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Is Australia ’s nonextant thylacine — a striped , heel - like marsupial commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger — not extinct after all ? Recent supposed Thylacinus cynocephalus sightings convinced scientists at James Cook University in Australia to investigate whether the metal money is still among the living .
Thelast wild Thylacinus cynocephalus was killedbetween 1910 and 1920 , and in 1936 , the last know thylacine become flat in captivity in Hobart , Australia . Since then , no conclusive evidence has emerged to paint a picture that Tasmanian tigers still exist in the wild , and the metal money was declare officially extinct in 1986 , the Tasmanian Government ’s Department of Primary Industries , Parks , Water and Environment reported on the Tasmanian federal Wildlife Managementwebsite .
“Benjamin,” the last known thylacine, died at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936.
Despite their " Panthera tigris " byname , Tasmanian wolf are not members of the cat family . Nor should they be confused with the Tasmanian Beelzebub ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) , another carnivorous marsupial that is native to Australia and is still widespread in Tasmania .
Fossil evidence suggests that the modern Tasmanian tiger — genus Thylacinus genus Cynocephalus , whose name means " frump - direct pouched one " — emerged about 4 million years ago . Once far-flung across Australia , the fauna disappeared everywhere except Tasmania about 2,000 years ago , accord to theNational Museum of Australia(NMA ) .
When European colonist arrive in Australia in the early nineteenth C , the last stay on thylacines — an estimated 5,000 individuals — entered a decline , their numbers dwindling due to hunt , bring in disease and habitat departure , the NMA account .
Extinct or elusive?
The novel investigation for thepurported thylacineswill survey sites on the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland , Australia , establish on accounts supplied by an employee of the Queensland Park Service , and by another observer . This individual was " a frequent camper and outdoorsman , " study carbon monoxide - investigator Bill Laurance , a professor in the College of Science and Engineering at JCU , said in the program line .
All the observation of the beast think to be Tasmanian wolf were made at nighttime , but were descriptive nonetheless , Laurance cover . In one representative , four animals were blot at close range , lit up by a spotlight at a distance of about 20 feet ( 6 meters ) , and item in the descriptions powerfully evoke that the observers had not misidentified a more common fauna , Laurance say .
" We have intersect - checked the descriptions we received of eye - refulgency color , organic structure size and shape , animal behaviour , and other attributes , and these are inconsistent with love attribute of other large - incarnate coinage in North Queensland , such asdingoes , groundless dog or savage grunter , " he explained .
Researchers will engage 50 photographic camera trap , and their survey is expected to begin in April , once the research worker incur the necessary permission from secret landholder . Thehunt for thylacineswill also offer the scientist an opportunity to investigate the status of other vulnerable or threatened wildlife in the area , Laurance add .
" Regardless of which metal money are find , the view will ply important datum on the position of mammal metal money on Cape York , where wildlife populations have evidently been undergo severe universe declines in recent years , " Laurance said in the statement .
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