Thylacine: The Tasmanian Tiger
Extinct 90 Years, Still Haunting Australia
On September 7, 1936, an elderly male thylacine named Benjamin died at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. Neglected and locked out of his enclosure during an unusually cold night, he froze to death -- the last confirmed member of his species. With Benjamin's death, a 4-million-year-old evolutionary lineage came to an end.
The thylacine was Australia's largest carnivorous marsupial. It was killed off deliberately, with government bounties paid for its carcass, in under a century of European colonization. Its extinction is one of the most clearly documented human-caused extinctions in modern history, and its memory continues to haunt Australian conservation, science, and imagination.
What Was the Thylacine?
The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a large marsupial carnivore native to Australia and Tasmania. The scientific name translates to "dog-headed pouched one," which is fittingly descriptive.
Physical characteristics:
- Length: 1.5-1.8 meters (5-6 feet) from nose to tail tip
- Height: 60 cm (2 feet) at the shoulder
- Weight: 20-30 kg (45-65 lb)
- Tail: stiff and kangaroo-like, not wagging
- Fur: sandy-brown body with 15-20 distinctive dark stripes across the back and hindquarters
- Head: broad, dog-like skull with exceptional jaw flexibility
Despite looking like a cross between a dog and a tiger, the thylacine was more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than to any placental mammal predator. Its resemblance to canines is one of the most striking examples of convergent evolution -- unrelated animals evolving similar features because they occupy similar ecological niches.
Both sexes had pouches. Female thylacines used theirs to carry joeys (young). Male thylacines had pouches too, used to protect their genitals while running through thorny undergrowth. This dual-pouch arrangement is unusual among marsupials.
The Extinction
The thylacine extinction is one of the best-documented examples of deliberate human-caused extinction in modern history.
Pre-European population: Historians estimate the Tasmanian thylacine population at 2,000-4,000 animals when European settlers arrived in 1803. The species had already gone extinct in mainland Australia approximately 3,000 years ago, likely driven out by dingoes (introduced placental mammal predators).
The bounty era: Starting in 1830, Van Diemen's Land Company (a British agricultural enterprise) paid bounties for thylacine carcasses, believing the species was preying on sheep. The Tasmanian government expanded the bounty program from 1888 to 1909, paying 1 pound per adult and 10 shillings per juvenile -- significant sums at the time.
Total official kills: 2,184 thylacines were killed under official bounty programs, with payments totaling over 2,000 pounds sterling.
Total actual kills: Historians estimate unofficial killing at least doubled official numbers, for a likely total of 4,000-5,000 thylacines killed between 1830 and 1909.
The rapid collapse: By 1910, almost no thylacines were being reported. A sudden disease outbreak (possibly distemper transmitted from domestic dogs) accelerated the decline. Zoo specimens became essentially irreplaceable as the wild population collapsed.
Protection came too late. The Tasmanian government declared the thylacine a protected species on July 10, 1936. Benjamin, the last known specimen, died 59 days later.
Official extinction declaration: The species was officially declared extinct by the IUCN in 1982.
The Sheep Misconception
The fundamental tragedy of the thylacine extinction is that the species was killed largely for predation it probably did not commit.
What the evidence shows:
Multiple retrospective investigations have suggested that most livestock deaths attributed to thylacines were actually caused by feral dogs. Thylacine jaw structure -- while impressive -- was not well-suited for killing large prey like adult sheep. Analysis of thylacine skulls shows relatively weak bite force (approximately 200 PSI) compared to the substantial force needed to kill a sheep quickly.
What thylacines actually ate:
Wallabies, small kangaroos, potoroos, bandicoots, and birds. The thylacine was a mid-sized ambush predator specialized in taking small-to-medium prey. A healthy adult sheep (40-60 kg) was probably too large for most thylacines to attack successfully.
Why farmers blamed thylacines:
Thylacines were visible, distinctive, and unfamiliar -- ideal scapegoats. Dead sheep were attributed to whatever predator the farmer could see. Feral dogs, which did actually kill sheep, were harder to blame because farmers could not easily distinguish their own dogs from feral ones in many cases.
