QUOKKAS CONTINUE TO EVADE NATIONWIDE INTEREST AS AN ICONIC MARSUPIAL

Marsupials very much symbolize Australia just like lions symbolise Africa and penquins symbolise Antarctica. Everyone knows what a kangaroo is and every other critter with a pouch, but there's one which has never been adopted by australians in general as a piece of our animal natural heritage. It is the Quokka, perhaps one of the main reasons why it continues to evade our attention as a beautiful but very threatened marsupial is because it's only found in a few isolated locations in south-west Western Australia, with only tiny, vulnerable colonies present on the mainland. The most significant Quokka colonies are
on Rottness Island just off the coast near Perth and on Bald Island near Albany on the southern coast. It is widely descibed as being something like a really scruffy kangaroo, cute as can be, and the Quokka's can even climb trees. They have just as much and a whole lot more going for them than the just as the endangered Tasmanian Devil in the looks department. Because of the absence of foxes and cats on the island sanctuaries,
the Quokka appears to be safe from extinction provided disease never makes it to the islands and wipes them out. The mainland of Western Australia is a whole diffrent story, there has to be agriculture, but even discounting that, there really was never any excuse for much of the swampland around south-west Western Australia which was prime habitat for the Quokka to be drained and burned for short sighted development. Their days on the mainland appear numbered. They certainly deserve a bit more recognition across Australia than they have been getting up until now. See a picture of the little scruffs on Wikipedia.