Posted on 03/22/2006 1:53:25 PM PST by pcottraux
The Thylacine Debate - Is the Tasmanian Tiger Really Extinct? By Chani Blue Epoch Times Australia Staff Mar 16, 2006
Despite hundreds of reported sightings of this elusive marsupial wild dog, the Tasmanian Tiger, Thylacinus Cynocephalus remains declared officially extinct, therefore has no protection for it's fragile and natural environment or in and of itself, until it's existence can be verified.
The Tasmanian tiger lives in dry eucalypt forest, wetlands and grasslands in Tasmania. From indigenous fossil paintings, we can determine that it also lived in Papua New Guinea and main land Australia. Some remains discovered, date back to 2,200 years ago. It is generally believed that the Wild Dog or Dingo contributed to its extinction in these two places. The Bass Straight however, protected this population of Tasmanian Tigers in Tasmania giving it an opportunity to thrive for thousands of years, which is until the Europeans arrived.
The 'Tassie Tiger' may appear something like a dog, but unlike other canines, it carries it's young in a pouch, similar to a kangaroo, but it opens from the back. The mother can carry a litter in her pouch of up to three young. The pouch keeps extending and accommodating them as they grow, until it stretches and almost touches the ground. As a lair, they live together in a deep rocky cave, where the mother goes off to hunt in the evenings, through the night and return home at dawn. The Tasmanian tiger has remarkable stamina, along with an acute sense of smell, they proceed to pursue their prey until, the prey simply collapses from exhaustion.
This unique marsupial also has a thick, strong tail like a kangaroo. The dark brown/ black stripes across it's back, ending at its side gives this animal it's name 'Tiger', and it can open it's jaw a wide 120 degrees. The Tasmanian tiger feeds mainly on small mammals, wallabies, kangaroo, rats and mice. It stands 2 ft tall, is 6 ft from nose to tail and weighs in at approximately 30kgs.
The Tasmanian Tigers thrived in their thousands until the 1830's when the Government called on a bounty because they were a threat to the livestock of sheep, killing many in Tasmania. There was another bounty in the 1888 that saw many more slaughtered, leading to dangerously low numbers. It wasn't until 1936 that the Tasmanian tiger was added to the list of protected wildlife. In 1986 it was declared extinct by international standards.
Since when the Europeans first settled in Australia in 1803,the Tasmanian Tiger has been the only mammal to have been wiped out in Tasmania, on the mainland, however, nearly 50% of native animals species have been made extinct, this is the worst record of extinctions out of any country in the world.
There have been no successes of Tasmanian Tigers in captivity reproducing. In fact when in captivity, this animal was extremely nervous and often died from what appeared to be shock. In the wild they are very shy of humans and avoided contact. 'Benjamin' the last surviving Tasmanian tiger lived it's final days in the Hobart Zoo, in Tasmania and died 60 years ago. Many local Tasmanians beg to differ on this fact though, because many sporadic and unconfirmed sightings have been reported around the forests near their old habitat in the Northern regions to this day. A study of sightings by Steven Smith between the years of 1934-1980 analysed the authenticity of as many as 320 reported sightings by local residents. He concluded that as many as half of the sightings were good and could have possibly been the real thing.
The Government along with biologists and photographers have made many expeditions into the wild areas of North Tasmania to collect evidence that the Tiger still may be in existence. But these many investigations in the 1930's through to the 1980's were fruitless. However, the reported sightings continue to this day. However, Government departments may no longer be taking such reports seriously.
Imagining that the species were not extinct, biologists have doubts about its capability of reproducing for an extended period of time because there are not enough numbers in the wild to sustain enough genetic diversity for a perpetuated existence. But, the question is, how long after a last verifiable sighting can we then declare a species extinct? Should the Australian Sanctuary Law be revoked to protect it? Just supposing it still exists out there; it would truly be the rarest Animal in the world.
Buck and Joan Emberg are really involved in the protection of the Tasmanian Tiger and their website is www.tasmanian-tiger.com.au
'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This thylacine is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-THYLACINE!!
Wow. What a tremendous response this thread has received.
I'm assuming that's a photo of a replica, or there wouldn't be any reason to doubt they're still around...
It may be stuffed.
You wonder why nobody responds? Cause anyone with an interest in cryptozoology already knows about thylacine!
The article is just a recap for people that don't know about it. There is no new picture, and without a picture the eyewitnesses should not be trusted.
I find it unlikely that nobody is capable of taking a picture..
However, I do admit, i had a huge dragonfly in my garden measuring 25 by 20 cm. So far, i have been unable to find any information about it and the picture that most resembled it was a reconstruction of an exctinct dragonfly. I didn't take a picture either.
I would not be surprised if there was a decent number of insect and fish species out there that we thought were extinct. The world's a big place, and a lot of little critters go unnotices.
The thylacine? I think that's fairly unlikely. It's a good-size animal that people have been looking for since it's extinction in the early 20th century.
But, hey, I like to keep my mind open on these things.
For reasons I wont go into here, my duck flock was living at my brothers house. One day he had some friends over and while they were sitting outside they saw something come running into the yard, grab a duck and run off. When I arrived, 7 adults described the animal to me in very good detail.
I couldnt believe what they were describing. I went and got a picture of what I thought they described and showed it to them. All of them swore that what I showed them is what grabbed my duck. This is the point that I told them that thylacines were believed to be extinct and never lived in Northern Wisconsin. The confused looks on their faces said that they honestly thought they had fingered the right creature. I decided that it was probably just some sickly stray dog.
In other words, eye witness accounts just arent worth much.
There is a flying creature that appears in some of that alien world fantasy art stuff that looks something like a sting ray but the wings are those of a bat and the tail is a fat snake trailing behing the body...ever seen the art?
Imagine my surprise when I saw one. The sky was a cloudy light grey, the lake a dark grey and the beast appeared black. I searched for the smallest detail but couldnt see anymore detail and I stared at as it approached but just couldnt figure out what it was.
Eventually it flew nearby in front of me, over land, and thats also when a break in the clouds appeared. I was looking at a bald eagle carrying a large and long pike type fish.
You really find that statue realistic? Or was it a joke?
There is a site full with weird creatures people thought existed in the middleages, and an explanation for what they most likely where.
Don't know the link from memory,
but there are really good examples. The coolest is, they point out that many people in those days already suspected a mythological monster here and there to be a normal animal which got mangled after described to an artist.
They have far out pictures of monsters that are really crocodiles or eliphants. Did you know that the unicorn got into existence after someone failed to describe a hippo correctly? Some person described it as being like "a horse with a horn on it's head". So that's what the artists drew, the picture got into peoples imagination and suddenly people begin to saw the darn thing everywhere!
I guess people in the dark ages wheren't too mentally different from nowadays. We are just all cavemen with technology.
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Note: this topic is from 2006. |
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