Banning the Ban!

Is there anything more Magical than a Quokka?!

Would you look at that puddum?

I am on Instagram and Instagram is becoming more and more animal wildlife exploitation aware…and it’s fantastic!

Popular quokka selfie hashtag could be banned by instagram

The #quokkaselfie prompts an “Instagram Alert” that comes along with Instagram accounts that are suspected and confirmed of animal exploitation. (Think BJWT)

The quokka, the tiny marsupial native to a handful of islands off Western Australia – including WA Tourism jewel in the crown Rottnest Island.

This mean that Instagram believes that the photos you are viewing could be apart of wildlife exploitation…Now there are some “companies” who do do this (look up BJWT Corruption) and the warning comes up for the BJWT pages on Instagram, because they DO exploit animals…

However…

A spokesperson for the Rottnest Island Authority told The West Australian that the warning was “unhelpful”.

“The Instagram block notice … does not serve to educate or inform the public about our conservation efforts or direct people to how they might develop a better understanding of this native species,” he said.

“The RIA takes seriously its responsibility to protect the quokka population on the island and there are significant penalties for people who interfere with native flora and fauna.”

Quokka’s are well known for being extremely friendly and not being generally frightened of human beings. Which means there are a LOT of #quokkaselfie and they look like they are grinning…

So what do you all think? What is wildlife exploitation for you?

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Quokka

In case you hadn’t guessed already I come from a “Land Down Under”…Best Country in the world =P lol…Anyways I came across this article over the weekend and it filled me with joy.

http://themindcircle.com/quokka-selfie-is-cutest-trend-in-australia-right-now/?utm_content=bufferf91ac&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer%20

The Quokka has been the happiest animal on earth, as you can see from the pictures, you can probably see why. As one article quoted:

Meet the Quokka, a marsupial that seems to have come straight from an animator at Disney, but is actually native to a small corner of southwestern Australia.

Source: Meet The Quokka, The Happiest Animal In The World (PHOTOS) (Huffington Post)

Quokkas are usually very friendly animals as you can tell by the pictures, and pose no threat to humans whatsoever. However, these sweet little creatures, as you can imagine, because they are so placid and docileb. Their numbers were greatly reduced when Foxes and Cats were introduced to Australia. They are currently listed as “Vulnerable”. The good news though due to conservation and fox control programs, the numbers are starting to increase again.

I would normally not enjoy the selfies with a wild animals, but they don’t seemed stressed out. The other reason I don’t object to it, is mainly because it’s not the same as those “Lion/Tiger” photos. Were you take a photo with one and then they get killed afterwards? You know those ones?

Most of these photos are done in conservation parks. If I felt it was wrong, I definitely wouldn’t be “advertising” it, so to speak.

TGIF

I don’t know if it was the Winter Solstice, but it’s felt like a long week. Although the Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. Thank God it’s Friday!

The above picture is of a Quokka (Wikipedia), probably the happiest animal on the planet!