I’m sure at least some of you have seen pictures of this fuzzy little guy on your Twitter feed at some point. This fuzzball goes by the name Quokka, and it is affectionately recognized as the “happiest animal in the world” due to it’s chubby cheeks that make it look like it’s always smiling. These marsupials can be found on the small Australian island of Rottnest. The island’s name is actually derived from the quokka–an early Russian visitor mistook the quokka for a rat (which, we now know, is not true because a rat is not a marsupial) and renamed the island “Rattennest” (which, for those of you who don’t know the language, means “rat’s nest” in Russian) in honor of the tiny little creature. However, the quokka can also be found in the mainland of Australia, residing mostly in the tall grass near water. They are also known to be quite skilled at scaling up and down the Australian treetops.
The quokka has a round, compact body covered in short, brown fuzz. They have small ears, big noses, and even bigger cheeks. They grow to be around 16-21 inches in size. They are herbivores who eat mainly native foliage, but can also go for long periods of time without eating due to the fact that they are actually able to sustain themselves with extra fat stored in their tails. They’re nocturnal creatures who live in large groups, run by a group of dominant males.
Interestingly enough, the quokka can breed all year round on mainland Australia, but only from January to August on Rottnest. Generally, females give birth to baby quokka, called joeys, twice a year. The gestation period is about a month long. Once born, the baby quokka lives in the mother’s pouch for about 6 months until it ventures out into the world of walking. However, once on its own two feet, the joey still relies on its mother for milk for around 2 months. About the time of their one-and-a-half year birthday, the quokka becomes mature and able to reproduce. They generally live for around 10 years in the wild.
The quokka is listed as a species in critical condition due to its diminishing habitat. Much like the koala, the quokka’s habitat is constantly being destroyed and reduced to almost nothing because of development and general misuse of the land by humans. Foxes, dogs, cats and other predators found on mainland Australia also pose a threat to the marsupial. However, these predators cannot be found on the island; much of the population decrease on Rottnest is due to human killing of the quokka for sport. This is in part do to the curious and trustworthy nature of the quokka, who will go up to humans in order to investigate and say hello. If you ever see a quokka, be sure to keep your distance (even though they are cute!) so that the quokka will not develop even more of a habit of walking up to random people.
It is so adorable!!! i have no idea why people would hunt these for sport. If people are hunting, they should hunt animals that would provide a challenge, not such cute animals.
The pictures alone made me so happy!! Excellent descriptions as well. I absolutely adore everything about your blog topic…always an upper, every week:)
This is hands down one of the cutest animals I have ever seen. It’s smiling face is absolute perfection. It’s unfortunate that this little creature is a species in critical condition. It’s ridiculous how quickly we can destroy something so sweet and innocent. It was really nice learning more about the Quokka. I didn’t know a lot of the details you wrote about.
This is the first time I’ve heard of Quokkas! They are so adorable! And it’s so interesting that they store fat in their tails. Great post – I especially loved the pictures!
Quokkas are so cute and probably my favorite animal. I love how you gave a bunch of detailed information on the animal and your pictures are great. Love this post!
Cryinggggg because CUTENESS OVERLOAD. Quokka’s are impossible not to love. I’ve seen lots of memes online of them, so it was interesting to actually learn about them! I had no idea their species was in critical condition. Hopefully groups are fighting hard to keep this little ball of cuteness around.
Although I have seen some pictures of the quokka, I had no idea of its name, or any of this other information. This is truly one of the cutest animals I have ever seen, as its cheeks are so large and adorable! I would absolutely love to see one in person; however, I think it is definitely smart that we not allow them to approach us because we wouldn’t want them to become too comfortable around all humans.
This is a pretty amazing animal! I’ve never even heard of it before. The Quokka kind of reminds me of a half kangaroo/ half rabbit-squirrel. Of course, it’s depressing that the species or any species dies out due to habitat destruction. Human expansion at the expense of a specie’s existence always gets to me…anyway thanks for the quick russian lesson!
AWWW I love these guys! I have so many plans to fly to Australia to steal a bunch and smuggle them back to live in my dorm. I think our college needs to have a little habitat for them to reduce student stress, it would be a huge success
OH MY GOD THEY’RE SO CUTE!!! I’ve actually seen these little fuzzballs before, since they seem to be very popular on the internet. I really enjoyed learning a little bit more about them. There’s definitely more to them that a cute face!
~Alayna
This is the first time I’ve ever actually seen the name of this cute animal in the few times I’ve seen it around the Internet. The Quokka is definitely deserving of the title of the “Happiest Animal” because it is truly adorable! It is sad to see that it’s home is slowly being destroyed, and measures should be taken to prevent further destruction. As usual, great post Hannah!