One of the greatest dilemmas facing us human beings at the moment is how we treat, or exploit, the world around us. Whether we like it or not, we seem to be responsible – more often than not – for the damage inflicted upon the Earth that we call home. The changes we have made have not only had positive effects, but have also brought about drastic consequences.
The blame for the extinction of certain species certainly lies in human hands. One of them is the thylacine, once the world’s largest marsupial carnivore. Also known as the Tasmanian Tiger, owing to the distinctive stripes on its back, or the Tasmanian Wolf, the name thylacine roughly translates to “dog-headed pouched one” (from Greek via Latin).
Yellowish-brown to grey in colour, thylacines had 15-20 dark stripes across the back, from shoulders to tail. With a large head that was dog- or wolf-like, a stiff tail, relatively short legs and short ears, thylacines were mainly nocturnal or semi-nocturnal. While the females had a back-opening pouch and cared for the young until they were at least half-grown, the males had a partial pouch.
Survived in Tasmania
Fossilised remains of thylacines have been found across Australia and Papua New Guinea. A number of factors led to their extinction in the mainland about 2,000-3,000 years ago. But they did survive on the southern island of Tasmania and their population was estimated to be around 5,000 during the start of the European settlement in the early 1800s.
Despite their fierce reputation, the thylacines were usually shy and tried to avoid human contact. But the settlers, who had brought with them the farming industry, feared the animal. And when they faced livestock losses – feral dogs and mismanagement actually accounted for most of the livestock deaths – the thylacines were made the scapegoat.
Bounty hunting
Bounties to pay for thylacine skins were established as early as the 1830s. The Tasmanian government introduced a bounty in 1888 and by the time the scheme ended in 1909, more than 2,000 bounties had been awarded.
In less than 100 hundred years between the 1830s and 1920s, over 3,500 thylacines were killed by human hunting. Add to it the fact that thylacines began losing their habitat, had to compete with wild dogs and suffer foreign diseases brought to the land by the settlers, and it was no wonder that their numbers began to dwindle.
By the time the public opinion towards thylacines turned and preservation measures were being spoken about, it was already too late. For Benjamin, the last known thylacine, died in Hobart Zoo of suspected neglect on September 7, 1936. Thylacines had been granted protected species status only 59 days earlier. With no further sightings, the species was declared extinct in the 1980s.
Search and research
Ever since Benjamin died in the zoo, several expeditions have been organised to search for thylacines in the wilderness of Tasmania. There have been reported sightings by believers, but there has never been any conclusive evidence to prove that thylacines still exist.
A number of scientists, meanwhile, have undertaken various research methods for de-extinction, or bringing the species back from the dead. In 2017, for instance, a baby thylacine collected before 1910 provided enough genetic material for researchers to sequence its entire genome.
These remain baby steps towards righting a wrong and the path ahead is extremely complex, both in terms of developing the necessary expertise and funding such a huge project. And when those challenges are finally surmounted, the future might allow us to correct some of our mistakes from the past.
