Nutrition
The quokka is an herbivore and they rely heavily on plants that are close to the ground including new growth on trees, shrubs, and grass just like the red-necked wallaby. Quokkas can also climb some small trees up to 1.5 meters to obtain food (Nocon et al., 2003). They have a ruminant digestive tract like a domestic goat, this means they have four different places that food is stores and broke down. Ruminant digestive tracts can most effectively digest plant material so the quokkas diet consists mostly of leaves and steams it finds while foraging. They quickly eat their meal, swallowing it whole, and then they regurgitate the cud and chew on it to further get nutrients (Hayward et al., 2008). One of the most common shrubs that the Quokka eats is the thosima plant a shrub found in Australia (Hayward et al., 2008). Because they eat grass, leaves, seeds roots, and small shrubs, quokkas are a primary consumer like . They need very little water, and can dig their own watering holes in some locations (IUCN et al., 2013).
Want to learn more about how quokkas reproduce? Go to the Reproduction page!