The scientific evidence supporting this reassessment emerged too late for the species. By the time biologists could study thylacines properly, they were extinct. The case illustrates how pre-scientific assumptions about wildlife, combined with economic incentives for extermination, can drive species to extinction based on fundamental misunderstandings.
What Thylacines Were Actually Like
Modern understanding of thylacine biology comes from anatomical studies of preserved specimens and the rare surviving photographs and film footage of living animals.
Hunting style. Thylacines were primarily crepuscular and nocturnal ambush predators. They stalked prey quietly, then rushed the final meters for a killing bite. Unlike canines, which tend to chase prey over long distances, thylacines relied on brief bursts of speed and surprise.
Jaw flexibility. Thylacine jaws could open to an extraordinary 80 degrees -- much wider than any modern mammal predator. This feature was not for consuming large prey but rather for making threat displays and perhaps for specific prey-handling techniques.
Vocalizations. Surviving audio recordings from the early 1900s show thylacines produced distinctive coughing barks and a range of growls, whines, and sniffing sounds. They were not silent hunters.
Social structure. Thylacines appear to have been solitary or lived in small family groups. They were not pack hunters like wolves.
Breeding. Females produced litters of 2-4 joeys. The young spent approximately 3 months in the pouch and another 6 months following their mother before becoming independent. Total generation time was roughly 2-3 years.
The Film Footage
Almost everything we know about how thylacines moved and behaved comes from a small body of surviving film footage.
Available film evidence:
Approximately 120 seconds of black-and-white film footage exists showing live thylacines. All footage was recorded at Hobart Zoo between 1911 and 1933, featuring zoo specimens rather than wild animals.
The most famous sequence: In December 1933, zoo staff filmed Benjamin walking across his enclosure and receiving food. This footage shows thylacine gait clearly -- a distinctive stiff-backed movement unlike any modern predator. Benjamin appears healthy and active in the footage, which makes his death three years later from neglect particularly tragic.
Modern restoration: The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has digitally restored all surviving thylacine footage. Color-correction and frame interpolation have produced enhanced versions that give the clearest view ever possible of how these animals moved.
The lack of sound: No synchronized sound recordings exist. Audio recordings of thylacine vocalizations were made separately from the film footage and cannot be directly paired. We know the sounds they made and we know how they moved, but never together.
The Sightings
Unconfirmed thylacine sightings have continued since Benjamin's death. Australian wildlife authorities receive 5-10 formal sighting reports annually.
Common patterns:
Most sightings occur in remote Tasmanian forests, particularly the Tarkine wilderness and the central highlands. Forestry workers, farmers, and hikers report seeing animals they believe are thylacines based on their stripes and distinctive movement.
Verification failures:
Every single sighting since 1936 has failed formal verification. Photographs consistently prove to be:
- Feral dogs (often mangy, with patchy fur that can look striped)
- Foxes (occasionally visible in Tasmania despite not being native)
- Large marsupials like spotted-tail quolls
- Camera artifacts
- Deliberate hoaxes
The famous 1982 sighting:
Naturalist Hans Naarding, an experienced wildlife researcher, reported seeing a thylacine in northwestern Tasmania in March 1982 at close range in his car headlights. Naarding's credentials and detailed description led the Tasmanian government to conduct a 14-month investigation. No confirming evidence was found despite extensive searching.
The 2017 video:
A tourist filmed what he claimed was a thylacine in South Australia in 2017. The footage shows a striped animal moving quickly across a dirt road. Analysis by zoologists at the Australian Museum suggested the animal was most likely a fox with distinctive coloration, though the video's low quality made definitive identification impossible.
Current position:
Most professional biologists consider the thylacine extinct with very high confidence. The total absence of carcasses, DNA samples, clear photographs, or footprints despite 90 years of searching strongly suggests no surviving population exists. The continuing sightings likely reflect mistaken identification of other animals combined with wishful thinking about a cherished extinct species.
The De-Extinction Project
In August 2022, U.S. biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences announced a thylacine de-extinction project, partnering with the University of Melbourne's Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Laboratory.
