The Year of the Quokka

My husband and his sister were wondering about the coming year. “Is it the year of the platypus or the year of the lobster?” asked Jeff.

“It’s the year of the tardigrade,” declared Amy.

“You’re both wrong,” I said. “It is the year of the quokka.”

With apologies to the Chinese zodiac, and the actual Year of the Ox (which starts on the eve of February 11), this spirited discussion was won by me. Because there are few things cuter than a quokka.

Quokkas were voted “World’s Happiest Animals” simply because that’s how they look. They look like they are always smiling, and they are ridiculously adorable. They are Australian marsupials, about the size of a house cat, and they are as inquisitive as they are cute.

The quokka, also known as the short-tailed scrub wallaby, is herbivorous and mainly nocturnal. They will bite, but generally mostly on accident, when trying to take food, and mostly from the children of tourists. They live on some of the small islands off the coast of Western Australia, particularly Rottnest Island, just off Perth and a few others. They also live on the mainland, but the last huge fire decimated their already small population.

They are promiscuous — they don’t stay with one partner, and can have up to two births per year. The babies, called joeys, live in…