Tasmanian tiger

This animal, also called ‘thylacine’, Tasmanian wolf’, ‘Tassis’, ‘tazzy’, became extinct (= completely died out; no living animal is found now) in 1936, and also called ‘zebra opossum’ or ‘ zebra wolf’ (old name). For the right pronunciation of ‘thylacine’, please click here.

a kind of animal – mammal – marsupial (= the female with a pouch on its abdomen to keep its babies) – nocturnal (= active at night) – looks like (resembles) a medium-sized dog (or rather more like a ‘hyena’) with yellowish-brown coat (fur) with 13-21 dark stripes, starting from the shoulders on the back to the base of the tail – small stripes at the front that gradually grow longer and longer until they reach the thigh, and again get smaller on the base of the tail, cone-shaped head, with straight ears, round, clear eyes, long, pointed muzzle (= nose and mouth part), straight legs, a pouch, long, thick tail; size: 2 feet tall at the shoulder, 5-7 feet long, including the tail (the largest was supposed to be 10 feet long), and weight: 20-30 Kg (male larger than female); fed on (ate) mostly the other small marsupials and ground birds; average lifespan 5-9 years; originally all over Australia (thousands of years ago), but the last specimens were found only in Tasmania

Special Features:
The Tasmanian tiger is depicted on the ‘coat-of-arms’ of Tasmania, Australia.

The Tasmanian tiger is an extinct marsupial in Australia, and in Tasmania.

(picture of the last Tasmanian tiger that died in a zoo)

The last Tasmanian tiger died in September, 1936 in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia.

The most fascinating feature of this extinct animal is that both male and female Tasmanian tigers had pouches. The female had a pouch, like all other marsupials, on its abdomen to keep its babies, and the male had a pouch, scrotal pouch, like a sheath, to protect its external sex organs!! Among all the present living marsupials, only the ‘water opossum’ male and female have pouches!

The Tasmanian tiger was hunted, even encouraged by the then government, to extinction, and, ironically, since then this animal has been given the utmost respect by depicting it on the postal stamps and by naming several animal related activities after it!

The ‘National Threatened Species Day’ has been held on 7 September every year (since 1966) to commemorate the death of the last Tasmanian tiger!!

The ‘Tasmanian tiger’ is often seen on the wall of the caves used by the aborigines of Australia thousands of years ago, and in the present era there are stories, cartoons and animated films on this extinct animal, which are ever popular. The video game ‘Try Tasmanian tiger’, for example, has been a very popular video game of the present!