An animal called thylacine used to be in Australia. The body was buff and
had some black stripes on the back. The creature was called “Tasmanian
tiger”, derived from the black stripes, and “Tasmanian wolf”, derived from the wolf-like pointed
fangs, also. The length of the body was around 1.5〜1.8m,
and the withers height was around 60cm. Actually the thylacine is neither the
same species as a tiger nor is it a wolf. It belongs to the Marsupial as a
kangaroo and koala. No other marsupial animal was bigger than the thylacine. By
the way, it is called “Fukuro-Ohkami (a wolf has a pouch
)” in Japan. They say the thylacine was in the
Australian mainland and New Guinea Island since ancient times, however, it became
extinct before recorded history in New
Guinea Island,
and in 2600 B.C. in the Australian mainland. The wall paintings of the
thylacine which were painted by natives in Australia 11,000 years ago still
remain. The cause of the extinction seems that an ancestor of the Aborigine
settled with their dingoes (wild dog) in Australia. Although the thylacines
became extinct in Australian mainland, they were in Tasmania until the early 20th
century.
The immigrations increased without limit, and at last, influenced Tasmania. The thylacines
inhabited in forest and grassland, and mainly preyed on kangaroo, wallaby, and
some birds. After the settlement of humans, the thylacines were pursued from
their habitat and persecuted by humans, because they were regarded a threat to
the livestock. The Australian government posted a reward for the thylacines in
1888, and a total of 2268 thylacines were killed by 1914. And what was worse, a
distemper of the domestic dogs was epidemic among the thylacines, and they
became extinct rapidly. At last, the Australian government designed the
thylacine sanctuary in Tasmania in 1938,
however, ironically, the last thylacine which was in captivity in Hobart Zoo in
Tasmania died
on September, 1936. That is to say, when the government designed the sanctuary,
the thylacines had already disappeared in Tasmania.
By the way,
I heard some interesting news recently. The news said the Australian Museum
succeeded to extract DNA from the tissues of the heart and liver of the dead
thylacine cub, which has been preserved in alcohol in the museum since 1866.
There are the possibilities of recovering the thylacines in the near future.
From now on, scientists are going to copy the all necessary DNA, and create the
structure of chromosomes regarding the thylacine. Also, the DNA which was
extracted from the thylacine cub was injected into the fertilized egg of a
mouse. Then the scientists confirmed the DNA was activated in the cartilage
cell of the mouse. When the whole foundation is ready, could we see the extinct
thylacine which would be born from another animal (kangaroo and Tasmanian devil
are considered). This is a never-ending recovery project, but our interests
never fade out.
←Ｂack
