Thylacine

The Thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial native to Tasmania, Australia, once also roamed the Australian mainland and New Guinea. However, due to factors such as climate changes and the introduction of competitors, their populations on the mainland had already dwindled by the time European settlers arrived, leaving only those in Tasmania. Known as “袋狼” (Dàiláng) in Chinese, meaning “marsupial wolf,” the Thylacine is also commonly referred to as the “Tasmanian Tiger” in the Western world due to its tiger-like stripes. Despite these similarities, the Thylacine’s evolutionary relationship with non-marsupial carnivorous mammals is distant, with their resemblances resulting from convergent evolution.

The Thylacine was the last surviving member of the family Thylacinidae after the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene, occupying a unique position in phylogenetics. The Thylacinidae family belongs to the order Dasyuromorphia, which includes most carnivorous marsupials. Other members of this family have been discovered through fossils. Modern DNA sequencing has shown that the Thylacinidae is the basal group within Dasyuromorphia¹, with the family diverging around 36 to 42 million years ago. The genus Thylacinus, which includes the modern Thylacine, began to evolve independently between 8 to 13.5 million years ago².

Adult Thylacines resembled canids in size and shape, measuring about 1.8 meters in total length, with their long, stiff tails accounting for one-third of this length (50-65 cm). They stood approximately 60 cm tall at the shoulder. ³ Their short, coarse fur was light brown with 13-20 dark brown transverse stripes running from the base of the tail to the shoulders. The tail itself had similar coloring and striping. ⁴ Both male and female Thylacines had pouches, but only the females used theirs for rearing young.

Thylacines primarily inhabited open forests and grasslands. They were nocturnal hunters, preying on small mammals, including marsupials, rodents, and birds. Rather than relying on speed, Thylacines used endurance to exhaust their prey. Breeding occurred around winter (December), with young Thylacines maturing in the mother’s pouch. They remained with their mother, hidden in a den while she foraged, until they were independent enough to hunt. ³

Thylacines survived on mainland Australia until around 1100 BCE, becoming extinct there along with Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). ⁵ This extinction was likely due to human activities, competition with the dingo (Canis lupus dingo), and climate change. The Tasmanian population persisted until the early 20th century ⁶ but was eventually driven to extinction by human hunting, loss of genetic diversity due to island evolution, and disease. The last known Thylacine died in Hobart Zoo on September 7, 1936.

The Thylacine is one of the most frequently reported “reappearing” extinct animals, offering hope yet often leading to disappointment. Since 1936, there have been numerous unverified sightings, some seemingly credible, but no official scientific expeditions have confirmed the Thylacine’s existence.

Appearance #

• Male
  • Head: Resembles canids, tapering at the front towards a large, long nose and mouth.
  • Face: Grayish-brown with white markings, especially around the eyes⁷. Large, erect ears with inner fur, and a lower jaw that can open nearly to a right angle.
  • Body: Total length approximately 1.8 meters, shoulder height about 0.6 meters, long tail about 50-65 cm
  • Tail: Stiff, almost appearing as a natural continuation of the body, remaining nearly still while moving. No stripes on the tail.
  • Fur: Short and coarse, light brown with 13-20 dark brown transverse stripes from the base of the tail to the shoulders. The stripes widen towards the back, extending to the upper thighs.
  • Legs and Feet: Similar to canids and felids, walking on toes but without webbing between the toes.
• Female
  • Almost indistinguishable from males but smaller in size and strength, including shorter bones, smaller jaw muscles, and less powerful canines.⁸
• Young
  • Like most marsupials, Thylacine young were born underdeveloped, with most growth occurring in the pouch.
  • At about 4.5 weeks, the skeleton is mostly formed; at around 9.5 weeks, fur and internal organs develop; at about 12 weeks, the body size increases significantly; and at about 16 weeks, they leave the pouch, resembling adult Thylacines except for size.⁹

Accounts #

• In the mid-19th century, Tasmanian explorer and mine owner James (Philosopher) Smith was mining in northwest Tasmania. He killed two Thylacines on the plains near Black Bluff and the banks of the Leven River, including a mother with a joey in her pouch. Here is his description from a newspaper article¹⁰:

