Thylacines - extinct or extant?

TIGERMAN17

TIGERMAN17

Member
I am very interested in THYLACINUS cynocaphalus, Tasmanian tiger still being alive in Tasmania or maybe even the mainland.

I wanted to hear people's opinions and thoughts.
 
Extinct. Sadly, but in view of the lack of any sort of evidence for, and the amount of circumstantial evidence against, it's the only reasonable conclusion to draw.
 
Seriously that species is defenitely gone. On Sept 7, the tiger celebrates its 80th years anniversary of his extinction, with the death of the last tiger at Hobart-Zoo.:mad:
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Seriously that species is defenitely gone. On Sept 7, the tiger celebrates its 80th years anniversary of his extinction, with the death of the last tiger at Hobart-Zoo.:mad:
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It is very sad, indeed, but if we could go back in time, we'll just bring thylacines back with us, but we can't. :(
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Seriously that species is defenitely gone. On Sept 7, the tiger celebrates its 80th years anniversary of his extinction, with the death of the last tiger at Hobart-Zoo.:mad:
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In all seriousness isn't there evidence to suggest that the species did survive for a bit longer after 1936? Tested feces or something alone those lines.

~Thylo:cool:
 
ThylacineAlive said:
In all seriousness isn't there evidence to suggest that the species did survive for a bit longer after 1936? Tested feces or something alone those lines.

~Thylo:cool:
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I believe scat/droppings (or it may have been hair samples) collected by David Fleay's 1945/6 expedition and searches and labelled 'Thylacine' were discovered quite recently stored in a museum(Melbourne?) vault. However modern DNA testing revealed they were not from a Thylacine.

Most people are of the opinion, that despite the lack of any concrete evidence, sightings by reliable observers. e.g. trappers who knew the animal, indicate Thylacines didn't die out with the death of the last captive. They almost certainly lingered longer in the wild, perhaps through the 1940's, maybe into the 1950's- but beyond that?
 
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Pertinax said:
I believe scat/droppings (or it may have been hair samples) collected by David Fleay's 1945/6 expedition and searches and labelled 'Thylacine' were discovered quite recently stored in a museum(Melbourne?) vault. However modern DNA testing revealed they were not from a Thylacine.

Most people are of the opinion, that despite the lack of any concrete evidence, sightings by reliable observers. e.g. trappers who knew the animal, indicate Thylacines didn't die out with the death of the last captive. They almost certainly lingered longer in the wild, perhaps through the 1940's, maybe into the 1950's- but beyond that?
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I think it was both hair and scat.

Given that there were disease related population crashes in devils in 1909. I do wonder whether it was the same illness that hit the tiger. And caused its numbers to fall in that year also.

This is idle speculation, but, given there was another crash in devil numbers, also attributed to an outbreak of disease in 1950. So, I can't help wondering whether this was the same disease as 1909, or if not was it potentially transferable from devil to tiger.

Personally I believe that tiger was functionally extinct in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. But, don't think it's likely the last animal was the one that died in Hobart in 1936.

So, if they did make it through the Forties, is it possible the few survivors could have run into yet another epidemic. Which contributed to their final demise.

I don't take the idea terribly seriously, and don't think it would have made a difference to end result in any case. I'm also aware that population numbers for any potential tigers would have been minimal, and devil numbers weren't that high either. So probably limiting any potential spread, if it was by contact anyway.
 
oldrover said:
Personally I believe that tiger was functionally extinct in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. But, don't think it's likely the last animal was the one that died in Hobart in 1936.
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From documented evidence- dates of kills and trapped individuals, past sightings etc , there is a line of thinking that extinction may have travelled from East to West across Tasmania, with the animals disappearing firstly in the East of the island, the last ones here being found in the North East area and becoming extinct sometime before 1920 (last documented kill here was 'Dilger's Thylacine' in (I think) 1912.) This would have left several very small sub-populations in large areas to the West of the Midlands, perhaps linked by 'corridors'. Dates for the final disappearance of these, is of course, open to conjecture.
 
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Pertinax said:
From documented evidence- dates of kills and trapped individuals, past sightings etc , there is a line of thinking that extinction may have travelled from East to West across Tasmania, with the animals disappearing firstly in the East of the island, the last ones here being found in the North East area and becoming extinct sometime before 1920 (last documented kill here was 'Dilger's Thylacine' in (I think) 1912.) This would have left several very small sub-populations in large areas to the West of the Midlands, perhaps linked by 'corridors'. Dates for the final disappearance of these, is of course, open to conjecture.
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Have you read the new paper about possible survival into the forties by Campbell and Sleightholme?
 
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