Why did we kill them . And for what . The Thylacine .

Cryptozoology

This includes looking for living examples of animals that are considered extinct

This is as you probably gathered is about the Thylacine or as is more commonly known or more to the point was known as, the Tasmanian Tiger . For those of you who are not Australian or even those that are for that matter here is a picture .

If you do nothing else watch the video at the end , it is truly haunting .

The thylacine looked like a long dog with stripes, a heavy stiff tail and a big head. A fully grown thylacine could measure 180cm from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, stand 58cm high at the shoulder and weigh about 30 kilograms. It had short, soft fur that was brown except for the thick black stripes which extended from the base of the tail to the shoulders.

This magnificent animal disappeared perhaps forever on the seventh of September 1936 in the Hobart zoo . But for what . A few chickens , a couple of sheep .

With its dog-like head, powerful jaws and striped body, the thylacine was soon labelled a marsupial 'wolf', 'tiger' or 'hyena', and increasingly demonised as a sheep-killer - although feral dogs and thieving humans were a much greater threat to the livestock industry.

We killed these animals off for sheep , and chickens , really , what were we thinking . Below is a picture of a Thylacine with a chicken in its mouth . This photo was taken in 1921 and is quite probably staged , This photo was taken at the same time that calls were first being made to protect them and may have gone a long way towards that not coming about at that time .

This animal became protected 2 months before the last one died .



So there was 2 left and we had to taunt them . Yes sometimes i am so proud to be human .

A part of me wants to believe that somewhere in Tasmania's vast wilderness there are pockets of these still surviving . The other part of me knows this is just wishful thing .

Why . Just why . And for what . Chickens .

a reply to: hutch622

Different times my friend, the European settlers really did mess up this place with all their introduced animals.

Always sad to see the loss of such a beautiful creature. Thank you so much for including the vid. I have only seen these animals in pictures. It was interesting to actually see them alive and moving.

a reply to: Chadwickus

But in this case the introduced animal was us .

a reply to: hutch622

Sad very sad they would have been an impressive species......and with that wish full thinking i worked years ago for a fellah whom told me a story of being in the Tasmanian bush with his 2 German shepherds sometime in the 90s,he told me that all of a sudden both dogs just stopped and freaked out and became very submissive and he himself saw what he described as a tassie tiger about a hundred feet away just standing on a rock staring at them.....interesting that the dogs reacted the way they did..like they were in the presence of predator higher up on the food chain....

Sadly a second hand story is all i have ...would be way cool if there was any truth to it

a reply to: Night Star

I found the video haunting as i said above and i must admit it bought a tear to my eye while embedding .

For my second line Ill just say

On one hand I am glad to see the video. What a beautiful creature. It reminds me of a dog, kangaroo, honey badger mix type of animal (not sure why, it's just what I see watching it).

On the other hand, it's terribly sad to see it in the cage being taunted by those behind the fence. At one point it just stops looking and lays it's head down in such a defeated manner. It's heart breaking.

I'm like you OP... I really hope there are some more of these animals out there surviving on their own. Stranger things have happened and we have found animals that we previously thought extinct before, so maybe...

Hopefully.

...what a lot of people don't know is that the last thylacine, who is pictured in the first image you've posted...
was named 'Benjamin'...

...and was FEMALE.

That's right.
We knew so little about the Thylacine that they didn't even know what SEX the last thylacine was, until it was dead.
They certainly were beautiful creatures.

I've had the privilege of touching a thylacine pelt. They were very soft, with fur not unlike a kangaroos (though the colouration was obviously very different).

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: hutch622

Sad very sad they would have been an impressive species......and with that wish full thinking i worked years ago for a fellah whom told me a story of being in the Tasmanian bush with his 2 German shepherds sometime in the 90s,he told me that all of a sudden both dogs just stopped and freaked out and became very submissive and he himself saw what he described as a tassie tiger about a hundred feet away just standing on a rock staring at them.....interesting that the dogs reacted the way they did..like they were in the presence of predator higher up on the food chain....

Sadly a second hand story is all i have ...would be way cool if there was any truth to it

We hear stories like this fairly often here (I'm Tasmanian).
I know several people who've claimed that they've seen a Tiger at one point or another. If you look at Tasmania, geographically, there are still vast portions of it that are entirely unpopulated and largely unexplored (primarily the South-West); so it's not impossible that a few thylacines remain. As time goes by, though, it seems more and more unlikely.

a reply to: Awen24

There are so many things i could have said about this animal . Both the female and male had backwards facing pouches i believe . I kept it short and sad .

Can only hope we can clone them and bring them back.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
Can only hope we can clone them and bring them back.

Michael Archer, out of Sydney, has been working on this for some time.

I do not believe we have managed to wipe them out. Tasmania still has a great deal of untouched wilderness areas where they can still live. The fact that we have not seen any may well be a testament to their ability to make themselves scarce.

But yes, in every country colonized by Europe, the same story is told.

They did not need the livestock. Kangaroos are tasty and their fur is very good quality. There were more than enough animals around. We certainly did not need the cats and rabbits that were sent over here.

Really sad. May they stay hidden.

P

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Here is just a few seconds of hope .

originally posted by: Awen24

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: hutch622

Sad very sad they would have been an impressive species......and with that wish full thinking i worked years ago for a fellah whom told me a story of being in the Tasmanian bush with his 2 German shepherds sometime in the 90s,he told me that all of a sudden both dogs just stopped and freaked out and became very submissive and he himself saw what he described as a tassie tiger about a hundred feet away just standing on a rock staring at them.....interesting that the dogs reacted the way they did..like they were in the presence of predator higher up on the food chain....

Sadly a second hand story is all i have ...would be way cool if there was any truth to it

We hear stories like this fairly often here (I'm Tasmanian).
I know several people who've claimed that they've seen a Tiger at one point or another. If you look at Tasmania, geographically, there are still vast portions of it that are entirely unpopulated and largely unexplored (primarily the South-West); so it's not impossible that a few thylacines remain. As time goes by, though, it seems more and more unlikely.

Well at least then there is some kind of hope that these creatures are still out there somewhere

originally posted by: Awen24

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
Can only hope we can clone them and bring them back.

Michael Archer, out of Sydney, has been working on this for some time.

If we have a good genetic sample with complete DNA it's only a matter of time.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

If we have a good genetic sample with complete DNA it's only a matter of time.

Be much better if we had version 1.0 . Sadly this might not be the case . Failing that cloning is better than nothing .

maybe they can mix them with frog DNA and open up a park.