The approach:
Genetic template. Use the genome of the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata), a small living marsupial, as a template. The dunnart is the closest living relative to the thylacine.
Genome reconstruction. Sequence thylacine DNA from preserved museum specimens. This work is ongoing and has achieved approximately 95 percent completion of the thylacine genome as of 2024.
Gene editing. Use CRISPR technology to edit dunnart DNA to match thylacine sequences at specific locations throughout the genome. Millions of edits would be required to convert dunnart DNA to thylacine-equivalent DNA.
Embryo creation. Create embryos from edited DNA and implant them in surrogate females. Because the dunnart is much smaller than the thylacine, surrogacy would require careful gestation management.
Population establishment. Breed resulting animals to establish a founding population, then release into protected Tasmanian wilderness.
Technical challenges:
Incomplete genome. Recovering complete thylacine DNA from 100-year-old specimens is difficult. Substantial gaps remain in the sequence that would require filling with either dunnart DNA or educated guesses.
Marsupial reproduction is poorly understood. Most cloning and genetic modification techniques have been developed for placental mammals. Marsupial gestation, pouch-based development, and reproductive hormones differ significantly and would require new scientific tools.
Scale of edits. Converting dunnart DNA to thylacine-equivalent DNA requires millions of sequential edits. Each edit has some failure rate. Compounding these failures across millions of edits may make the process impossible with current technology.
Ecological uncertainty. Even if de-extinction succeeds technically, the question of whether the resurrected thylacines would function ecologically in modern Tasmania is uncertain. The ecosystem has changed significantly in 90 years.
Current status: Most biologists consider successful thylacine de-extinction unlikely within the next decade. Research is ongoing, and partial successes (particular gene edits, cell culture techniques) are being achieved, but a living resurrected thylacine remains in the distant future.
What the Thylacine Means
The thylacine is one of the most emotionally powerful symbols in Australian ecology. Its extinction represents:
The speed of human impact. An entire species was eliminated within a single human lifetime. Benjamin was born in the 1930s; the people who killed off his species were still alive when he died. Extinction can happen extraordinarily quickly when human forces are aligned against a species.
The cost of misunderstanding. The thylacine was killed for predation it probably did not commit. The economic panic over sheep losses attributed to thylacines drove policy that eliminated a species. Similar dynamics continue today with species like wolves in North America and lions in Africa.
The limits of protection. Legal protection of the thylacine came 59 days before the last specimen died. Protection alone cannot save a species -- it must be accompanied by active conservation, habitat protection, and in some cases captive breeding before population levels become unrecoverable.
The finality of extinction. Despite 90 years of sightings, searches, and speculation, no thylacine has been verified since 1936. Extinction is permanent in any meaningful sense, even as biotechnology dangles theoretical de-extinction futures. Whatever resurrection Colossal Biosciences eventually achieves, it will not be the animals that walked Tasmania in 1935.
The limits of memory. Living thylacines existed recently enough that some Australians are still alive who personally remember seeing them. Yet the species is already partly mythical -- confused with dogs in popular imagination, misidentified in sighting reports, mythologized in documentaries. Extinct animals become unreal quickly, even within the lifetimes of those who knew them.
Why the Thylacine Still Matters
The thylacine has disappeared physically but persists in Australian culture as a warning, a symbol, and sometimes a kind of national ghost.
In conservation: The Tasmanian government established Threatened Species Day on September 7 each year, commemorating Benjamin's death date. The thylacine is used in education about extinction and conservation. Every protected species designation in Australia operates in the shadow of the thylacine's extinction.
In identity: The thylacine appears on Tasmania's state coat of arms, on Tasmanian beer labels, and in countless cultural references. It is the symbol of Tasmania's distinctiveness, a reminder that this island has produced unique biology.
In science: Ongoing research into thylacine genetics, behavior, and ecology continues. The species is extensively studied despite being extinct, because every lesson its biology can teach is valuable.
