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'Precious' footage from 1935 of last-known Tasmanian tiger released




Video footage of the last known thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, has been released by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA).

In the 21-second clip the animal, named Benjamin, is prowling around his cage at Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania, according to a press release.
The footage, released Tuesday, was filmed in 1935 for a travelogue called "Tasmania The Wonderland," just a few months before Benjamin passed away.

We have released 21-second newsreel clip featuring the last known images of the extinct Thylacine, filmed in 1935, has been digitised in 4K and released.

Be sure to check out the footage of this beautiful marsupial. #NFSAOpenOnline #TasmanianTigerhttps://bit.ly/NFSAThylacine

Thylacines were large carnivorous marsupials that looked like a cross between a wolf, a fox, and a large cat. They hunted kangaroos and other marsupials as well as rodents and small birds, according to the Australian Museum.

The comfiest pants for lounging around the house
With the anxiety and distress you may be feeling, wearing clothes that are in any way uncomfortable is simply not an option.
They once lived throughout continental Australia but became extinct on the mainland around 2,000 years ago, perhaps due to competition with dingos and hunting pressure from humans, said the museum.
The animals looked like a cross between a wolf, a fox and a large cat.
The animals looked like a cross between a wolf, a fox and a large cat.
It was then confined to the island of Tasmania, where the remaining population declined due to the introduction of dogs and hunting by humans, who considered the thylacine a pest.
In the clip, which the NFSA digitized in 4K resolution, Benjamin can be seen pacing around while two men watch on rattling his cage.
The narrator says the thylacine "is now very rare, being forced out of its natural habitat by the march of civilization."
Thylacines had yellowish brown fur, powerful jaws and a pouch for its young.
Benjamin was the last known thylacine in captivity and these are the last confirmed moving images of the species. His death on September 7 1936 is thought to have marked the extinction of the species after another specimen died at London Zoo in 1931.
"The scarcity of thylacine footage makes every second of moving image really precious," said NFSA Curator Simon Smith in a press release. "We're very excited to make this newly-digitised footage available to everyone online."

There are only around three minutes of black and white video of the species that have survived, filmed at both Beaumaris Zoo and London Zoo. No color footage has been found.
The thylacine moved stiffly and generally at a slow pace, hunting alone or in pairs and mainly at night, according to the museum.
While the species is thought to have become extinct when Benjamin died, Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment released a document in October detailing eight reported sightings in the past few years.
While stories abound that some continue to live in the remote wilds of Tasmania, there has been no hard evidence to support this, only claims of sightings.

The Tasmanian Devil is an entirely different animal FWIW...

Tasmanian Devil

It's not new footage, just remastered.

I have looked at that footage many times, the few famous film loops and just about everything we know about them can be seen here...

http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/


Some slim hope they may be hanging on, occasional possibly credible sighting, but actual Tasmanian devils would clean up any remains.

Ironically the devils are now being taken out en-masse by a virus that causes facial tumors.

And a cautionary tale in that to those who casually dismiss the potential dangers of a new virus.

Every now and then someone gets an intriguing shot of an animal that looks remarkably like it could be a thylacine. It’s possible. It would be so great if they are still there somewhere.

Thank you.

Why I kill tiger possums...


-jaguartx

Dodo birds were around for awhile too.

Not sure what stretch pants have to do with extinct animals but you got a laugh out of me.

We’re discussing stretch pants in the Pan Flute thread as we speak. Maybe he’s cross posting?

Damn straight

I have that fellow tattooed on my left forearm...right above the blood type, he has been there since the late eighties when I was shearing in tassie.

They have Tasmanian Devils at the Cincinnati Zoo. They're called that, because when they get riled up, they're rather viscious.

Think oppossum bred agaist a honey badger, and you get an idea. They are a burrowing carnivorous marsupial.

I recall that their bite strength exceeds that of any dog.

Whilst the Devil was also found on the mainland, the arrival of the homo sapiens, and more importantly the Canis Lupus Dingo, caused the Devil to become extinct on the Australian continent. Turns out the Devil population is not genetically diverse, having bred from a very narrow original gene pool long before mankind arrived. This lack of genetic diversity has made the wild population very susceptible to Facial Tumour Disease (a saliva transmitted cancerous disease) which is probably going to cause wild extinction.

Viable rescue populations have been established on the mainland and on some islands to continue the species. The plan is to reintroduce the rescue population once the tumour disease no longer have hosts.

As for the Tassie Tiger, it is iconic and if you have ever been to Tasmania you realise it is remotely possible they may still be out there, just like Moose in NZ. It is more likely that the Tiger is extinct and could only be brought back by genetic engineering.

Theres a movie about a hunter thats contrated to find an harvest one out on netfix i watched a year or so back,, pretty good flick

Yep, "The hunter" wasn't a bad flick, albeit a tad depressing.
Interesting story about Benjamin, the Thylacine seen in the film that was released. It appears he got a tad anxious about the cameraman in his enclosure and gave him quite a nasty nip on his arse. Apparently, the scar from the Thylacines bite lasted longer than the species.

At least two decades ago, I was staying on a farm in the South East of South Australia and doing some work there. The property had hundreds of acres of untouched scrubland covered in mallee and heath. It was a sanctuary for all manner of wildlife. The elderly owner of the property was talking to me one evening and asked if I knew what a Thylacine was. When I answered in the affirmative, he proceeded to tell me about a time he heard a commotion in the hen house one night and proceeded outside to deal with what he was sure would be a fox, only to be surprised by the appearance of a Tassie tiger in his torch light. Needless to say, the TT didn't hang around. This story was told to me in a manner that I don't think he was taking the p!ss out of me.