On an island full of quokkas, be a bird. Rottnest Island’s newest celebrity isn’t a marsupial it’s a duck.
Forget quokka selfies, visitors to the island have been getting selfies with a duck who has been affectionately named Neville.
Neville is an Australian mountain duck also known as an Australian shelduck or, to the Noongar, as guraga.
The species are common on the island where they frequent Rottnest’s salt lakes to feed on brine shrimp.
There’s probably a Mrs Neville as they mate for life — you can spot the female by the white ring around her eye.
Neville first began growing in popularity at the beginning of January on the Rottnest Island Community and the Rottnest Island Accommodation Swap groups on Facebook.
Since then he’s become an internet sensation with people proudly sharing their stories and happy snaps of Neville during their visits to the island.
Photos show ‘nosy Neville’ landing on boats, visiting accommodation, making friends with beachgoers and eating scraps.
A story was shared that Neville is a hand-reared duck who enjoys surfing and was hand-raised by a family that lives on the island.
Others believe many friendly shelducks on the island are all being labelled Neville.
However, his origins aren’t officially known.
Some wanted to keep Neville a secret, with some members of the Rottnest Island Community group saying the duck shouldn’t be given publicity because he would be harassed.
However, with both Rottnest groups having a combined membership of 70,000+ members, the Neville fan club is already massive.
Quyen Truong, a visitor to the island, said she found out about Neville on Facebook.
“(It’s) more exclusive getting a selfie with him than a quokka,” she said.
Local artist Pip Phelps intends to dedicate a series of paintings to Neville.
Neville has also been declared the unofficial Chairman of Rottnest Island.