Here’s a nice thylacine photograph I personally hadn’t seen before. From Eric Guiler’s book “Tasmanian Tiger: A Lesson to be Learnt.”
Photo caption in the book states that it’s a male at the Beaumaris Zoo.
84 years ago today the last known thylacine died. It died of exposure after being locked outside in its bare concrete pen overnight.
(The body was reportedly thrown out in the garbage shortly after)
Inktober day 17 is the Black Dog. The black dog is a spectral or demonic entity found primarily in the folklore of the British Isles. The black dog is essentially a nocturnal apparition, in some cases a shapeshifter, and is often said to be associated with the Devil or described as a ghost or hellhound. It’s appearance was regarded as a portent of death. It is generally larger than a normal dog and often has large glowing eyes. It is sometimes associated with electrical storms, crossroads, places of execution and ancient pathways.
Benjamin died on September 7th, 1936 in Hobart zoo. It is believed that he died out of neglect, as he was locked out of his shelter and was exposed to the searing hot sun and freezing cold night of Tasmania.
The Thylacine was one of the last large marsupials left on Australia (the other being the Kangaroo) after a great extinction event occurred around 40 thousand years ago. This extinction event, caused mainly by the arrival of humans, wiped out 90% of Australia’s terrestrial vertebrates, including the famous Megafauna.
The Thylacine was around 15-30kg (33-66lbs), were carnivorous, and had numerous similarities to other species like dogs, despite not being related and purely by chance, in a phenomenon known as convergent evolution (just like the ability to fly of bats and birds, despite following different evolutionary paths). Not only that, they could open their jaws up to 120 degrees, could hop around on two legs like a kangaroo, and both males and females had pouches.
Lastly in a cruel twist, the Tasmanian government decided to protect the Thylacine - just 59 days before the last one died, in a very notable case case of “Too little too late”. To date, many biologists believe that there are still Thylacine roaming the wild plains of Australia.
A pair of thylacines that seem like they are being hand-fed through the fence of their enclosure. Location, source, date unknown