Skeptics contend that these sightings were simply misidentified animals whose appearances were distorted by “contaminated memory.”īut researchers also deem it presumptuous to draw definitive conclusions when most of our planet has not been studied. So it’s difficult to say whether the thylacine is extinct or still alive. However, like most accounts, the thylacine sightings in this report lacked hard evidence to corroborate their claims. National Archives of Australia The complete skeleton of a Tasmanian tiger.

“I am accustomed to coming across most animals working on rural farms… and I have never come across an animal anything close to what I saw in Tasmania that day,” said one eyewitness in a 2019 report released by Tasmania’s Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. Still, more witness accounts emerged thereafter. But researcher Nick Mooney, the foremost authority on thylacine sightings, believed that the grainy video likely showed a large quoll. In 2017, a group called the Booth Richardson Tiger Team (BRTT) held a press conference to release video footage of what they believed was a Tasmanian tiger caught on camera. Locals slowly began to report hundreds of thylacine sightings, both in Tasmania and mainland Australia.Īnd in the 21st century, the number of alleged thylacine sightings has only risen. National Archives of Australia Scientists began searching for more thylacines in the late 1930s.Īlthough the thylacine was believed to be extinct after 1936, a strange phenomenon emerged after the animal’s supposed eradication. This was only two months after the species was offered government protection.īut nearly a century later, the extinction of the thylacine is still questioned. The last living thylacine on record was a captive male named Benjamin that died of exposure at a zoo in Hobart, Tasmania in 1936 - after being locked out of its shelter on a cold night. On top of the bounties, thylacines also faced competition with dogs, habitat loss, and even an epidemic disease that caused their population to shrink even more over the next few decades. So unsurprisingly, a decline in the population was reported in the early 1900s. But after European settlers arrived, thylacines reportedly preyed on farmers’ livestock, which led to multiple bounties paid by the government to eradicate the species.īetween 1888 to 1909, more than 2,000 such bounties were paid. They preyed upon birds, small rodents, and even other marsupials like kangaroos. Thylacines mainly hunted at night, either solo or in pairs. Both male and female thylacines had back-opening pouches, but the ones on the males were only partially open.įemale thylacines gave birth to a litter of up to four joeys at a time and reared their young until they were at least half-grown. Since Tasmanian tigers were marsupials, they reared their young inside natural pouches like koalas or kangaroos. Each thylacine was sandy yellowish-brown to gray in color and had about 15 to 20 dark stripes on its back.ĭigitized rare footage from 1935 of a thylacine held in captivity. Thylacines, also called Tasmanian tigers, were distinguishable by their wolf-like appearance - though they were more closely related to the Tasmanian devil than wolves or tigers. This included the tail, which was stiff and thick at the base. We discovered that these striking predators - with large jaws filled with 46 powerful teeth - grew as long as six feet. Scientists learned little about thylacines before they went extinct, but there are a few things we do know. “A lost object of awe, one more symbol of our feckless ignorance and stupidity.” Novelist Richard Flanagan on the Tasmanian tiger

But it was also a source of constant irritation to the European settlers who arrived on the continent in the 18th century. However, it persisted in Tasmania, making it synonymous with the small island south of the country’s mainland. But for reasons unknown, it went extinct on Australia’s mainland about 2,000 years ago. At one point, it was found all over continental Australia, extending north to New Guinea and south to Tasmania.

The thylacine, known by its full scientific name Thylacinus cynocephalus, was a carnivorous marsupial that made its first appearance 4 million years ago. Leone Lemmer/Research Library at Australian Museum An early illustration of thylacines in the wild.

Talismania tiger