Happy quokkas go global
Is this the world’s happiest animal? Photos of quokkas — including one sleeping and another with a “smile” — have gone viral and prompted websites worldwide to declare WA’s unique marsupial the world’s happiest inhabitant.
The Huffington Post’s Ryan Grenoble said “there’s no beating this cheeky creature” for cute animal pictures.
“Meet the quokka, a marsupial that seems to have come straight from an animator at Disney,” he said.
“Unlike a frightening number of Australian animals, the quokka poses no threat to humans and — as these pictures make abundantly clear — can be quite friendly.”
“That friendliness may partially explain why, according to the Perth Zoo, the once-plentiful quokka was drastically reduced in number after the dingo and foxes found their way to Australia.”
The RYOT news website said: “There’s cute, and then there’s really cute! We think we may have found the happiest animal in the world: Australia’s quokka.”
So, The Weekend West photographer Mogens Johansen – on a trip to Rottnest this week – decided to find out for himself how happy the quokkas are.
And, without too much trying, he snapped this handsome fellow on the island’s refurbished golf course smiling – perhaps even laughing – as he enjoyed a couple of leaves from an olive tree.
