Tasmanian "Tiger" May Survive

[Texas Star]

Animal Planet had a show this week on explorers looking for the Tasmanian "Tiger", a wolf-like animal that had stripes, hence the "tiger "name. It is also called a thylacine.

It is known to have existed; even zoos had some. But it's believed to have gone extinct, mainly shot out by nervous Aussies who worried about them being dangerous to people or livestock and pets.

This animal had the ability to open its mouth really wide and was a strong biter. Unquestionably dangerous.

The team was more plausible than the Bigfoot researchers on this channel and I liked that one guy had a big knife, with a white or stag handle. Couldn't see any detail.

One guy and his cameraman found animal remains in a cave that were too big to have been killed by a Tasmanian Devil or any other local predator. But they were old.

There were a few eyewitness sightings, one lady noting the stiff tail carriage, a characteristic of the thylacine.

I think they may remain, but in remote areas and secretive.

Anyone else here interested? BTW, Tasmania is heavily forested. There are plenty of places where it could remain. I've even seen speculation that it may still exist on mainland Australia, too.

 

[Cigar]

I hope.. That would be cool as all get out..

 

[6518John]

One weird critter!

Looks like a Wolf/coyote/Hyaena/Dingo/Zebra/Tiger and lord knows what else cross. It's a marsupial to boot--possum on steroids!

 

[Texas Star]

Looks like a Wolf/coyote/Hyaena/Dingo/Zebra/Tiger and lord knows what else cross. It's a marsupial to boot--possum on steroids!

And that mouth opens even wider than in that photo! Reminds me of how snake mouths work.

I've seen footage of one pacing in a zoo decades ago. It was pretty restless and energetic.

Re your description, yeah. It looks like a wild canid designed by a committee!

 

[6518John]

Really cool old video

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6vqCCI1ZF7o[/ame]

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Looks like a striped Chupacabra.

 

[Rintimtin]

"The Hunter" is a movie with Willem Dafoe in it. It is kinda about the Taz Tiger. It's on Netflix.

I hope they are still around.

 

[rwsmith]

Like many extinct animals......

Animal Planet had a show this week on explorers looking for the Tasmanian "Tiger", a wolf-like animal that had stripes, hence the "tiger "name. It is also called a thylacine.

It is known to have existed; even zoos had some. But it's believed to have gone extinct, mainly shot out by nervous Aussies who worried about them being dangerous to people or livestock and pets.

This animal had the ability to open its mouth really wide and was a strong biter. Unquestionably dangerous.

There was a guy with a show who was a scientist, but he sold out to hoopla saying that almost everything MAY exist even though they find scanty or no evidence. One thing that was attractive about the show was the locations they went to and the local stories behind what they were looking for. He has a newer show where he acts like a serious scientist and has been to some REALLY interesting places with no c

The team was more plausible than the Bigfoot researchers on this channel and I liked that one guy had a big knife, with a white or stag handle. Couldn't see any detail.

One guy and his cameraman found animal remains in a cave that were too big to have been killed by a Tasmanian Devil or any other local predator. But they were old.

There were a few eyewitness sightings, one lady noting the stiff tail carriage, a characteristic of the thylacine.

I think they may remain, but in remote areas and secretive.

Anyone else here interested? BTW, Tasmania is heavily forested. There are plenty of places where it could remain. I've even seen speculation that it may still exist on mainland Australia, too.

.....it would be GREAT to find that they still exist, but real evidence is hard to come by. Blurry pictures seem to be the norm.

Here, it's the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. People have seen it and gotten pictures (blurry) but in a few the distinctive wing bars seem visible. If it's out there in the woods, I hope it thrives.

Who remembers that alligators were very endangered? Up until around the 70s when the population grew and grew. Now you see them on golf courses and in yards. My wife told a guy there was a gator in his yard when she was delivering mail.

 

[superfluities]

So if they still exist which be great and someone bred those jaws to a German Shepard it would be one bad *** law dog! The stripes would be a good camo touch too.
Like many Australian animals it has some weird features so what would be the evolutionary purpose of the extra wide opening jaws? I can't think of any aussie prey animal that would require those jaws or anything more than the Dingo there already have. Maybe just a case of bigger is better??

 

[Old TexMex]

So if they still exist which be great and someone bred those jaws to a German Shepard it would be one bad *** law dog! The stripes would be a good camo touch too.
Like many Australian animals it has some weird features so what would be the evolutionary purpose of the extra wide opening jaws? I can't think of any aussie prey animal that would require those jaws or anything more than the Dingo there already have. Maybe just a case of bigger is better??

You know, in my time in Australia ( particularly South Australia) what I heard more than anything was the wide jaw design was one of the "tiger" qualities of thylacine. Notice how wide the standard kitty opens its maw? There were never any cats in Australia ( prior to European arrival), and the wide opening mouth of the Tassie Tiger is for bird catching.

BTW, the dingo showed up with the Indus River guys, who crossed the land bridge over what's now SE Asia/Indonesia/ Papua. The real aboriginal Australian was a pygmy like, tiny forest dweller.

 

[SW MP15]

If none still exist, maybe in 15-20 years they'll be able to clone them? I'm not big on cloning stuff, but somethings like this, that was caused by human stupidity, I'm all for it.

 

[model70hunter]

You know, in my time in Australia ( particularly South Australia) what I heard more than anything was the wide jaw design was one of the "tiger" qualities of thylacine. Notice how wide the standard kitty opens its maw? There were never any cats in Australia ( prior to European arrival), and the wide opening mouth of the Tassie Tiger is for bird catching.

BTW, the dingo showed up with the Indus River guys, who crossed the land bridge over what's now SE Asia/Indonesia/ Papua. The real aboriginal Australian was a pygmy like, tiny forest dweller.

Pygmy? After seeing the open jaws they were bite sized.

 

[BearBio]

I watched the show also. As a professional field biologist, I saw numerous small mistakes made.

My conclusions:

1. As a biologist, I am skeptical. Jury's still way out.
2. Private opinion: They made a pretty good case.
3. Personal opinion: I hope there are some left.

When I was in California, I worked on a project. It was an aggregate (gravel) mine on one of the roads to Yosemite. Locals were afraid that the increased traffic would destroy the atmosphere. Now, plants have no protections under the Endangered Species Act except on Federal land. Being private land, anything (plant-wise) was fair game. There was a 25 acre patch of asbestos bearing rock. There was a small plant that had been declared extinct for 58 years that lived on asbestos soil. After almost 60 years, one SMALL population (<25 plants) was found. I talked to the county and the company and we decided to privately protect the soil to possibly use in the future for establishing a new population. This was to form the basis of an ad campaign. Everyone was happy!

A couple of weeks later, I looked up to see several of our botanists outside my "cube". Our lead botanist told me they wanted to buy me a drink after work. I was, naturally, curious, about why. Seems the survey reports came in and they had found another population of 125 of these plants: The SECOND known population of a plant previously thought extinct in the wild!

One of my better days!

 

[gregintenn]

Looks like a dog that was designed by a committee.

 

[Steely85]

It would be pretty cool to hunt that last of something....

 

[Rustyt1953]

It would be pretty cool to hunt that last of something....

To what end?

 

[BearBio]

I think (hope) it was just a sick joke!

 

[Steely85]

My lord, I know wet socks with better humor than around here.

At the rate some of you boys are going on, we'll be cloning T-rex. I'm guessing there are a bunch 'I heart wolves' shirts worn.