Scientists believe that marsupials evolved in Nth America, spread to Sth America and thence to Australia, formerly connected continents. Most marsupials died out in the Americas, beaten by placental mammals, but they thrived in Australia. By the time Sth America, Australia and Antarctica separated millions of years ago, Australian mammals had evolved.
![]()
![]()
Quokkas are nocturnal. They fanned out in small family groups across their scrubby habitat searching for food. At midnight, the animals stopped foraging but continue eating, chewing one leaf at a time until sunrise. These creatures love to climb small trees in search of the next meal, browsing herbivores who favoured grasses, leaves, stems and bark. On Rottnest Is, their diet is primarily succulents or wattle leaves. They can go for long periods without food or water, as they store fat in their tails for emergencies. They spend their day sleeping in groups, resting behind the protection of plants’ spikes and escaping predators.
![]()
Quokkas were recently added to the International Union for Conservation Threated Species List, given their population decline due to habitat loss. Other serious threats were foxes, dogs and mainland cats, further damaging the creatures vulnerable from Dingos c4,000 years ago and European Red Foxes in 1930s. Today there are recovery signs on the mainland due to Dept of Parks & Wildlife’s feral-proofing tasks. Action was taken to reduce Red Fox numbers, thus contributing to some quokka protection.
Human impact also effected quokka numbers. Clearing for agricultural development, spread of housing and logging have contributed to reduced numbers, as well as camping, and controlled burns before the bushfire season.
A quokka weighs 2.5-5 ks and is 40-54 cs in length, one of the smallest wallabies. Mainland populations cluster around dense streamside vegetation but also be found in shrubland and heath areas, around swamps. Quokkas prefer a warm climate but are adapted to changes on Rottnest Island.
Quokkas, on average, can live for 10-15 years. They are able to breed from c18 months of age. On the mainland, female Quokkas can produce c18 babies in a lifetime, with 2 joeys born each year. But on Rottnest Is, with a shorter breeding season, Quokkas only give birth once a year.
Wild Quokkas live in areas defended by dominant males. In other areas, territories were less evident and larger, overlapping groups of 25–150 adults formed around water, sharing a c40-acre territory. The older males fight to dominate both females and younger males; a male's position in the hierarchy determining his access to food, shade and females
Quokkas are not afraid of humans; they have broken into Rottnest homes to steal food. The animals can be approached so closely that they regularly nip children’s fingertips. NB travellers should not actually touch any quokkas, or they could be fined by local authorities.
On the other side of the continent, visit Featherdale Wildlife Park in Western Sydney. And thank you to the Australian Museum in Sydney.
A quokka family on Rottnest Island,
Wiki
Australian quokkas were first discovered by Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh in 1696. One of the first Europeans to reach these shores, he met the strange animal near the Swan River, and across mainland SW Australia in swampy shrublands. These quokkas were still abundant when Europeans colonised the region in the early 1800s, but a century later their numbers had fallen. They were hunted and lost in large strips of mining, farming and bushfires. The main enemy was the red fox, deliberately introduced in the 1930s for hunting. Alas quokka numbers on mainland fell to c2,000, mostly living in small and isolated populations in forest and coastal heath between Perth and Albany.
de Vlamingh had named the island near the Swan River: Rat’s Nest. This is where most quokkas are now, on Rottnest Island west of Perth. Quokkas survived there via a fluke: In the late 1830s, the Australian government designated the island as an Aboriginal penal colony. The prison kept both mainland Europeans AND red foxes isolated for so long that when quokkas did move in, the natural environment was carefully protected. Today Rottnest has c10,000 quokkas.
The other quokka home in W.A is Bald Island, near Albany. Success on Bald Island was from quokkas finding plentiful food sources but few predators.
There are 334 surviving marsupial species today, 200+ of them native to Australia. Our quokkas are special; they are covered with short, coarse brown-grey fur over most of the body, have short round furry ears, small black, naked noses and a short, muscular tail. They are the smallest wallaby species, and like kangaroos, they hop, rounded and hunched.
de Vlamingh had named the island near the Swan River: Rat’s Nest. This is where most quokkas are now, on Rottnest Island west of Perth. Quokkas survived there via a fluke: In the late 1830s, the Australian government designated the island as an Aboriginal penal colony. The prison kept both mainland Europeans AND red foxes isolated for so long that when quokkas did move in, the natural environment was carefully protected. Today Rottnest has c10,000 quokkas.
The other quokka home in W.A is Bald Island, near Albany. Success on Bald Island was from quokkas finding plentiful food sources but few predators.
There are 334 surviving marsupial species today, 200+ of them native to Australia. Our quokkas are special; they are covered with short, coarse brown-grey fur over most of the body, have short round furry ears, small black, naked noses and a short, muscular tail. They are the smallest wallaby species, and like kangaroos, they hop, rounded and hunched.
Mother carrying joey in her pouch, San Diego Zoo
Unlike the vast majority of the world's placental mammals, marsupial females give birth to tiny embryos that complete development outside their mothers' bodies in a marsupium/pouch. Female quokkas give birth to a single joey a month after mating, the joey remaining in the pouch for c6 months. It continues to feed at its mother's teats for another 2 months but once weaned, the joey ventures off alone.
Quokkas are nocturnal. They fanned out in small family groups across their scrubby habitat searching for food. At midnight, the animals stopped foraging but continue eating, chewing one leaf at a time until sunrise. These creatures love to climb small trees in search of the next meal, browsing herbivores who favoured grasses, leaves, stems and bark. On Rottnest Is, their diet is primarily succulents or wattle leaves. They can go for long periods without food or water, as they store fat in their tails for emergencies. They spend their day sleeping in groups, resting behind the protection of plants’ spikes and escaping predators.
Quokka climbs a tree to eat leaves.
San Diego Zoo
Quokkas were recently added to the International Union for Conservation Threated Species List, given their population decline due to habitat loss. Other serious threats were foxes, dogs and mainland cats, further damaging the creatures vulnerable from Dingos c4,000 years ago and European Red Foxes in 1930s. Today there are recovery signs on the mainland due to Dept of Parks & Wildlife’s feral-proofing tasks. Action was taken to reduce Red Fox numbers, thus contributing to some quokka protection.
Human impact also effected quokka numbers. Clearing for agricultural development, spread of housing and logging have contributed to reduced numbers, as well as camping, and controlled burns before the bushfire season.
A quokka weighs 2.5-5 ks and is 40-54 cs in length, one of the smallest wallabies. Mainland populations cluster around dense streamside vegetation but also be found in shrubland and heath areas, around swamps. Quokkas prefer a warm climate but are adapted to changes on Rottnest Island.
Quokkas, on average, can live for 10-15 years. They are able to breed from c18 months of age. On the mainland, female Quokkas can produce c18 babies in a lifetime, with 2 joeys born each year. But on Rottnest Is, with a shorter breeding season, Quokkas only give birth once a year.
Wild Quokkas live in areas defended by dominant males. In other areas, territories were less evident and larger, overlapping groups of 25–150 adults formed around water, sharing a c40-acre territory. The older males fight to dominate both females and younger males; a male's position in the hierarchy determining his access to food, shade and females
Quokkas are not afraid of humans; they have broken into Rottnest homes to steal food. The animals can be approached so closely that they regularly nip children’s fingertips. NB travellers should not actually touch any quokkas, or they could be fined by local authorities.
On the other side of the continent, visit Featherdale Wildlife Park in Western Sydney. And thank you to the Australian Museum in Sydney.