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The Thylacine, Thylacinus
cynocephalus, is also called the Tasmanian Tiger and the Tasmanian Wolf. It was the biggest Carnivorous marsupial when
Europeans first settled in Australia
in 1778. The average weight of this animal was around 30 Kilograms. This is as big as a good sized Dog. If cornered by a Dog, the Thylacines would kill the Dog. They had very powerful jaws.
Range
Before Humans settled in Australia,
perhaps 40,000 years ago, the Thylacine’s range was the whole of the Australian mainland and Tasmania.
After Dingos were introduced, the Thylacine became
extinct on the mainland. This was
probably about 2000 tears ago. Dingos
were not taken to Tasmania. The People on Tasmania also did not tend to use fire for hunting; Thylacines survived until the Europeans started killing them.
However, the impication that the Thylacine was unable to compete with the Dingo may be a gross over simplification.
The Thylacine was a top predator, and as is usual with
top predators it was not present in large concentrations. In fact there might only have been about 3000
in Tasmania.
Scapegoat
There were a lot of feral dogs in Tasmania.
They killed chickens and Sheep.
The Thylacine got the blame.
There is a famous photograph of a Thylacine with a
chicken in its mouth. This picture was a
total fake.
Hunting
These animals were feared by the Europeans in Tasmania. The Thylacines were also believed to take
domestic animals like poultry, sheep and cattle. The Government paid a bounty for their
scalps. The government stopped the
bounty in 1910, but a private one continued until 1914.
The most recent recorded killing of one of these
animals was in 1930. Another one was
caught in 1933.
Benjamin
Suposedly the last known Thylacine was called Benjamin. This is frequenbtly stated although there is considerable doubt about the accuracy of the name. She died of neglect in a zoo in Hobart in 1936, two months after this species
was given legal protection.
In 1986, fifty years after the last fully
authenticated Thylacine died, the species was declared officially extinct.
Released on
the Mainland?
In 1912, there was a plan to release Thylacines on Wilson’s promontory in Victoria
on the Australia
mainland. There is no record of it
actually being done.
Could They
Still Exist?
Many people, including me, would like to think so, but
I have to admit that it is unlikely.
However, Australia is a big country. Although the population is now larger than
the country can easily support a large majority of these people are in the
cities and towns. There are still many
places where people rarely go.
Sightings
There have been a large number of Thylacine sightings
since 1936. Most of these can be
dismissed as being almost certainly misidentifications.
But there are others that cannot be so easily
dismissed. Curiously there are about as
many of these apparently more reliable sightings on the mainland as there are
in Tasmania.
The mainland sightings seem to be concentrated in two
areas. One is the Portland
area of Victoria. This is some distance from the area
considered for the release of them in 1912, but they could have moved or spread
in the intervening years, or they could have been released at a different
point.
The other area is in the southwest of Western Australia.
There have been several tantalising videos made of
some of the apparent Thylacines, but having watched them closely, I have to
consider them to be inconclusive.
Sources
http://australianmuseum.net.au/The-Thylacine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEdcMjcFASA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwOMoC40q6k&feature=related
http://wasg.iinet.net.au/ntday.html
http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=81&id=50950
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31193196/Magnificent-Survivor-re-Thylacine-3-4
http://cryptoworld.co.uk/4-new-thylacine-sightings-in-3-months/
http://www.messybeast.com/extinct/thylacine.htm | 
