19Mar2001 AUSTRALIA:
Tassie tiger pup that holds the hope for a revival
By John McPhee.
EXHIBITIONS
In the 1970s I worked at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. I was the only person working with the art collection. The rest of the staff were scientists, zoologists, ichthyologists, botanists and a taxidermist. Conversation at our combined morning and afternoon teas was always interesting and covered an unlikely number of subjects as visiting experts came to look at mysterious fish or discuss the problems of silverfish in the collection of bird skins.
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However, none was more interesting than the serious scientists and the absolute nutters who came in search of the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. Spurred on by an occasional sighting of a striped animal seen in the lights of a car, paw prints or even unusual scat, they brought with them unlikely equipment, hope and enthusiasm.
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The museum's zoologist, who thoroughly knew the Tasmanian bush and its animals, was always willing to give them a hearing and the benefit of his advice. He, too, believed it possible that one day a thylacine would be found. But he feared that, if and when it happened, the greedy and opportunistic, as well as hordes of tourists, journalists and photographers, would descend upon an isolated habitat, which would soon be destroyed. I was sure he secretly wished they would all go away and let any surviving animals live on in peace.
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The last captive Tasmanian tiger, named Benjamin, died in the Hobart Zoo on September 7, 1936. A few months earlier, the Tasmanian Parliament had listed it as a protected species. The tragic story of the thylacine, and its inevitable extinction, is brilliantly told in Tasmanian Tiger: the Mystery of the Thylacine, at the Australian Museum. The exhibition combines facts and fantasy with scientific research and some great paintings, photographs and prints which show how artists have recorded the thylacine and its demise. The exhibition also includes wonderful scientific specimens, including a 4,000-year-old mummified thylacine found in a Nullarbor cave.
- Developed by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, this stimulating combination of science and art comes from one of the few surviving Australian institutions where the public can experience a combination of history, science and art. I hope that exhibitions as good as this ensure its survival. Twenty-five million years ago several species of thylacine roamed the continent, including Papua New Guinea. Increasingly dry conditions reduced their forest habitat and by 200 years ago they had disappeared from the mainland. In 1805, two years after European settlement in Tasmania, a thylacine was killed by the Rev Robert Knopwood's dogs. Seen as a threat to sheep farming, with estimates put to the Tasmanian Parliament of as many as 40,000 sheep killed by thylacines each year, a bounty was put on their heads.
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From then on it was a quick path to extinction. In the mid-19th century the visiting English naturalist John Gould had predicted the Tasmanian tiger's fate when he wrote, "When the comparatively small island of Tasmania becomes more densely populated, and its primitive forests are intersected with roads, numbers of this singular animal will speedily diminish, extermination will have its full sway, and it will then, like the wolf in England and Scotland, be recorded as an animal of the past: although this will be a source of much regret, neither the shepherd nor the farmer can be blamed for wishing to be rid of so troublesome a creature."
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There is some evidence to suggest that it was not Tasmanian tigers, but the Europeans' dogs which were preying on sheep. However, the tiger's appearance, and the name the settlers gave it, ensured it would be the enemy. By 1903, 2,000 claims had been made for the ?1 bounty. Everyone had a tiger
skin mat, knee rug, cap or and a pin cushion made from a tiger's jaw. By late in the century the numbers of Tasmanian tigers caught quickly declined. Soon people realized that the animal was a curiosity and zoos were paying much more for live specimens of Australia's largest meat-eating marsupial. But it was too late.
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- The recent unlocking of the mystery of DNA and genetic cloning have changed the game. Scientists are eagerly searching their specimens for material with which to explore the possibilities of bringing some of these creatures back from the dead. The thylacine is high on the list for scientists at the Australian Museum. One of the most compelling objects in the exhibition is a tiger pup preserved in alcohol. This sad survivor gives hope for those who are trying to establish the thylacine's DNA and go on to its cloning. One of the most fascinating parts of the exhibition is devoted to the cloning project.
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The Tassie tiger has become an icon. Extinct, shy and hiding, or raised from the grave, it will remain a source of endless speculation and a symbol of endurance in memory. Tasmanian Tiger: the Mystery of the Thylacine, Australian Museum until May 6. Free with general admission.
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- Source: SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 19/03/2001 P18