You may have heard of an animal called the Tasmanian tiger. But this is not a tiger at all. It’s an animal called a thylacine (sometimes also referred to as Tasmanian wolves). It’s scientific name, Thylacinus cynocephalus, can be translated to “dog-headed pouched one”. This animal was the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial at the time. It somewhat resembled a dog or a fox. They are believed to be extinct, with the last known living specimen dying in a zoo in Hobart, Australia in 1936.
Appearance
The Thylacine got the nickname Tasmanian tiger from its prominent stripes. They were a sandy tan to grey in color with thick, stiff tails. Males were slightly larger than the females. Females had a pouch near the tail for their young. Thylacines looked similar to a medium sized dog…until they opened their mouth.
Tasmanian tigers had very strong jaws that could open to nearly 90 degrees! If you’d like to see the last known footage of a thylacine, you could watch this Youtube video.
Behavior
Athough this animal was a carnivorous hunter, they were known to be quite shy. They were semi-nocturnal and seemed to avoid contact with humans when they could. From what we know about captive thylacines, they seemed to be good at jumping. In 1863, a female was recorded effortlesly jumping to the top of her cage rafters about 6-8 feet in the air. This strange animal was also capable of bi-pedal hopping, almost like a kangaroo! They would occasionally stand on their hind legs and use their tails for balance to hop short distances.
While there are no known recordings of thylacine sounds, there is documentation on their vocalizations. They would make a series of sounds like coughing barks, snuffles, hisses, and growls.
Extinction
Why did thylacines go extinct? Mature thylacines were not known to have many predators. Dingoes may have predated on thylacines smaller than them, but the main predator to the thylacine was certainly man. European colonists came to Tasmania in the 1800s. They were the main reason for thylacine extinction as they killed thousands of thylacines between 1830-1920. They assumed thylacines were preying on their farm animals, so bounties were put on them, encouraging colonists to start hunting them. Thylacine extinction was aided by the destruction of their habitats by colonist expansion, introduction of new diseases, and competition for prey with introduced wild dogs.
By 1930, it was incredibly rare for thylacines to be seen in the wild, and so people pushed for them to be protected. Sadly, this protected status came too late. Just two months after being granted protected status, the last known thylacine died in Beaumaris Zoo on Spetember 7th, 1936.
Some believe that some thylacines may still be out there. Reported sightings have happened, but none have been confirmed. There is no evidence that this animal still exists, and they were deemed officially extinct in 1986.
Sources
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Thylacinus_cynocephalus/
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/remembering-tasmanian-tiger-thylacine.html
http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/
https://australian.museum/learn/australia-over-time/extinct-animals/the-thylacine/#gallery-1
*Published by Sara Edwards on 05/31/2025*