Quokka

• It eats grasses, leaves and soft shoots, and depends heavily on fresh water nearby.
• It lives in dense scrub, swampy ground and woodland of south-western Australia, especially on Rottnest and Bald Islands.
• Its name comes from the Noongar language; that of Rottnest Island ("rat's nest"), by contrast, comes from a historical misunderstanding: in 1696 the explorer Willem de Vlamingh mistook quokkas for giant rats.
• conservaciónIts expression, which looks like a permanent smile, and its lack of wariness around people have made it a social-media phenomenon, though in the wild it faces serious conservation threats.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (marsupial mammal)

Habitat and environment

Dense scrub, swampy ground and woodland of south-western Australia, especially on Rottnest and Bald Islands

Birth weight

~0.38-0.4 grams

Size at birth

Tiny and helpless at birth

Sexual maturity

Female: ~8.4 months (252 days) | Male: ~13 months (389 days)

Gestation / incubation

25-27 days

Litter / clutch size

1 young per birth, with up to 2 births a year and as many as 17 young in a lifetime

Life expectancy in captivity

Documented record of up to 13.8 years in captivity

Sources consulted: AnAge (genomics.senescence.info) · Wiley (reproduction in captivity study) · GBIF · Animal Diversity Web · A-Z Animals · The Quokka (mating and life cycle) · Animalia.bio · AnimalHub

The pins mark the dive sites where its presence is documented.