Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Have browsed through the material on the thylacine museum site a lot over the years but can't really remember if I've seen any interviews with Guiler so will look these up with interest.
Thylacines are still extinct
- Thread starter DavidBrown
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Have browsed through the material on the thylacine museum site a lot over the years but can't really remember if I've seen any interviews with Guiler so will look these up with interest.
The fact that the specimen in question (collected in 1901 and more or less unnoticed at the time) was only rediscovered a few years ago probably has a bearing on the matter - less time for the species to enter popular consciousness as a possible survivor on the mainland.
Although given the habitat loss in the relevant area, and the fact local accounts suggest they haven't been seen in some decades, I think they have subsequently slipped away unnoticed themselves
There might be one in the Thylacine Museum, but I can't remember. Mostly he appeared in interviews in T.V. documentaries I think.
Unfortunately this desire and the 'search' for the Thylacine has seemingly begun to cross over from the realms of reality into fantasy- it seems to be joining the many 'crypto' species that people want to believe do really exist. Of course the Thylacine did exist and there is a smidgeon of hope(though not by me) that it may still do so. But the continuing question of its extinct/extant status seems very divorced from the mass 'cult' interest/mentality that it seems to engender nowadays.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
If you type in thylacine products in search engines it gives an indication of this bizarre and kitsch thylacine popular culture afterlife.
I just did so and there are "thylacine" mountain bikes, massage balms, action hero figurines, model toys and teddy's, larger beers, baseball caps , conspiracy theory badges , conspiracy theory books , garden ornaments , snow globes , t shirts , soap , wallets , towels and even very strange pornographic illustrations for those in the furry subculture who have a fetish for large breasted and humanoid thylacine type chimaeric entity babes
(who even thinks of such things ? 
).It is utterly bizarre how human / Western culture has approached the extinction of this species.
I would rather that the species became a symbol of the reality of extinction that encouraged action to conserve it's closest living relatives and the Tasmanian forests than an object of mass consumerism.
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You're probably right. A species being extinct gives some extra romanticism to it. Blue jays and white tailed deer are just "whatever" animals to most people, but if they went extinct there would be a ton of hardcore fans. Something we don't have is going to be more exciting. There's also the thrill of the hunt, it's fun to fantasize about finding a lost or mythical creature.
Not all recently extinct animals have fans. When was the last time you heard of a cult worshiping the Shortnose Cisco?
Pssst. First rule of the SCC (Shortnose Cisco Cult): don't mention the SCC. Unless you want to wear the Stone of Shame?
Wasn't trying to suggest that. I think such animals need to have some level of charisma too. Passenger pigeon? Lived in crazy massive flocks. Thylacine? Larger animal, and pretty unique. Carolina parakeet? Can't say no to a brightly colored parrot. Dodo? Also a unique animal.
Of course, publicity also helps.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Lol !
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
I kind of think that all extinct species including the "little brown jobs" have a certain tragic mystique about them that makes people attach meaning to them, though of course the more unusual and larger the animal the more likely that it will attract a "cult following".
Even that might not be a given. The Steller's sea cow, for example, was huge and a very unique animal. Yet the Russians were apparently less keen (or commercially motivated) than the Australians to monetize its extinction. Maybe the aspect that the thylacine's demise was one of the first extinctions of a species documented by the back then developing media also furthered its special status. The dodo might be the next best species wiped out by humans known to a larger audience.
After that, the next in line when it comes to globally recognized exterminated species are not the Passenger pigeon, Quagga, Ivory-billed woodpecker, Mexican grizzly, Barbary lion, moas, baiji, the Shortnosed Cisco etc., but prehistoric species like mammoths and saber-toothed cats.
So, from a capitalistic pov: well done Australia / Tasmania - you managed to create an iconic mascot and ongoing business out of the extermination of a species.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Even that might not be a given. The Steller's sea cow, for example, was huge and a very unique animal. Yet the Russians were apparently less keen (or commercially motivated) than the Australians to monetize its extinction. Maybe the aspect that the thylacine's demise was one of the first extinctions of a species documented by the back then developing media also furthered its special status. The dodo might be the next best species wiped out by humans known to a larger audience.
After that, the next in line when it comes to globally recognized exterminated species are not the Passenger pigeon, Quagga, Ivory-billed woodpecker, Mexican grizzly, Barbary lion, moas, baiji, the Shortnosed Cisco etc., but prehistoric species like mammoths and saber-toothed cats.
So, from a capitalistic pov: well done Australia / Tasmania - you managed to create an iconic mascot and ongoing business out of the extermination of a species.
Yes, totally agree when it comes to the Steller's seacow but then this species was in the 18th century which I don't think had the right sort of media or journalistic conditions that would have propelled it to fame.
A century later you do begin to see (probably greatly influenced by the romantic movement's view of nature and humanity in literature and aesthetics) a sort of cult / iconic status being attached to extinct species like the dodo and it appearing in Lewis Carroll's "Alice and Wonderland" in a tragic / comic sense etc.
Lol, yes, I do think that the Aussie's / Tasmanians did very well commercially out of the thylacine and its extinction in some ways and there is evidently a market for all of these thylacine related products out there.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
.....and then there’s probably a host of undocumented Pacific island endemic rails that were exterminated by the first wave of rats/dogs/cats/hungry sailors
Yes, I agree that these are hardly house hold names like the dodo or thylacine.
But if you place taxidermy specimens of some of these rails in a museum (the species that were documented and did have specimens collected) and put a prominent sign that is visible to the public stating "extinct" then people do get very curious about these and come over and have a look even if it is a small brown bird.
I think that is the paradox / irony of extinction in some ways, it lends a sort of tragic appeal / glamour for the public to a species that it unfortunately never had it when it was alive.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Pinnipeds seem to be an exception to this, oddly. There's no mythology or following for the japanese sea lion or caribbean monk seal, and the dwindling mediterranean and hawaiian monk seals get few mentions when talking about endangered megafauna
Japan is quite strange in that regard because the extinct wolf clearly still occupies a place in Japanese culture / folklore and is afforded a kind of respect or nostalgia.
But then as you say there is the sealion and the very recently declared extinct Japanese river otter where there doesn't seem to be anything like that whatsoever.
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Pinnipeds seem to be an exception to this, oddly. There's no mythology or following for the japanese sea lion or caribbean monk seal, and the dwindling mediterranean and hawaiian monk seals get few mentions when talking about endangered megafauna
I blame the lack of publicity. I bet lots of people on the Gulf Coast would be outraged if they knew we used to have seals and then people ruined that! I know I'm gonna die mad about it. This place would be so much better with some seals...
Have you read Witness to Extinction? It's about the Yangtze river dolphin and a huge point of the book is that publicity is really important to conservation efforts, and that you can't really assume that certain species are going to get that attention without work being put into it. (hence the baiji extinction being such a shock to the world. It's a dolphin, how did that disappear without folks noticing?) Governments and even the major conservation organizations are more likely to put effort into saving popular, well-known species.
Yes, it's a fantastic book, and so sad.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Thats a great book, but I don't agree that it was a lack of publicity that spelt the end for this dolphin species.
With the baiji you could say that in terms of publicity the Chinese actually did quite well at marketing this animal (but not in effectively addressing /raising awareness of the need for its conservation or that of the wider Yangtze ecosystem).
However, they made the mistake of "counting their chickens before they hatched" and alongside the stultifying bureaucracy and politics that were endless obstacles they became complacent about the need to actively locate and capture any remaining Baiji in the Yangtze (even though they only had a single individual in captivity).
By the time they realized that it was now or never for the baiji it was too late and the species had gone extinct.
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