See how the quokka smiles! You've probably made this comment after seeing photos and videos of 'smiling' quokkas, one of the most viral posts in recent years. But is there really happiness behind those selfies with these wild animals?
Continue reading this article on our site to learn more about one of Australia's 10 rarest animals, the Quokka- Characteristics, habitat and conservation status.
Taxonomic classification of the quokka
To learn more about the curious quokkas, it is interesting to start with their taxonomic classification. This allows us to place them among the different subclasses of mammals, since all the anatomical characteristics will depend on their evolution and taxonomic classification:
- Kingdom: animals
- Phylum: chordates
- Subphylum: Vertebrates
- Class: mammals
- Subclass: therios
- Infraclass: marsupials
- Order: Cyprotodons
- Family: macropods
- Genre: setonix
- Species: setonix brachyurus
Now that we have located the quokka taxonomically, the only species of the Setonix genus, let's see in the next sections what its main characteristics are.
Quokka Features
Being marsupials, the young of the quokka are born prematurely and complete their development in the marsupial or marsupial bag, obtaining food that they need to continue growing through the mammary glands to which they attach to suck.
During their movement, quokkas tend to jump while running, just like other macropod animals. On the other hand, quokkas are characterized by having only two incisor teeth in their jaws, thus belonging to the order of diprotodonts, as we saw in their classification taxonomic.
Why is the quokka the happiest animal in the world?
This curious fact is because the quokka is really very photogenic, seeming to smile in photographs. A fact that is undoubtedly due to what is considered in ethology to attribute human qualities to animals.
Quokka Habitat
In order to see quokkas in their natural habitat, we should travel to Western Australia, specifically to those commonly known as 'the islands of the quokka', Rottnest Island, and Bald Island.
There, it will be possible to find the quokka in eucalyptus forests (Eucalyptus marginata), palos de sangre or marris (Corymbia calophylla) and riparian habitats dominated by sedges, low scrub and heathland, as well as inland swamps and wetlands where tea tree (Taxandria linearifolia) are abundant.
Quokka Customs
Quokka are land animals that tend to be social, tending to come curiously close to the humans they encounter in their natural habitat.
But, in addition to being social with humans, they are also social with other individuals of their species. They prefer to live in groups.
On the other hand, the quokka usually stay throughout the year in their natural island habitats, without the need to move following migrations to find better climatic conditions.
Quokka feeding
When feeding, quokkas prefer to follow nightly habits. They follow a herbivorous diet like the rest of the marsupials, severely chewing leaves, herbs, twigs from the forests, thickets and wetlands they inhabit.
They take advantage of plant nutrients that they are not able to digest by slowing down their metabolism, thus betting on consuming a smaller amount of food that they can assimilate without problem.
Playing the quokka
Quokka are marsupial animals and therefore viviparous, following a sexual reproductionHowever, they have some exceptions within viviparity, since they lack a placenta, causing the embryos to be born with a early development
The solution to these premature births is based on the use of the marsupium or marsupial bag. As soon as they are born, the young crawl through the pouch until they reach the mammary glands or nipples, to which they attach to obtain the food they need by sucking. continue to grow, completing their developments in the marsupial pouch until they are ready to fend for themselves.
Quokka Conservation Status
The current population of the quokka is declining, with the species in vulnerable conservation status (VU), according to the IUCN Red List. The population has adult individuals ranging between 7, 500 and 15,000 individuals. This population is severely fragmented, mainly because they inhabit islands.
Numerous quokka conservation studies point to the importance of identifying potential refuges for this vulnerable species That is, areas where Studies predict that the species could persist depending on environmental conditions and risks, thus defining management strategies to protect these areas from threatening processes.
These processes that threaten the survival of the quokka include the displacements they suffer from their natural habitats, influenced by the use of biological resources by neighboring human populations through activities such as logging and timber harvesting. Also, the stalking of fox populations, one of their main predators, which prevent the rates of quokka individuals from increasing despite their high fertility.
Due to the great popularity of photos and selfies that people take with quokka in recent years, these animals remain stressed. They disrupt their natural cycles of feeding, resting, and mating. As if that were not enough, the quokka faces another major problem, the risks derived from climate change, which leads to severe changes in the climate such as droughts and fires, which significantly alter the natural habitat of the quokka.
