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Tasmanian tiger: The enduring belief in an extinct animal
- ajeet_dhaliwal 10y agoIt's sad this animal is extinct, it's such a great example of convergent evolution and comparisons with the wolf (mammal) originally got me interested in thylacine when I was a child.
- gonzo41 10y agoIt could be still out there, out west. Tasmania has the kind of wilderness in it in which you can walk in and not walk out. Especially on the west coast.
- neaden 10y agoI mean, it's physically possible that that is the case. But it has been 80 years without finding a living one or a recent corpse makes it pretty much a sure thing.
- sosborn 10y agohttp://www.dinofish.com/discoa.htm http://www.dinofish.com/discoa.htm
- neaden 10y agoThe Ocean is a very different place, we can't see into it as well, corpses and bones disappear, there is no physical evidence to be left etc. The Tasmanian tiger is on land, it dwells on the ground, and is an apex predator. This is exactly the kind of species that would be easy to find compared to a mouse, a fish, or an ape.
- sosborn 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_taxon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_taxon
- o_____________o 10y agoRediscovering animals thought to be extinct (for hundreds of years in some cases) is surprisingly common for something you'd reasonably assume never happened. Whales, bugs, amphibians, reptiles, fish, primates, ungulates...
- Jeema101 10y agoThere have been many claimed sightings since then, though, including one in 1995 by a wildlife official: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine#Unconfirmed_sightings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine#Unconfirmed_sighting... It's not out of the realm of possibility that there's still a very small population out there...
- civilian 10y agoDo we have DNA for Tasmanian tigers? I wonder if it would be valuable to have a biologist or forest ranger collecting fur samples that rub off on trees in the area where there's been some sightings.
- nrgb 10y agoI'm Tasmanian. I grew up on a farm in the middle of the state where we had a number of sightings (circa 1970s) which were never reported.
- davegardner 10y agoAFter spending some time in Tasmania I can see how it would be easy to imagine there could still be Thylacines living in the bush. The island contains some very large national parks and reserves, and the Thylacine was fairly well camouflaged for that environment.
- neaden 10y agoBut no one has found a corpse, or bones, or gotten a clear picture etc. at this point despite many many people searching and a large cash bounty for proof. I don't think it's that good at hiding.
- exodust 10y agoThis rehashed clickbait appears occasionally in slightly different form. Blurry photos followed by half-baked claims resurface as lazy copy and paste "news". It's no surprise that BBC and ABC have jumped on this rubbish and push it with the obligatory wink-wink "isn't this fun" journalism plaguing these media outlets. There is no widespread belief in the existence of this animal. Human activity has sent many a creature packing its bags from this world. The thylacine is just one on a long list.
- Joeboy 10y agoBenjamin, the last thylacine in captivity, died of exposure because his keepers omitted to unlock his sleeping quarters overnight. Even for an extinction event, that is pretty sad.
- tombert 10y agoFor a second, I thought you were directly addressing a guy named "Benjamin"... That's a horrible story, very much "not with a bang, but a whimper".
- bruxa 10y agoI mean, sure... there might be a couple of these left in the world because ( I believe ) that no one can be absolutely certain there aren't... but that picture/video is an insult to human intelligence. Come on... we're past those crappy photos of the Loch Ness monster, Big Foot, etc. Like Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki commented - "It's remarkable that it is out of focus in a time that we have autofocus cameras."
- leojg 10y agoWe love to believe in the exceptional, that's it. We have concrete prof that earth is somewhat round and solid but some people still believe that there is a micro sun inside, and will fight you if say otherwise. With these extinct or close to extinction species happens the same
- TeMPOraL 10y ago> We have concrete prof that earth is somewhat round and solid but some people still believe that there is a micro sun inside Wait, isn't the Earth's core molten and hot? Or do people believe the Earth is hollow and has a small star inside?
- mryingster 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth I'm shocked that anyone actually believes this in modern days, but it's a fun thing to fantasize about. There is a fictional series about hollow earth called Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs that I enjoyed immensely. A fun read, not unlike Tarzan.
- leojg 10y agoas @mryingster says, I was referring to the hollow earth "theory"
- kaybe 10y agoThe center is thought to be solid. It consists of iron and about 10% lighter elements, probably mostly nickel. There is even a paper that states it is crystallizing at a rate of about 1 mm/year, and this process contributes some of the heat. [1] I have been trying to dig back to the data on this in the past, but haven't found anything but the claim itself. [1] http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n4/abs/ngeo1083.html http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n4/abs/ngeo1083.html
- trhway 10y ago>The species was deliberately hunted to extinction by farmers incensed at the number of sheep killed by the carnivores. like in other similar situations, for example with wolves in Montana, i wonder why just not use the shepherd dogs, i mean this is how it worked for thousands years before.
- aryehof 10y agoSadly killing is so easy, and arguably also so "human".
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mfairbank 10y agoThere's an indie film I quite enjoyed called The Hunter, starring Willem Dafoe, that fictionalizes the demise of the last remaining tiger. I recommend it highly for the outdoor landscapes and non-traditional plot alone.
- lobster_johnson 10y agoThe novel, by Julia Leigh [1], is also wonderful. Recommended for fans of minimalist authors such as J. M. Coetzee, Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy. I thought the film captured the tone of the book extremely well, perhaps more than any adaptation I've seen. I loved the fact that the film explains very little (and neither does the novel), just lets the story tell itself through images and sound. Both are underappreciated gems. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Julia-Leigh/dp/0571200192 https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Julia-Leigh/dp/0571200192
- mfairbank 10y agoAh, the novel had missed my radar entirely until now, thank you! Recently I've been enjoying films that cover little niches of the world, geographic or otherwise, that I know nothing about. Another good example is Premium Rush (2012). I don't know if there's a name for this genre, as on the surface the films look nothing alike, and can vary wildly in quality, but there's just something engrossing about them.
- lobster_johnson 10y agoIn that case, check out Rams (2016) [1]. An Icelandic film about two estranged, elderly brothers who work as sheep farmers in a remote location, until a crisis occurs. Beautiful little film; great photography and music. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/movies/review-in-rams-brothers-at-odds-face-a-shared-threat-to-their-livelihood.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/movies/review-in-rams-brot... (although I recommend not reading anything about it beforehand)
- knz 10y agoThe Tasmanian tiger always reminds me a little of the efforts to introduce Moose into New Zealand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose#New_Zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose#New_Zealand). "In 1900, an attempt to introduce moose into the Hokitika area failed; then in 1910 ten moose (four bulls and six cows) were introduced into Fiordland. This area is considered a less than suitable habitat, and subsequent low numbers of sightings and kills have led to some presumption of this population's failure. The last proven sighting of a moose in New Zealand was in 1952." Fiordland is a wild and remote part of the country...
- neaden 10y agoRight, and they found proof of the moose there from an antler, hair, and physical signs like antler marks. None of this has been found for the Tasmanian Tiger.
- isuckatcoding 10y agohttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1703148/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1703148/