Elka / Quokka Sitting 16cm

The quokka was one of the first Australian mammals seen by Europeans. The Dutch mariner Samuel Volckertzoon wrote of sighting "a wild cat" on Rottnest Island in 1658.  In 1696, Willem de Vlamingh mistook them for giant rats and named the island "Rotte nest", which comes from the Dutch word rattennest meaning "rat nest"The quokka is the only member of the genus Setonix, a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat.   Like other Marsupials in the macropod family, the quokka is herbivorous and mainly nocturnal.