Recently, however, the quokka has been labelled as a 'bad parent' on social media with posts stating that female quokkas throw their babies at predators to protect themselves. A mother quokka will throw her baby at a predator to protect herself”.

How do quokkas protect themselves from predators?

The quokka's pouch is an 'anti-predator characteristic'

The young will lay writhing and hissing on the ground, attracting the predator's attention, while the mother escapes. ... So the quokka's reputation as a bad parent is in part justified.

Do quokkas throw their babies at predators to escape?

But take out that one offending preposition and it's true — quokkas sacrifice their babies in order to escape predators. "The pouch is really muscular so the mum will relax it and the bub will fall out," conservation biologist Matthew Hayward from the University of Newcastle says.