There are some really charming photographs of Roger Federer taking a selfie with a tame quokka on Rottnest Island of Perth, Australia. It was published in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, 29 December 2017. At the time the Swiss player was taking part in the annual Hopman indoor mixed doubles event.
Yesterday there was a photograph of Serena Williams preparing for the Australian Open tennis tournament visiting quokkas at Adelaide Zoo. She had been freed from her hotel quarantine. She apparently likes quokka as well. They are clearly a very charming Australian marsupial. Australia does have some fantastic little native species which is probably why they’re so protective of them.
Here is a little bit more about the quokka. It’s about the size of a domestic cat. I think it looks a bit smaller judging by the photographs of Roger Federer with his friendly quokka. It is a herbivore as are kangaroos and wallabies which are also in the macropod family. They are found on some smaller islands off the coast of Western Australia.
The quokka can climb trees and shrubs up to about 5 feet in height. They live for about 10 years. They are nocturnal, sleeping during the day in a spiky plant for protection and hiding. The Rottnest Island quokka population is quite a large one relative to the others. The islands where they live are free of predators such as red foxes and cats.
They occupy a variety of habitats between cultivated gardens and semi arid scrub. The prickly Acanthocarpus plants provide protection to them as a daytime shelter for sleeping. They eat lots of different types of vegetation including grasses, leaves and sedges (flowering plants).