In hope: The de-extinction research, however uncertain, represents a belief that extinction might not be forever. This may be misleading (most de-extinction efforts will fail or produce inauthentic results), but it has inspired genuine scientific progress that may help save other species currently at risk.
The thylacine is gone. Whether it will ever return in any meaningful sense is unclear. But its memory continues to shape how Australians -- and biologists worldwide -- think about the species humans have already lost, and about the species we might still save.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a thylacine?
The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), commonly called the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was a large carnivorous marsupial native to Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. Despite its common names, it was neither a tiger nor a wolf -- it was a marsupial more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than to any placental mammal predator. Adult thylacines measured 1.5-1.8 meters from nose to tail tip, stood 60 cm at the shoulder, and weighed 20-30 kg. They had a stiff, kangaroo-like tail and dog-like body with 15-20 distinctive dark stripes across their back and hindquarters. Both sexes had pouches -- males used theirs to protect their genitals while running through undergrowth, while females used them to carry young. The thylacine's resemblance to a canine is one of the most striking examples of convergent evolution in mammals.
When did the Tasmanian tiger go extinct?
The last confirmed thylacine, known as Benjamin, died at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania on September 7, 1936. Unconfirmed sightings have continued for decades since, but no verified specimen has been seen since Benjamin's death. The species was declared extinct by the IUCN in 1982, though Australian researchers continue reviewing unverified sighting reports. The date of September 7 is commemorated annually in Australia as Threatened Species Day. The thylacine had been declared a protected species on July 10, 1936 -- just 59 days before Benjamin's death. The protection came too late to save the species. Recent discoveries of 80-year-old tissue samples preserved in Australian museum collections have enabled genetic research that might eventually allow de-extinction through biotechnology, though this remains theoretical.
Why did the thylacine go extinct?
The thylacine's extinction was caused primarily by deliberate human hunting combined with habitat loss, disease, and inability to adapt to ecological changes. European settlers arriving in Tasmania in the early 1800s believed thylacines were preying on their sheep, though modern research suggests most livestock deaths attributed to thylacines were actually caused by feral dogs. Government bounties were paid for thylacine carcasses from 1830 to 1909 -- approximately 2,184 official bounty claims were paid, with unofficial killings probably doubling this number. Simultaneously, habitat loss from farming and disease outbreaks (possibly a form of distemper) weakened the remaining population. By the time protection laws were enacted in 1936, too few breeding animals remained to sustain the species. The extinction represents one of the clearest examples of a species deliberately killed off by humans based on misperceived threat.
Could scientists bring back the thylacine?
Scientists are actively researching de-extinction of the thylacine, though success remains uncertain. Colossal Biosciences, a U.S. biotechnology company, announced a thylacine de-extinction project in 2022 using CRISPR gene editing and stem cell technology. The approach uses the genome of the fat-tailed dunnart (a small living marsupial) as a template, editing specific genes to match thylacine DNA recovered from preserved specimens. The goal is to create a genetically-modified dunnart embryo that develops as a thylacine, then breed additional animals. Multiple technical challenges remain: marsupial reproduction is poorly understood compared to placental mammals, and the complete thylacine genome has not yet been sequenced. Most scientists consider full thylacine de-extinction unlikely within the next decade, but research is ongoing. Even successful de-extinction would produce a modified living species rather than a true resurrected thylacine.
Are there still unconfirmed thylacine sightings?
Yes, Australian authorities receive 5-10 unconfirmed thylacine sighting reports annually. Tasmania, where the species last lived, receives most reports. All reports since 1936 have failed verification -- photos prove to be feral dogs, foxes, or camera tricks, and no carcass, genuine clear photograph, or DNA sample has been authenticated. Some credible sightings include reports by forestry workers, ecologists, and farmers who claim to have seen thylacines at close range in remote Tasmanian forests. The lack of definitive evidence after 90 years suggests the species is genuinely extinct, but dedicated enthusiasts continue searching. The Tasmania state government offers a formal process for reporting sightings and has investigated hundreds of claims. The possibility that a tiny relict population survived in the most remote Tasmanian wilderness cannot be completely ruled out, but is considered increasingly unlikely as decades pass without confirmation.