Intro
There’s such a sense of loss when a species become extinct, and this feeling is compounded when that loss was due to human activity. I remember reading about the long-lost dodo bird as a child. Dodos lacked the ability to fly, making them an easy target for hunters. They often had a vacant gaze, and with their quirky beak and loping gait, were an unusual creature who many people considered a dumb bird.
Surprisingly, I was an older child when I heard about the Tasmanian Tiger, one of Australia’s extinct animals. I felt our Tassie Tiger lacked the attention they deserved and hoped that status was wrong, and somewhere in the fertile greenness of Tasmania’s wilderness thrived a happy community of these mammals. It seems I wasn’t the only one hoping that.
About
The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was an interesting creature with its distinctive tiger like stripes across the spine and tail, the ability to leap like a kangaroo and a jaw that opened extremely wide. They were similar in size to a medium dog weighing between 15-30kg. It was unique in being Australia’s only marsupial apex predator as well as being the last remaining community of its kind. Thousands of years ago they’d roamed across Australia and New Guinea. Human intervention and the introduction of dingoes to mainland Australia ensured Tassie tigers died out around 3000 years ago there (dying out around the same time in New Guinea).
Like all marsupials, the female Tassie Tigers had a pouch on their abdomen. Unusually though, this pouch faced backwards and the male had a scrotal version.
At the time of colonisation, it’s estimated there were around 5000 Tassie tigers in Tasmania. (1) It wasn’t long before they clashed with humans. Rumours of Tassie tigers killing livestock encouraged people to cull them, and this was helped by bounties placed on them, firstly by farmers and later by the Tasmanian Government. By the time this ended in 1909, the Tassie tiger numbers were drastically low.
But bounty hunters weren’t their only threat; wild dogs were a contender, in addition to the ongoing destruction of their habitat, fur trappers, mange and a distemper like disease, and the zoo trade.
Extinction
Although they were a rather shy animal, this couldn’t stop the inevitable. The last recorded shooting of a Tassie tiger occurred in Mawbanna in 1930. Shooting his way into infamy, Wilf Batty proudly displayed his prey for a photograph. They were different times back then, and hopefully we have moved on from an attitude that indiscriminately sought to dominate the wild.
Although over two hundred Tassie tigers were kept in zoos across the globe (2) they didn’t breed well in captivity, with only one successful attempt occurring at Melbourne Zoo in 1899. (3)
Fifty- nine days before the last known Tassie tiger died in captivity at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936, the breed was granted protection status by the Australian Government. Sadly, this came far too late, and this little female became the last verified sample. At the time it wasn’t known she was an endling; it was thought there were still more out in the wild.
“The thylacine does not take kindly to captivity, and no zoo has had much success with it. It is inclined to sulk, then go off its food, quickly to fall ill and then die.“
Michael Sharland 1941, Australian journalist & environmentalist.
The pelt of this last specimen, being good quality, was sent around the country as an exhibit along with the skeleton. They finally ended up undocumented in The Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery. And there she lay for eighty-five years until she was found in a cupboard. (4) (and I thought I was bad at keeping my cupboards sorted).
Sightings
Since 1936 there have been countless sightings, which seem to indicate the breed hasn’t gone extinct. Many people have devoted years of observation and research, but we still don’t have one verified sighting.
Image: Victoria Wildlife Research & Rescue.
Professor Barry Brook from the University of Tasmania has written a research paper on the extinction of the Tassie tiger. A detailed analysis of 1237 sighting since 1910 has concluded that the Tassie tiger probably became extinct in the decades leading up to 1970. The conclusion is that there is a 1% chance that they still survive in the wild. (5)
But 1% is still a chance, even if it’s small. Tim Noonan’s documentary Hunt For Truth: Tasmanian Tiger introduces us to a number of people who are convinced it’s just a matter of time till a live animal is verified. These people have devoted years of their life in search of the Tassie tiger; at a significant cost to some.(6) Check out the video below.
What Now?
So, will we ever see Australia’s version of a tiger wandering our bushland again? There’s been discussion of cloning from the 1936 female but that is expensive and complicated. And what then? One female on her own isn’t enough; it just puts us back where we were in 1936, with one sample. Personally, I support ongoing monitoring in the remote areas of Tasmania with the intention of protecting any remaining communities. Australia has already lost over one-hundred species, and many more are threatened. If we can save just one more species from going the way of the dodo bird, it would a be win for ecology and therefore us all.
NOTE: While doing my reading for this blog I came across several contradictory claims – often on what would be considered credible sites. I have chosen what I think will be the most accurate, but I am no scientist.
An example of this quandary is revealed by a Frank Darby, who claimed to be the last curator at the Hobart Zoo. His statement that the last Tassie tiger, named Benjamin, was fed live rabbits for show has been disputed by Alison Reid whose father ran the zoo until 1935 and who worked there herself. (7)
References
- https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/extinction-of-thylacine
- http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/captivity/zoos/Tasmania/Tasmania_1.htm
- https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=342#:~:text=There%20was%20only%20one%20successful,those%20in%20Hobart%20and%20London
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63855426
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723014948?via%3Dihub
- https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/hunt-for-truth-tasmanian-tiger
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-06/benjamin-thylacine-tasmanian-tiger-naming-myth-persists/101734442