Results: Meet the Quokka

(Source: mentalfloss.com) Quokkas are nocturnal marsupials. They're some of the smallest members of the macropod (or "big foot") family, which also includes kangaroos and wallabies. The quokka clan makes its home in swamps and scrublands, tunneling through the brush to create shelters and hideouts and emerging at night to find food. Did you ever get close to a quokka?

They're the only land mammal on Rottnest Island, and have become something of a tourist attraction. Quokkas were first described by Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh, who reported finding "a kind of rat as big as a cat." The squeamish seaman named the quokkas' island Ratte nest ("rat's nest"), then sailed away, presumably toward more genteel wildlife. Did you ever visit Rottnest Island?

The "world's happiest animal" is not all sunshine and lollipops. You may not want to hear this, but it's true. A quokka's big feet are tipped with very sharp claws. iThe "world's happiest animal" is not all sunshine and lollipops. You may not want to hear this, but it's true. A quokka's big feet are tipped with very sharp claws. Like much of Australia's wildlife, the quokka will f*** you up if you give it the opportunity. Journalist Kenneth Cook learned the hard way when he tried to befriend a quokka along a dirt road. Cook noted the animal's "small, mean mouth," but decided it was probably too small to do much damage. "It was a malicious-looking beast," he wrote in his 1987 book Wombat Revenge, but he wasn't afraid. He offered the little animal a piece of apple, which the quokka spat out, and a crumb of gorgonzola cheese. The quokka popped the gorgonzola into its mouth, chewed, and then, Cook says, "fell down in a dead faint." Once the quokka recovered. it attacked him. Do you feed wild animals?

When pursued by a predator, a fleeing quokka mum will eject her baby from her pouch. Thusly launched, Baby Q flails about on the ground, making weird hissing noises and attracting the predator's attention while Mama Quokka escapes to live another day. She can, and will, reproduce again. It's a stone-cold strategy, but it works. Can you mention any other animal that gets rid of its baby when it feels in danger?