A small wallaby from southwestern Australia.
It has brown fur, rounded ears, a black nose and a relatively short tail.
Researchers tested how quokkas reached food placed beyond a barrier. In a natural setting, Wynne and Leguet presented four quokkas with symmetrical and asymmetrical barriers whose side arms differed in length. Three animals tended to turn either left or right; that preference weakened as the side arm grew longer.
The fourth showed no consistent left–right preference and chose the shorter route the first time it faced an asymmetrical barrier. The other three improved at choosing the shorter route with repeated experience. The authors described the first animal’s immediate choice as spatial reasoning and the gradual improvement as spatial learning. In this task, quokkas showed both individual turning preferences and changes in route choice with experience.
IUCN Red List · Vulnerable (VU) · Global species-level assessment
The latest global IUCN assessment lists the quokka as Vulnerable (VU) in 2025. It is also listed as Vulnerable under Australia’s EPBC framework. Once more widespread across southern Western Australia, the species now remains in separated patches, largely in wetter parts of the southwest. Government priorities identify habitat loss and fragmentation, severe fires, drying linked to climate change, predation by foxes and cats, and damage from feral pigs and plant disease. Current actions include careful fire management, control of introduced predators and pigs, and translocation to suitable habitat within the former range. Island groups such as those on Rottnest and Bald islands occupy different settings from smaller, isolated mainland groups.