What is a Thylacine?

The Thylacine, more commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger was a marsupial that went extinct on mainland Australia around 2000 years ago, however having lived on in Tasmania until several factors lead to the overall demise of the Tiger in 1936.

The Tiger was a sandy brown to sandy yellow colour that could also be recognised as grey and largely resembled both a dog, and a tiger. The Thylacine could be mistaken for a dog due to its dog-like head and body shape, with vertical ears that were rounded and short, the Thylacine distinctivley resembled a dog, however resembling a tiger with 15 to 20 dark brown to black stripes along its back down to its tail. With 46 teeth, the Thylacine had a large bite and wide jaw which could also be mistaken for that of a tiger.

Being a marsupial, the female Thylacine had a backwards facing pouch that could carry up to four young tigers as the litter size usually was no larger then this. The mother Thylacine would carry around the babies until they were almost fully developed, the father could also help carry around the children whilst they were young as the male Thylacine had a partial back opening pouch also.

There is evidence that the Thylacine once populated the island of New Guinea, but went extinct much earlier then in Australia and Tasmania. Speculation has arrived and began questioning whether there might be a small population in the mountains of New Guinea as “New Guinea, especially Irian Jaya, is far less well-explored than either Tasmania or mainland Australia". Author: Shuker Date: Unknown.

The Thylacine was a predatory, carnivorous marsupial that hunted mainly during the night, making it nocturnal or semi-nocturnal as it could also be spotted during the day too, in pairings or singularly. The Tigers diet mainly consisted of wallabies and kangaroos as well as other marsupials in the wild, however also preyed upon various birds and small animals. Although highly exaggererated, the tigers did also eat sheep and poultry birds once Europeans colonised Tasmania.

The desired habitat for the Thylacine was grassy woodlands and clearings, wetlands, dry eucalypt forests and would hunt in areas such as grassy plains and open woodlands. However some speculate that due to human population, the Tiger had to adapt and evolve to be able to survive mountain ranges in order to ensure the survival of the species. This has not yet been confirmed as some mountain ranges of Tasmainia, Mainland Australia and New Guinea have not yet been explored.