety of birds and reptiles.

When we parked at Symbio’s outside car park sulphur crested cockatoos were flying overhead and screeching loudly.

At certain times during the day there are presentations where a representative of the zoo talks about a particular animal. Koalas sleep a lot so feeding the koalas at presentation time brings these marsupials out of their slumber. Zoo staff advise that they get quite active at night. Unfortunately the zoo is not open!

Our small group also enjoyed the kangaroos and wallabies, which are remarkably tame and had no trouble with our presence. These guys are very relaxed.

The red pandas are cute and the monkeys (Tamarin and Marmoset monkeys from Central and South America) were not what we expected as they are some of the smallest types found. They looked very different to your typical monkey.

We give Symbio a big thumbs up.

Symbio is an excellent addition to our Sydney Royal National Park Tour. The only problem is deciding which part of the itinerary has to be dropped off to fit in the visit to Symbio.

We recommend allocating at least 90 minutes for a visit to Symbio, but you could easily spend more time here if you wanted to see a few of the animal presentations. Get in touch and we can provide a draft itinerary for a Royal National Park Tour which includes Symbio.

you looking at me - Bush Thick-knee

I am the king

prowling red panda

I know I heard something