Thylacine
Thylacine
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20 Jun 2000 Australia:
Tassie tiger clone doubts
Original Article By Bronwyn Hurrell
Scientists are expressing doubts that the Tasmanian tiger can be brought back through cloning. On 19 June 2000, British scientist Alan Colman, who headed the team which cloned the first sheep, told the University of New South Wales he doubted cloning could help save endangered species. He says it is unlikely that the Tasmanian tiger, dinosaurs and other extinct species can be brought back from the grave, as species are by definition distinct because they cannot mate with each other. He questions where, for example, one might find a suitable egg to attach DNA to. However, he says similar species may be saved using eggs from similar species and points out that much has yet to be learned about the process.
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| Tassie tiger fossil found in Kimberley |
| Wednesday, January 5, 2005. 1:28pm (AEDT) Tassie tiger fossil found in Kimberley The sub-fossil jawbone of a Tasmanian tiger has been discovered during a survey of mammals in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The jawbone, believed to be at least 2,000-years-old, was found in a limestone cave in the Napier Ranges. The Department of Conservation and Land Management says it is the second bone of a Tasmanian tiger to be found in the same area - a thigh bone was found in the 1970s. Zoologist Norm McKenzie says the discovery confirms that the species occurred in the far north-west of Australia before contracting back to a Tasmanian population. He says the find is significant but scientists are more concerned about modern day extinctions from the area. "It's fairly clear to us that the contraction in these mammals is continuing today - areas in the central Kimberley which we thought was pretty secure are using their native mammals currently and we would expect this extinction front to continue into the high rainfall north-west Kimberley," he said. |
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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
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September 6, 2006
Thylacine researcher Col Bailey was not even born when the last captive Tasmanian tiger died in 1936.
But that hasn't stopped him devoting his life to proving their continued existence.
The 69-year-old has spent 40 years investigating thylacine sightings and has no plans to retire until he has conclusive proof that the elusive Tasmanian tiger has survived.
"I believe strongly that it's still here," he says.
"I'm so convinced it's here that you never lose hope. You've got to be in the right place at the right time."
Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of the last captive Tasmanian tiger's death at the now defunct Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart.
Hobart City Council minutes from 1936 note the tiger's death and order "attempts should be made to get another one".
But it was already too late.
A one-pound government bounty encouraged the killing of more than 2,000 thylacines between 1888 and 1909.
Strong demand from zoos overseas further reduced the wild population.
Two months before the captive tiger's death, thylacines were added to Tasmania's list of protected species.
Fifty years later, they were officially declared extinct.
But many refuse to accept the thylacine is gone.
More than 1,000 sightings have been reported since 1936, providing hope the world's largest marsupial carnivore may still exist.
Mr Bailey, who claims to have seen a thylacine in South Australia in 1967, investigates three or four sightings each year.
His latest lead comes from a German tourist who claimed to have taken a photograph of a thylacine near Lake St Clair in central Tasmania last year.
The picture has been discounted by experts but Mr Bailey believes it is genuine.
He and the tourist are planning to return to the area and track the tiger.
Mr Bailey believes his knowledge of the animal, which he says smells like "a really rotten pair of socks", will produce results.
He believes there are two or three colonies left in Tasmania, surviving in rugged wilderness rarely visited by humans.
You've got to think how the animal thinks," he says.
Heidi Smith from tour company Under Down Under is another believer.
Her company, which tours wilderness areas in Tasmania, offers customers a full refund if they take a photograph of a live thylacine.
"People believe in aliens for goodness sake," she says.
"I'd be more inclined to believe the thylacine could keep its head down and survive."
The 70th anniversary of the last captive tiger's death coincides with National Threatened Species Day, which highlights the pressures on Australia's threatened species.
Ms Smith says the death demonstrates the importance of conservation.
"It should be a permanent reminder of how easy it is for things to slip away while you're not paying attention," she says.
"Even if it is just a mythical figure ... we should just pay attention to what we do have now and make sure they don't end up (like) thylacines in the future as well."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Tassie-to-mark-70-years-since-last-tiger/2006/09/06/1157222193305.html
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08 Sep 1999 AUSTRALIA:
The return of a lost creature.
By Keith Tremayne.
The tiger belongs to an ancient group of carnivorous marsupials known as thylacinids. It closest living relatives are dasyurids, such as Tasmanian devils. The last tiger died at the Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart, in 1936. Tigers were driven from the mainland by dingoes and relegated to Tasmania, where they were hunted and shot as pests. They fed on smaller mammals, kangaroos, rodents and birds hunted in open bushland and plains. They were semi-nocturnal. HOW THEY WILL BE REBORN Chromosomes containing whole sequences of DNA will be extracted from cells of a thylacine pup preserved in alcohol in 1866. Chromosomes will be put into an artificial cell membrane to be fused into the living cells of the surrogate. Selective breeding of cells would create a complete new set of tiger chromosomes in living cells. THE SURROGATE MOTHER These would be cloned into a surrogate mother. Most likely surrogate would be a related animal such as a Tasmanian devil. WHERE THEY WILL LIVE Propagated tigers would be reared in isolated areas free of dingos. Eventually they may be domesticated as pets.