Facts About Tasmanian Tigers

"Benjamin," the last known thylacine, died at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo in 1936. (Image credit: Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty)

The Tasmanian tiger, also called Tasmanian wolf and thylacine, was neither a tiger nor a wolf, but a marsupial, and closely related to the Tasmanian devil. The last known Tasmanian tiger died in 1936, but hundreds of unconfirmed sightings have spurred investigations into whether the animal still lives.

Size

Extinction marked the demise of the only member of its family, Thylacinidae, and the world's largest marsupial (pouched) carnivore. Tasmanian tigers were 39 to 51 inches (100 to 130 centimeters) long, and the tail added 20 to 26 inches (50 to 65 cm) to its length. They weighed 33 to 66 lbs. (15 to 30 kilograms), according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Tasmanian tigers looked like dogs with yellowish fur. They had black stripes across the body, and a thin, almost rodent-like tail. 

A mounted, extinct thylacine that is currently traveling with the American Museum of Natural History’s Extreme Mammals exhibition. This large carnivorous marsupial is also called a Tasmanian wolf or tiger. (Image credit: © AMNH/J. Beckett)

Habitat

Fossil evidence suggests that the modern thylacine — Thylacinus cynocephalus, whose name means "dog-headed pouched one" — emerged about 4 million years ago. Once widespread across Australia, the animal disappeared everywhere except Tasmania about 2,000 years ago, according to the National Museum of Australia (NMA). The disappearance was likely due to competition with dingos. Modern people discovered the animal in Tasmania, thus its name. 

Habits 

While it had a vicious appearance, Tasmanian tigers were actually very timid and could be captured without a fight. They would often die suddenly, perhaps from going into shock, according to the Australian government

Researchers think that Tasmanian tigers located prey by scent and hunted, for the most part, at night. They would hunt alone or with a partner. They were mostly quiet creatures, but, when hunting, they would make a yapping noise, much like a small dog, according to the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.

This image shows two Tasmanian tigers. (Image credit: Photo courtesy of The Tasmanian National Museum and Art Gallery)

Diet

Tasmanian tigers were meat eaters. They hunted kangaroos, sheep and wallabies, reportedly, though there is little research into the eating habits of these animals. These animals could open their mouths almost 90 degrees, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. However, a study in the August 2011 Journal of Zoology found that the Tasmanian tiger wouldn’t have been able to kill large prey because of its weak jaw. The authors thought that the animal would have hunted for small marsupials like wallabies and possums.

Offspring

Like other marsupials, Tasmanian tigers had pouches. Their pouches' opening faced their hind legs, though. In her pouch, a female could carry two to four hairless babies at once. As the babies grew, the pouch expanded to accommodate them. 

After the babies became older, the mother would leave the young in a lair, such as a cave or hollowed log, to go hunting. 

Thylacines likely lived five to seven years in the wild, though they lived up to nine years in captivity.

Classification/taxonomy 

Here is the taxonomy information for the Tasmanian tiger, according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS):

Kingdom: Animalia Subkingdom: Bilateria Infrakingdom: Deuterostomia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Infraphylum: Gnathostomata Superclass: Tetrapoda Class: Mammalia Subclass: Theria Infraclass: Metatheria Order: Dasyuromorphia Family: Thylacinidae Genus: Thylacinus Species: Thylacinus cynocephalus

Extinct, or not?

It is estimated there were around 5,000 thylacines in Tasmania when Europeans settled in the area, according to National Museum Australia. In 1830, the Van Diemens Land Co. introduced bounty on the animal, and in 1888 the Tasmanian Parliament placed a bounty of 1 pound ($1.25) on thylacines, according to the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. The last wild Tasmanian tiger was killed between 1910 and 1920. In 1936, the last known thylacine, named Benjamin, died in captivity in the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Australia. This was just two months after the Australian government made the animal a protected species. 

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Tasmanian tigers as extinct. However, there have been hundreds of sighting of the Tasmanian tiger over the last 100 years or so. In fact, some of the latest sightings have spurred an investigation into their current existence

Once the largest carnivorous marsupial in Australia and Tasmania, the Tasmanian tiger went the way of the dodo in 1936. Environmental pressure and hunting killed off Tasmanian tigers, also known as thylacines. The last died in a zoo in 1936, only months after the Tasmanian government extended protection to the species. (Image credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives, 1906; Public Domain)

Other facts

A research team at the Australian Museum launched the Thylacine Cloning Project in 1999 to attempt to clone a Tasmanian tiger. The research team obtained tissue samples from a female thylacine that had been preserved in alcohol for over 100 years. They were able to extract DNA, and by 2002, they had replicated individual genes. However, in 2005, researchers determined that the quality of the DNA was too poor to work with, and the project was scrapped. 

Additional resources

Alina Bradford
Live Science Contributor
Alina Bradford is a contributing writer for Live Science. Over the past 16 years, Alina has covered everything from Ebola to androids while writing health, science and tech articles for major publications. She has multiple health, safety and lifesaving certifications from Oklahoma State University. Alina's goal in life is to try as many experiences as possible. To date, she has been a volunteer firefighter, a dispatcher, substitute teacher, artist, janitor, children's book author, pizza maker, event coordinator and much more.