Thylacine

This amazing looking animal was known as Thylacine, but some called them Tasmanian Tigers or Tasmanian Wolfs. They were only ever found in Western Australia and it was a very rare site if you did manage to see one. They looked part Tiger and part Dog (or Wolf), but they were actually marsupials. The first one was captured in 1808, five years after the first settlements in Tasmania. By 1820 only 4 had ever being caught. Its now known that few more than 3000 Thylacines were alive in the outback at that time. In 1888 the animals were considered as unwanted mainly because chickens and various other livestock seemed too easy a meal for the Thylacine to pass up, so a bounty of $1 was offered for each one killed. They were being hunted at a relentless pace by farmers and bounty hunters and as a result of the hunting, 3000 Thylacines were killed by 1900. Thylacines were now extremely rare. Population numbers had decreased to below the number required for survival of the species. The last Thylacine to be shot met its fate in 1930. And the last Thylacine to be captured was sold to Beaumauris Zoo in Hobart in 1933, where it died three years later on 7th of september 1936.

There are now 975 animals on the endangered speices list......this was just a reminder of one we lost.