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Alb Quarrell holding a dead thylacine kill, 1921. Courtesy Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
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PhD student Marie Attard explores why thylacines joined countless other species on the extinction record over at The Conversation.
'One of Australia’s most fabled species, the Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, went extinct on the continent’s mainland around 2000 years ago. A small population of thylacines persisted on Tasmania when Europeans arrived in Australia.
'The species was rapidly viewed as a pest and a dangerous threat to livestock, though many of these claims were highly exaggerated. Over 2,000 bounties were paid by the government between 1888 to 1909 to eradicate the species. A sudden decline in the thylacine population was reported in the early 1900s, and the species was declared extinct in 1936.
'The government bounty may seem to be the obvious extinction culprit. But growing scientific evidence reveals a complex tapestry of forces involved in their decline. Among these are competition with dogs, habitat loss and changing fire regimes leading to population fragmentation, and an epidemic disease that spread through the population in the 1920s.'