Meet the Quokkas

I wrote all that stuff about Perth and WA and didn't mention anything about the quokkas!!!

Quokkas live on Rottnest Island, off the coast of Fremantle.

They are small and look like short, chunky wallabies.

The little guy above thought I was going to feed him another wattle gum seed. You are not supposed to feed them, but when the lady taking the "quokka tour" says it's ok ... well, get those gum seeds out.

She had a better trick - getting them to drink water from a bottle cap. The poor little buggers struggle with finding water the whole time (as many Australians do) so they are not going to turn their furry backs on tourists offering capfuls of spring water from the supermarket.

Apparently it is the influence of the tourists on the quokkas' food and water supply that has turned this supposedly nocturnal animal into one you can easily find while strolling around the island.

It is certainly different from the meaning of nocturnal in New Zealand - "animal you will never ever see in daylight in your lifetime in the wild." My husband is more nocturnal than a quokka.

It's the same with the possums here .. or should I say "opossum" (they are only 'possums' in NZ, little furry bastards). I've seen a couple of possums in daylight here, in parks and gardens. They are supposed to be nocturnal too.

I call out to them and say, "you are lucky you are in that tree here in Hyde Park you little furry bastard possum, for in NZ I could shoot you right now and turn you into a keyring." They just sit, staring at you. I don't scare them at all.

I wouldn't ever want a quokka keyring tho. They don't seem to damage the ecosystem on Rottnest Island, it damages them more. A friend told me there have been reports of kids going to the island in the summer to play 'quokka soccer'. Something very bad will happen to those people.

Rottnest is quiet in August, and warm. You could wander off and actually find places where you could just sit and look out at the ocean, no one around you, the footsteps in the sand are yours, the sun slowly setting over the horizon and ... you have about 600 quokka pics on your digital camera.