Why Do Quokkas Smile? The World's Happiest Animal Explained

What makes a quokka look like it is smiling?

A quokka is a small marsupial in the kangaroo family, and its face is built for nibbling plants. It has a short, broad head, a small muzzle and a mouth whose corners turn up slightly. Round, furry cheeks frame the mouth, and the eyes are dark and wide-set.

Put those features together and photograph them straight on, and the human brain reads the result as a friendly grin. People are strongly tuned to see faces and expressions, even in objects and animals that are not expressing anything. Psychologists call this tendency to see human qualities in animals anthropomorphism.

The effect is strongest when the quokka is chewing, panting lightly in the heat or holding its mouth slightly open, because the lower teeth and pink inside of the mouth make the “smile” look even broader. From the side, the same animal looks like an ordinary small wallaby.

Does the smile mean quokkas are happy?

No. A quokka’s mouth shape does not change with its mood the way a human smile does. A frightened, hungry or stressed quokka can look exactly as cheerful as a relaxed one.

Scientists judge the welfare of wild animals by behavior and body condition, not by facial shape. On Rottnest Island, many quokkas go through a hard time each year at the end of the dry summer, when food and water run short and some animals starve. Their faces still look like they are grinning.

This matters because the friendly face can lead people to underestimate a wild animal. A quokka that seems to be smiling for the camera may simply be hoping for food or be too used to people to move away.

How did the quokka selfie trend start?

Quokkas have always been tame on Rottnest Island, where they have no foxes or cats to fear and meet hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. In the mid-2010s, close-up selfies with grinning quokkas began to spread on social media, and the animal earned the nickname “the world’s happiest animal.”

The trend snowballed as celebrities visiting Western Australia posted their own quokka photos, including the actor Chris Hemsworth and the tennis player Roger Federer. Tourism to Rottnest Island grew, and the quokka became one of Australia’s most recognizable animals, alongside the red kangaroo and the koala.

The publicity has helped raise awareness, but it has also brought more close contact between people and a species listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. That is why Rottnest Island has clear rules about how to behave around quokkas.

Rules for meeting quokkas on Rottnest Island

Quokkas are protected wildlife in Western Australia. On Rottnest Island, the rules are straightforward:

• Do not touch or pick up quokkas. Handling them is illegal and stresses the animals.
• Do not feed them. Bread, chips and other human food can cause dehydration and poor nutrition in quokkas, and feeding teaches them to beg.
• Keep a respectful distance and let the animal approach or leave as it chooses.
• Watch children closely. Several dozen bite incidents are reported each year, often when people offer food or try to pet a quokka.

The Rottnest Island Authority can issue on-the-spot fines for touching or feeding quokkas, and more serious mistreatment of wildlife can lead to prosecution. Quokkas can also carry bacteria such as Salmonella, another reason to keep hands off.

How to take a good quokka photo

The most natural quokka photos are taken at the animal’s eye level from a short but respectful distance. Kneeling or crouching, rather than bending over the animal, makes the shot look better and is less threatening to the quokka.

Early morning and late afternoon are the best times, because quokkas are more active and the light is softer. Many quokkas rest in the shade of shrubs during the hottest part of the day. A phone camera with a slight zoom is usually enough, since Rottnest quokkas are rarely shy.

To learn where else these animals can be seen, read where quokkas live.

Other animals that seem to smile

The quokka is not the only animal that looks happy to us. Bottlenose dolphins have a curved mouth line that resembles a permanent smile, and some lizards and salamanders seem to grin because of the shape of their jaws. In all of these animals, the expression is anatomy rather than emotion.

Many mammals do use facial expressions to communicate, but those signals rarely match human ones. In several primates, for example, showing the teeth can signal fear or appeasement rather than joy. Reading animal faces through human eyes can be misleading.

The bottom line

The quokka’s smile is real only in the sense that its face is shaped that way. It does not tell us how the animal feels. Enjoying the quokka’s charming face is fine, as long as people remember that it is a wild, protected animal that needs space, its natural food and freedom from handling.