Thylacine

The Thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf, holds a unique position among cryptids. It is not a creature of myth or folklore. It was a real, well-documented marsupial carnivore that was driven to extinction in the 20th century. The question is not whether it existed, but whether it still does.

Thylacinus cynocephalus was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It resembled a medium-sized dog with a stiff tail, sandy-brown fur marked with 13 to 21 dark stripes across its back and rump, and a distinctive ability to open its jaws to an unusually wide gape of nearly 80 degrees. It was native to mainland Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. Mainland populations disappeared roughly 3,000 years ago, likely due to competition with dingoes. Tasmanian populations survived into the modern era but were hunted aggressively by European settlers who viewed them as livestock predators.

The Tasmanian government placed a bounty on Thylacines from 1888 to 1909, paying one pound per adult head. Combined with habitat destruction, disease, and competition from introduced dogs, the bounty system devastated the population. The last known wild Thylacine was shot by farmer Wilf Batty in 1930. The last captive individual, known as Benjamin, died on September 7, 1936, at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart. Film footage of Benjamin pacing in his enclosure remains one of the most haunting pieces of wildlife documentation ever recorded.

Since 1936, there have been thousands of reported sightings across Tasmania and mainland Australia. The Australian Rare Fauna Research Association has documented over 3,800 reports on the mainland since 1936. In 1982, a researcher with the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service reported a nighttime encounter with a Thylacine at close range. In 2017, a pair of detailed reports from far north Queensland prompted scientists to set up camera traps. No confirmed evidence was obtained.

Efforts to bring back the Thylacine through de-extinction technology are underway. In 2022, the University of Melbourne and Colossal Biosciences announced a partnership to attempt to resurrect the species using preserved DNA, gene editing, and a related marsupial as a surrogate. The Thylacine's genome has been fully sequenced from preserved specimens.

Whether a remnant population survives in the remote wilderness of Tasmania or mainland Australia remains unconfirmed. The Thylacine is a powerful symbol of human-caused extinction and the longing to undo it.