Quokka Facts: Habitat, Diet, and Why They Are Called the World's Happiest Animal

Millions of people who've never visited Australia know the name of the quokka, because every picture of one looks like it's smiling. But this little marsupial is more than just a pleasing angle for the camera. What a quokka really is, where it lives, what it eats, and why you should never try to touch one.

The quokka (Setonix brachyurus) is a small marsupial in the macropod family, which also includes kangaroos and wallabies. Adults are about 40-54 cm in head and body length, with a stocky build, rounded ears, and a short, broad face. The quokka is covered in thick brown-gray fur, and the mostly hairless tail does something unusual for a marsupial: it stores fat, giving the quokka a reserve to draw on when food is scarce.

Quokkas eat only plants. They eat native grasses, leaves, shrub buds, seeds, and sometimes bark. Like some other marsupials, they will re-chew swallowed plant matter to extract more nutrition from tough vegetation. No animal protein required.

Quokkas are found only in the southwest corner of Western Australia and on two offshore islands, Rottnest Island near Perth and Bald Island near Albany. Rottnest has the largest and most well-known population—about 10,000 quokkas live on the island among its beaches and holiday resorts, and that's precisely how the species became a global photo phenomenon.

The situation with mainland quokkas is quite different. Bushland around Perth still has small, scattered colonies, including Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, Torndirrup National Park, Mt. Manypeaks National Park, and the Stirling Range. The numbers there have fallen sharply over the last century, and sightings on the mainland are now rare.

Quokkas didn't get that nickname for being cheerful – it's all in the face. Their mouth and cheek muscles are arranged in such a way that it is curved upward, which to the human eye (especially in photographs) looks like a permanent smile. Add in that Rottnest Island quokkas are unusually relaxed around people, and you have an animal that looks delighted every time a tourist points a phone at it. Both Chris Hemsworth and Roger Federer have shared viral quokka selfies, and the "quokka selfie" has become almost a rite of passage for visitors to the island.

This relaxed attitude is also a behavioral quirk worth knowing: unlike kangaroos, who will fight over territory, quokkas aren't territorial. They tolerate each other, and even nosy humans, with a patience that is rare among wild mammals.

No, and this is not a soft suggestion. Quokkas are wild animals, not props. They can and will bite. Human food messes up their digestion and can make them sick. Repeated close contact stresses them out even when they don't show it. Under the Rottnest Island Regulations 1988 it is illegal to touch or feed wildlife on Rottnest Island and on-the-spot fines apply. Under the Animal Welfare Act 2002 in Western Australia, cruel acts against a quokka can be prosecuted with penalties of up to $50,000 and five years imprisonment. If you want a photo, keep your distance and use a selfie stick – the quokka will do the grinning for you.

Quokkas are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and under Australia's national environment law (the EPBC Act 1999). The mainland populations have declined the most due to habitat loss, predation by introduced foxes and feral cats and increasingly destructive bushfires, with the 2015 Northcliffe fire alone burning around 98,000 hectares of quokka habitat – one of the biggest fires Western Australia has seen since 1960. As south-west Australia continues to dry out, these pressures are likely to be compounded by climate change.

The island populations have a more hopeful story to tell. Quokkas on Rottnest and Bald Island have been relatively stable without the presence of foxes or feral cats to contend with, which is one of the reasons why conservation groups regard these islands as strongholds for the species, rather than as curiosities.

The quokka is rightly famous on the internet, but the real story is how differently the same species can fare depending on what's sharing its habitat. Give quokkas an island with no foxes and cats and they will flourish. Bring them into contact with predators and shrinking habitat on the mainland and their numbers drop quickly. It's a contrast worth remembering the next time a quokka selfie pops up in your feed — the smile is real, but so is the vulnerability behind it.

🦘 San Diego Zoo – Quokka Profile

Learn more about quokkas from one of the world's leading zoological institutions.

✓ Species information • Conservation • Zoo exhibit details

🇦🇺 Australian Wildlife