Meet the Quokka: The Happiest Animal On Earth

[packman]

A small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. It lives only on some smaller islands off the coast of Western Australia known for its happy-go-lucky attitude AND unlike most wild things in Australia, it doesn't want to kill you

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Had a reservation for an island trip to meet those guys in fall of 2020. Hope to get there yet.

[MustLoveBeagles]

2. Adorable

[Cozmo]

3. Love, love, love

[calimary]

4. ONG! Hello, Happyface! Nice to meet ya!

Face looks like an upside-down heart. Especially photo #7!

[MerryHolidays]

5. Ok....thanks a lot

That brought a huge smile to my face and made me laugh out loud!

LOVELY!

[Solly Mack]

6. :)

[Dreampuff]

7. He looks like he is smiling in every picture.

Is it legal to have them as pets? Would they be easy to domesticate?

[Sucha NastyWoman]

12. Would it be good for them?

[dlk]

8. Cute pics!

Thanks for sharing!

[Ocelot II]

9. They might not be quite as sweet as they look.

"When a female quokka with a joey in her pouch is pursued by a predator, she may drop her baby onto the ground; the joey produces noises, which may serve to attract the predator's attention, while the mother escapes." And: "Though quokkas are approachable, there are a few dozen cases annually of quokkas biting people, especially children." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quokka

So, it's an adorable little animal that bites children and sacrifices its own babies. Awfully cute, though.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. ❤ Kick.

It's all fun and games until Mom pops you out of her pouch in front of a poisonous snake...

They do look very entertaining.

Thanks for sharing this, packman. I've bookmarked it for future smiles.

[Collimator]

11. Is There Some Psychoactive Plant

that grows on this island that may be responsible for its continually goofy mood? And can I buy it in tablet form?

[RussellCattle]

14. I can't say that this is the first thing that I thought of too, but you have asked.....

....an interesting question.

[Collimator]

16. One Can Hope.

I know that my anti-depressant stopped working. Did reasonably well on it for years. . . but I guess it wasn't powerful enough to withstand four years of the rust-colored racist in chief. [sigh]

[RussellCattle]

19. One has to wonder if the previous four years saw a huge increase in the sale of....

.....anti-depressant drugs. I commented on this a while ago when I walked past a pallet of packages of St. John's Wort, stacked four feet high, near the cash registers at Costco. I think our collective mental health has improved since January 20th.

[tblue37]

13. Are they *really* happy, or are they just drawn that way?

[A HERETIC I AM]

21. Happy in the knowledge that, given the chance....

They WILL eat you!

[tblue37]

23. Reference to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. Yes....I got it.....

Not too slow, nor unlettered, as it were, in spite of my age.

But thanks for thinking of me!

[central scrutinizer]

29. Made me think of this

[link:http://

|

[A HERETIC I AM]

30. LOL!

Yup. They’re all cute and cuddly till they aren’t, then it’s blood and guts all over the place!

[RussellCattle]

15. I really hope that this doesn't turn into some crazy pet fad where people are arrested at airports..

....with twelve Quokkas (Quokki ?) in their suitcase. Other than that, they really are awfully cute.

[RussellCattle]

17. Haven't looked at "LOLcats" yet this Sunday but you've given Mr. SalmonEnchantedEvening....

....a run for the money today with some serious cuteness. The fact that I haven't used the "squee" expression that his work seems to engender is just a personal standard that I try to maintain.

[MrModerate]

18. these pictures are quite good, but...

You really have to see them in the fur to truly appreciate how desperately cute they are. On Rottnest Island very near Perth, WA, they run around freely and are completely unafraid of people. And no one would dare to mess with a Quokka because they're so beloved.

[C Moon]

20. She's quokka'n me up!

[peppertree]

24. ↑ Thread winner

[Ligyron]

22. Well, they certainly look friendly enough.

As for throwing their children to the wolves; I guess they can happily create more kids whenever and do so with with a smile on their face the whole time, I’ll bet.

Snakes as a form of birth control?

Hmmm, there’s Something down right biblical about that for the evangelicals to contemplate I suppose.

[peppertree]

25. Too much

[genxlib]

26. We really shouldn't anthropomorphize animals this way

They really hate it when we do that.

[Martin Eden]

27. Quokka is totes adorbs

Even though we might be anthropomorphizing the facial expression.