Only one Australian animal can survive this round, and you must decide who. It's Quokkas versus Wombats in our special pageant round two of Animals March Madness!
Here's how voting works: you can choose a winner of each of the five categories below (Cuteness, Congeniality, Talent, Giffability, Evening Wear). One animal will be declared a winner of each category, and whoever wins the most categories wins this round! Please campaign for your animal here in the comments and on Twitter with hashtags #TeamWombat and #TeamQuokka. May the best animal win!
Wombats are unbelievably huggable!
As we established in Round 1, quokkas' perpetual grin is so creepy and unsettling, it may point to species-wide sociopathy. NOT CUTE. Wombats, on the other hand, embody the very essence of cute. Look at all these furry, teddy bear-like wombats who love nothing more than being cradled and hugged by their human companions! When it comes to cute-factor, nothing outweighs the importance of huggability. The question at the heart of this debate: who doesn't want to hug a wombat? THAT'S RIGHT. NO ONE.
-Marcelle Friedman
via welovebudapest & scienceblogs & monash
As they always say (literally all the time) in Australia, "Don't get in a huggability competition with a quokka!"
The reason for this expression is quite simply that hugging a quokka is a transformative experience. Look at the transcendent joy on these people's faces. That is because they are hugging a quokka, and their lives will never be the same. In Australia, "Hugging a quokka" is a common shorthand for "Reaching the apex of my life."
"I'm really hugging a quokka today," Australians will often say on their wedding days or when they graduate from college.
-Jack Shepherd
