A brand-new article, found in the July 2nd issue of The New Yorker magazine, is very long and informative. Here is the link:
The Obsessive Search for the Tasmanian Tiger
The Obsessive Search for the Tasmanian Tiger
Thylacine Article
- Thread starter snowleopard
- Start date
Something for the Thylacine fans...
Long-hidden Tasmanian tiger pelt comes to light, reveals new secrets
Long-hidden Tasmanian tiger pelt comes to light, reveals new secrets
Fascinating study on well preserved Tassie tiger pelt.
All the same, every time I see a post on Tasmanian tigers while people continuing to believe the unthinkable it still survives it gives me the jitters. To be deeply disappointment only seconds later by the usual mix of fact with fiction, mirage observations, out of focus unclear footage and what not.
Just to clarify. This pelt has been known about publicly for several years now- I first saw a photo of it on the web about four years ago. Further details emerged later. It was moved back to Australia in 2018, I think, after negotiations to relocate it to the Australian Museum. The details of the hair is the 'news' here really.
Dont right off the Tiger as being 100% gone there have been a number of sightings by people who know what they are looking at including park rangers ect.
toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
84 years and not a SINGLE piece of evidence other than "someone saw something".
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
The most credible reports I've seen have been that the thylacine was functionally extinct by the late 20's / early 30's but may have survived in low numbers at least a couple of decades after its reported extinction. This seems a reasonable hypothesis in my opinion but even so many would question the veracity of people making those claims.
Personally I just do not believe that there are still thylacines out there in the Tasmanian wilds. Especially given all of the exhaustive attempts over the decades since the 30's to find and document proof of it still being extant. Sure, there are lots of "lazarus species" out there waiting to be rediscovered and more than a couple of these are found every year but an animal the size of the thylacine ? I would be inclined to think no.
I think there is obviously an understandable deep existential guilt and nostalgia in Tasmanians confronting the reality that their ancestors wiped this fascinating animal off the face of the earth. I think that for some of these people this may result in this kind of obsessive moral "quest" to prove it still exists and that it is still possible to make some kind of ecological amend.
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This approximately fits my personal stance on the matter - that the species probably survived into the mid-1950s or thereabouts, but certainly is extinct now.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Yes, I think this was likely the case too , probably a few ageing individuals left from mid-1950's to early 1960's before total extinction.
That said I think that the possibility of there being any alive today in Tasmania (or indeed any of the other places where there have been reports of "sightings" like continental Australia or Papua New Guinea) is zero.
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Given that the local lobby for clear cut felling of Tasmania's old growth forests (like everywhere else) is still continuing, I am remain a sceptic optimist that these same individuals start making a mend with saving these critical ancient forests with their full complement of wild- and plantlife. The question remains ...: We can, but will we (and not wait till they start acting)!
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
True, I agree that deforestation is still occuring unabatedly in Tasmania and I am similarly sceptical. However, this is ecosystem conservation and I think that ecosystems are more abstract and sadly unengaging concepts for most people than a species and species conservation is.
I think that when it comes to the thylacine as a species there is ironically a strong popular sympathy and nostalgia with the narrative of its extinction and it seems to have attained the status of a totemic animal to modern day Tasmanians that it never had while it was extant.
I think it is probably precisely that "totemism" and "mysticism" that people feel towards this species that continues to drive "sightings" and the obsessive efforts to find them in the wild.
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toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
It was a long time ago that I read it, but i recall David Owens’ book Thylacine: The tragic tale of the Tasmanian Tiger, offers
a good insight into the realities of the living thylacine before its extinction. That book describes a species that was far from abundant in Tasmania, but instead comprised of a small relict population of an open woodland / grassland species that clung on in Tasmania’s northeastern corner. This open habitat was sadly the most accessible and easiest place for pastoralists to colonise since it had less trees to cut down.
The evidence suggests the animal was clearly widespread in the drier more open habitats of much of
the mainland prior to the arrival of dingoes a few thousand years ago.
Its true Tasmania’s southwest is wild and remote place, but its heavily forested. expecting to find a thylacine there is a bit like hoping to find a lion in the jungle.
So goes the argument.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Not an expert on marsupials by any means but I do think that Owens theory that the thylacines of Tasmania were a relict population is a very interesting one and I think his words do carry weight.
Is it not also the case with the Tasmanian devil ?
I think I read that the devil was once very abundant on the Australian mainland before becoming extinct there with the arrival of humans and dingoes. Yet it persists (and lets hope it continues to) as a relict population in Tasmania.
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The latter part is probably true, that its favoured habitat was open grass and woodland- where prey was most abundant, and that these were the first/choicest areas for colonisation & farming. However the North Eastern corner of Tasmania probably held very few Thylacines after around 1912 when the last known one was killed in that area. Later captures all came from the North West/Western side of Tasmania.
The fact they were only found on an island the size of Tasmania does indeed indicate it was a relict population though.
It was indeed a relict population and in fact if you go to Kakadu you can see rock paintings of thylacines. It does seem most likely then that dingoes caused their extinction, say 2 to 4 thousand years ago.
Likewise with the devil, however they survived much longer, up to 600 years ago according to one source. So recent that when some were found in the bush near Ballarat some years back authorities considered they could have been a relict population. However it turned out some joker had brought some across from Tasmania and released them there.
Back in the mid-1950's my parents believe they might have seen a thylacine while they were driving in western Tasmania. As others have said, it might have been that a small population survived in the west till that time, but it seems impossible they would still be there today.
toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
MRJ, as someone involved in recovery breeding programs for some of our rarest species, what are your thoughts on a hypothetical reintroduction of devils to the mainland? Is it something people are advocating? My understanding is that dingo populations (and other dogs) are much reduced from historic numbers. At the very least they could survive in fenced reserves as is necessary for many other reintroduced species. It saddens me greatly that our mainland wildlife is so greatly impoverished.
Also, (and i'll try and skew the question to be on-topic) Why do so few wildlife parks keep the thylacines closest relative, the numbat? Do they not eat an insectivorous mix like echidnas?
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Re devils, this has been suggested a number of times, and an excellent case has been put to place them on Wilsons Prom. However the Tasmanian government are totally against it, as far as they are concerned the devil is "theirs". I doubt it will ever happen.
Re numbats, they are obligate termite eaters, and require immense quantities on a daily basis. Perth Zoo, who have run an excellent breeding program over a number of years, had to establish a 'termite farm" out in the bush to supply their needs. I think it was a 400km round trip to service the farm.