The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) is extinct. The last specimen died in captivity on September 7, 1936 at Beaumaris Zoo in the city of Hobart, Tasmania. At the time, it was assumed that Tasmanian tigers still roamed in the wild. On July 10, 1936, the animal had received legal protection, which should guarantee the survival of the species. Years later, the realization dawned that the marsupial wolf in Hobart Zoo must have been the last living.
It was feared that nothing had survived of this illustrious animal. All that remained was a series of black and white photos and even some moving images without sound. There were some bones from other specimens, and there was an embryo that had been put into formaldehyde in 1866. An attempt to isolate DNA from this and to bring the animal back to life via cloning failed. The last specimen of the Tasmanian marsupial wolf seemed lost forever.
But thanks to research by researchers Robert Paddle and Kathryn Medlock, a prepared skin and skull have now emerged. Paddle is a psychologist at the Australian Catholic University and wrote the book ten years ago The last Tasmanian tiger. Kathryn Medlock is a curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. Together they found out that in a closet of the museum there was still intact fur and skeleton parts, including a skull from 1936.
Unfortunately, exhibit A1546 was not the famous last specimen that was kept on September 7, 1936, but the penultimate animal also kept at Hobart Zoo. The specimen was incorrectly cataloged and therefore not known in the museum’s inventory lists.
There was also a reason why not much was known about the preparation of the animal at the time. This Tasmanian tiger was illegally caught with a snare by poacher Elias Churchill from the Florentine Valley. That was in May 1936, when this method of catching was already banned. Probably to protect Churchill, the origin has not been publicized. Paddle and Medlock publish their find soon in the leaf Australian zoologist.
A version of this article also appeared in the December 10, 2022 newspaper