Snap happy

You’ll never see most of the quokkas on Rottnest Island. Far from being camera shy, the furry social media sensation prefers, by and large, a nocturnal existence.

Which means that the vast majority of the 10,000 or so quokkas hopping about our holiday isle are asleep when the sun – and selfie hunters – are out.

Margot Robbie, Roger Federer and Hugh Jackman are among the celebrities, sports stars, politicians and influencers to have crouched down for happy snaps with our quokkas.

Since a 2013 Huffington Post article described them as the world’s happiest animal, tens of thousands of regular Joes have too, sharing them like a badge of honour on their social media holiday feed.

The social media explosion, fed by pictures of quokkas appearing to pose and grin, is believed to be behind a bump in Rotto’s travel stats, with a 20 per cent rise in visitor numbers in February 2018, compared to the same period the previous year.

“Quokka selfies have been influencing visitation for a while,” says Tourism WA’s Louise Scott.

“Since 2013 when the quokka selfie took the internet by storm, visitation rose from around 490,000 to over 660,000 in 2017.” 

It’s likely additional ferry services and accommodation options on the island may also have contributed to the jump in summer numbers, but there’s no denying the power of a funny fur-ball. 

But how much does the average West Australian actually know about its most famous native species?

Behind the cheeky grin

Quokkas have been drawing attention for centuries, as one of the first Australian mammals recorded by Europeans. Dutch explorers named Rottnest Island after them, believing the inquisitive creatures to be a type of rat. Translated, the island’s title means rat’s nest.

Closer to small wallabies, quokkas live for up to 10 years, weigh between 2kg and 4.5kg and can cleverly store fat in their tails for lean times.

They drink very little water and survive mainly on a diet of grasses, seedlings and succulents, though they’re also known to nab moths, snails and legless lizards.

Feeding them bread, chips, fruit, or any type of human food gives them tummy aches and worse, is the key reason why quokkas in Rottnest’s main settlement have switched their natural routines to stay up during the day – like many of us, they like what’s not good for them.

“Their eyes aren’t adapted, so they often have problems with their eyes,” says Rottnest Island Authority (RIA) conservation officer, Cassandra Gray.

“Usually they would sleep during the day and graze most of the night.” 

Most of the daytime quokkas cluster around the bakery and pedestrian mall, and while their visibility makes them a drawcard, it also increases their vulnerability.

Gray says the RIA has tried to leverage the social media buzz to ensure their wellbeing.

“The quokka selfie craze has certainly raised more awareness of them, and we’ve utilised that to do more wildlife education on how to interact with them appropriately,” she says.

“We send out messages not to feed or touch them, and we’ve done a campaign on how to take a quokka selfie.” 

Gray says the quokka’s quirkiness doesn’t end with its ability to work it for the camera. The species has some other characteristics few know about.

“On hot days, they cool down by licking their legs and stomach,” she says. 

“They also sleep on their face. It’s one of my favourite things that I think is pretty cute.

"They pop their head down between their legs and sleep like that. They will also scamper up a branch if they need to, but only onto a low tea tree branch.”

Keeping our quokkas safe 

Despite strong numbers on the island, the quokka is classed as a vulnerable species and protected by law.

Just over a century ago, they were still being hunted – a practice that was outlawed in 1917. 

While once widespread across WA’s South West, a combination of habitat degradation, climate change and predation by foxes and feral cats means there are few left existing on the mainland.

Tiny clusters are found in pockets around Perth, in Walpole’s Valley of the Giants, in the Stirling Range National Park and on Bald Island, off Albany.

“They’re on the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) list,” says Gray. "There’s a quokka recovery team and we’re involved with that, to try and recover the species.”

Rottnest’s quokka population has been separated from the mainland for 7000 years. As a result, it has evolved in different ways.

A four-year study, which finished analysing the ocean-locked Rottnest quokka last year, found that numbers rise and fall dramatically from winter to summer, fluctuating from 8000 quokkas to 12,000.

It also observed other unique features. 

“They’re a smaller animal on the island, which I’d suspect is down to resource availability,” says Gray. “There’s not as much food and the island is not as big.

"Their home range is 1.91 hectares, on average, which is a lot smaller than what we find on the mainland. But on the mainland, quokkas have more predators and threats, whereas on the island they don’t have much predation.”

A collaboration between the RIA, the University of Western Australia and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions has led to the development of a new quokka monitoring program – partly funded by the sale of quokka chocolates both on the isle and off, with proceeds donated by The Margaret River Chocolate Company.

The first survey happened in October 2018, when quokkas were microchipped and ear-tagged. Their tail measurements, general health, weaning rates and survival rates will continue to be recorded for the next three years, as a longer-term plan is developed.

A surprising fact about the quokka is the role it has played in inspiring a promising new treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic, musclewasting disease that affects one in every 3500 boys around the world. 

Some 50 years ago, medical expert Byron Kakulas was researching fatal muscle wasting in quokkas. He established that vitamin E deficiency was the cause and treated the paralysed quokkas with it for a full recovery.

The realisation that paralysis could be reversed and muscle fibres could regenerate was ground breaking, and motivated years of research around the world, with hopes it could also apply to debilitating human diseases.

In 2016, a WA-developed drug targeting Duchenne muscular dystrophy began FDA-approved clinical trials in the US. This year, trials started in Europe and it’s expected that trials will soon be set up in Australia. 

“Hundreds of boys are now receiving the drug in the US,” says Steve Wilton, one of the Murdoch University researchers who created the drug.

Wilton says while the research has come a long way over the decades, the quokka’s role was key in sparking its creation.

“The quokkas [illness] allowed Byron to demonstrate muscular dystrophy could be reversed,” he says.

“It was proof something could be done and it gave people hope.”

It’s also proof that there’s a lot more to quokkas than just that cheeky grin.

Photos supplied to RAC WA by Stewart Allen