Tourist boom turns friendly quokkas on to bad habits
PERTH When the quokkas moved into the only settlement on Australia’s Rottnest Island, they started behaving much like any newcomers to a big city: they ate bad food, had more sex and drank more than they should – then took selfies.
So popular have the miniature kangaroo-like creatures become that tens of thousands of additional tourists now flock to the island, 18 kilometres off Perth.
The global rise of the endangered species has been fuelled by Samsung, which in 2015 named it the world’s cutest animal. Celebrities including Hugh Jackman and Martin Clunes have taken selfies with the happylooking creatures.
Scientists think that it might be the quokkas who are having the last laugh, however – at least, the 1000 that have been smart enough to cluster near Rottnest’s hotels and cafes rather than the 10,000 still living in the wilderness that covers 80 per cent of the island. On the Australian mainland, they have been almost wiped out by cats and foxes.
Holly Knight, Rottnest’s manager of environment, said: ‘‘They are a naturally very social animal. It’s quite unique how much the quokkas enjoy the company of humans. I think it’s the only animal that will stop for a selfie with you.’’
The temptations of urban life have changed the normally nocturnal quokkas’ behaviour, however.
They stay awake during the day, when tourists abound. They scavenge or are fed rich, processed human food, then drink too much of the irrigated water at the island’s golf course, forsaking the leaves from which they usually gain moisture.
The bulked-up urban quokkas have also developed advanced breeding cycles. They have more sex – and, because they are living more closely together than those IMGUR in the wild, noisy squabbles over sexual partners are more frequent.
‘‘When they do have extra food, they start to reproduce more often. So we are now seeing the quokkas out on the golf course having two babies a year when the others on the rest of the island are having one,’’ Knight said.
Veronica Phillips, who studied the island’s quokkas for her PhD, said she was fascinated by the swift adaptation of the urban dwellers, which were fitter than quokkas in the wilderness and whose young were more likely to survive.
The quokkas attract a huge number of tourists. In the past year, visitors to the island – reached by ferry from Perth – rose by more than 90,000 to well over 600,000.
The animals are said to be worth A$6.5 million (NZ$7m) a year in advertising, reaching up to 670 million people worldwide. The Times