User:Krhagan/Quokka

Description
While generally solitary animals the males have been known to occasionally have small harems during the mating season and tend to crowd where resources are abundant.

Conservation
The quokka, while not in complete danger of going extinct, are considered threatened. As the climate continues to change so does the Australian landscape, being herbivores, the quokka rely on many native plants for their diet as well as protection. The quokka were found to prefer malvaceae species as a main source of food, using shrubs as shelter during the hottest points of the day. Due to factors such as wildfires and anthropogenic influence, the location of the natural fauna has been changing making it harder to access. With no main predators, the quokkas primary threat appears to be climate change. A study found that the mainland populations prefer to live in areas with an average rainfall that exceeded 700 mm but fell below 1000 mm, which becomes increasingly complicated as aridity continues to increase in South west Australia. Increasing temperatures have also been found to play an important role in the distribution of the quokka as the mean annual temperatures have increased exponentially since the 1970's in South West of Western Australia. With climate change limiting the optimal living conditions of the quokka and changing the abundance of their diet, the quokka are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.