Bart Bear's Blog

This cute little guy is a quokka. Quokkas are small wallabies that are only found in isolated parts of Western Australia near Perf. There are some small families of them on the mainland but most of them live on Rottnest Island in the Indian Ocean out from Fremantle. There are no cats or dogs out there so the quokkas are safe. In fact, the island is named after these critters. When the first European explorer landed on the island there were hordes of quokkas there and he thought they were giant rats so he called the island "Rottnest" which is Dutch for "rats' nest". Rottnest is a beautiful island and we went across for a day while we were in Perf. I wanted to see some quokkas, but they mostly only come out at night to feed and they sleep in the shade during the day. Scruffy and I went exploring in the shady places under the bushes and we found this fellow asleep. He woke up and seemed as curious about us as we were about him. After a chat we left him to his afternoon nap and caught up with the Oldies who had wandered off, as usually happens when we don't watch them closely.

Labels: animals, Perth, Western Australia