  It was emerging on to a small plain which is situate about a mile north from the east end of the Black Bluff Mountain, when I saw the bushes in motion a short distance in front of me. I thought the movement was caused by a number of the wombat tribe, the flesh of which is considered to be good eating by travellers in the bush, to whom meat is a luxury, and I sent forward my young though nearly full-grown dog - a setter spaniel - thinking that he might chase the supposed wombat into a hollow tree, where it could be easily captured. But just at the moment two tigers emerged into the open space, and one of them made off, while the other turned fiercely upon the dog, which running back regarded me with an expression which semed to ask as clearly as instinct could, whether he was to attack in earnest. Again I sent him forward, and this time he advanced with such s display of deter- mination, that the tiger, after a faint show of resistance, began to retreat, when the dog, seizing it by the tail, suffered himself to be led along at a quickish pace, while I followed with the view of overtaking them, till I stumbled and fell, and narrowly escaped being cut by a tomnhawk which I held in my hand. Here the dog rushed back as if to see what was the matter; but I again sent him for- ward, and the tiger, now finding escape im- possible, turned upon its assailant, and both fought with the utmost ferocity for about two minutes, when the dog seizing the tiger by the throat and keeping his hold overpowered it in a few seconds, and I then knocked it on the head, thinking I was doing right in destroying one of a kind of ani- mal which is often very destructive to sheep and lambs. The tiger was sixteen inches high and two feet six inches long from the nose to the tail which, was fourteen inches in length.
  
  A short time after the incident above- mentioned I was on the north side of the River Lea, and seeing my dog suddenly bound off I looked in the direction he had taken, and saw him approaching the largest tiger I had ever seen, and which seemed disposed to treat him with the utmost defiance, rushing at and driving him off whenever he approached within a few feet, and then steadily resuming its course. Thinking, from the size of the tiger, that it might prove dangerous even to a man, should it meet one when without a weapon wherewith to defend himself; and thinking that if it effectually intimidated the dog it might return in the night with its mate -for they often go in pairs- and cause me some annoyance, I resolved upon attempting its destruction, and I ran forward for this pur- pose, tomahawk in hand; but the moment it saw me advancing it reversed its course, and made for a scrub at the margin of the river; but the dog being encouraged by my voice and presence rushed at and fastened upon it repeatedly, but was as often repulsed with a sharp bite; he, however, so retarded its pro- gress that I was enabled to overtake it when, thinking to despatch it at a single blow, I struck it on the head with my tomahawk and fractured its skull ; but, notwithstanding this, it reeling and staggering, fought the dog for fully two minutes, inflicting bite after bite in his neck in rapid succession; and placing its fore feet against the upper part of his breast pushed him off by main strength whenever he fastened upon its throat. While this was going on I could not strike a second blow for fear of wounding the dog, at such a rate did they roll about; at length, however, seeing that the tiger was becoming weak, I seized it by the hind legs, and, placing my foot on the dog to keep him steady, I struck it again with my tomahawk severing the spine of its neck and causing its instant death. The height of this tiger to the lowest part of the top of the back was twenty-one inches; the length of the head and body, three feet four inches; of the tail, seventeen inches. It was a female and had in its false belly four young ones, each adhering firmly to a teat and well covered with hair, and just able to walk. I would have kept these young tigers as specimens of animated nature if I had not found that they would not live on the rough food which alone I had to give them. From what I know of the Tasmanian tiger, I believe that whenever it finds itself’ menaced by superior force it retreats for its den, and if it succeeds in this it faces about, and being secure from attack except in front, it defends itself with the utmost ferocity, inflicting severe wounds on any assailant that ventures to close with it. I have only heard of one contest between a sheep dog and a large tiger, and in that the former prevailed, though not without being fearfully lacerated by the teeth of the tiger. With a kangaroo dog I do not think that any tiger would be able to contend long owing chiefly to the superior mode of fighting of the former. I have never known a tiger to attack a man -although I once knew one to walk up to two in the bush, but in this case the intruder was knocked on the head before he had shown any aggressive intentions. I have also known a tiger to follow a man for a considerable distance at night, though not attempting to molest him.
  
  J. S. Forth.