The Thylacine Story

#thylacine #tasmaniantiger #australia
The Thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger, is (or was) a creature surrounded by mystery. We don't know a lot about its life, how it declined on mainland Tasmania or even some basic facts about the last one known to have been kept in a zoo. Declared extinct, could the thylacine still be out there? Could it make a comeback somehow? This short documentary video attempts to tell the story of one of Australia's greatest mysteries - the thylacine. Just over 100 years ago it could be seen in zoos - today, the thylacine can only be seen from its remains on display at museums, universities and other institutions.
After doing my Unsolved Mysteries Of Australia Iceberg video, I knew I had to do an entry from it for my next video, so here it is! I'm not sure what kind of video I will do next, whether it will be from the iceberg or another mysterious topic, but I have a big list to get through and I hope you'll stick around and see what I can come up with.
Got something you want me to look at? E-mail me at [e-mail].
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Thylacine Biology
02:34 - Population Changes
03:56 - The Thylacine Bounty
06:20 - Benjamin And Extinction
07:49 - Sightings and Studies After Extinction
13:27 - De-Extinction
14:46 - Conclusion
15:30 - Outro
The University of Tasmania study into thylacine sightings:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...
Music Used:
Solace by ‪@ScottBuckley‬ • 'Solace' [Calm Piano &...
Horizons by Scott Buckley • 'Horizons' [Cinematic ...
Unsolved Mystery by Karl Casey ‪@WhiteBatAudio‬ • Retro Sci-Fi Horror Ga...
Red by Scott Buckley • 'Red' [Epic Dark Orche...
What We Don't Say by Scott Buckley • 'What We Don't Say' [B...
Connecting It All Together by ‪@co.agmusic‬
Tears In Rain by Scott Buckley • 'Tears in Rain' [Cinem...
Stock Footage from Pexels
Newspaper articles from Trove
Thylacine Footage and all imagery used under various creative commons licenses via Wikimedia Commons
Australian Museum Footage by Me.
Sounds Used
"Rain, Moderate, C.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org
"Yorkshire's terrier bark.m4a" by giouliangel100 of Freesound.org
"Chain Rattling" by Kp69606 of Freesound.org
"Heavy bag drop" by IENBA of Freesound.org

[@turnitup3912]

A sad Australian story that really shows money is king and native animals are the first to suffer. A well balanced video and perfectly explained to those who know little of our history. Keep these videos rolling, you know how to tell a great story.

[@stephenbrand5661]

"Hope" is what Neil Waters decided to name the cat/pademelon that he claimed was unambiguous proof of a thylacine!! 😂 They were neat animals but they didn't even live to be 10 years old on average and they also lived in open terrain so you wouldn't expect them to be hiding in forests. I just wish people would get real and put their $ and time towards conserving real animals that need it.

[@StrangeAustralian]

Hah, I'd heard of Neil's alleged proof while researching this video but didn't realise that he'd named it "Hope!" Definitely unintentional on my part. Completely agree about putting more money to animals that are out there and need help to survive now.

[@ambiguousworld]

@@StrangeAustralian We have some ambiguous trail cam footage of "fox" like animals with stripes in Gippsland, so there is still hope. Good content on here - subscribed.

[@StrangeAustralian]

@@ambiguousworld Thank you, I appreciate you checking my channel out! I hope you enjoy my back catalogue as well as the future videos I have planned.

[@keithprice475]

Neil interviewed a lady who has looked after pademelons for 50 years or so and she is adamant that the baby animal in the clearest of those photos is most definitely NOT a pademelon, based on numerous physiological points. Also not a cat, a fox etc. I think I'll take her expertise over the bloke who came up with that view any day - it is the only rational, scientific thing to do!

[@ambiguousworld]

@@keithprice475 That's a fair point Keith I've watched that video too. What I would say is when you take all the sequence of images, the 'baby" image is the most intriguing. Neil asks and answers alot of his own questions, " What are the fully grown animals" - he suggests that they are Thylacines (and not Pademellons). 2nd question / answer, there is a smaller animal in between, he suggests that this is a baby Thylacine as the fully grown animals are Thylacines. He uses the hock of the smaller animal to back up this theory that it's a Thylacine. I think that is fair assessment on face value. Now if we are to believe that Thylacines are completely extinct what are those animals? The fully grown animals are certainly Pademellons. The "baby" is still the question, what is it? When I showed the baby image to my kids, 10 and 13 at the time - they both said "Cat" without any hesitation. Why, would a cat be in between 2x Pademelons? Could a cat have pounced on a baby Pademelon dropped by the mother (1st large animals)? Quite possibly and this is why you see a hock. Anyway, it's all conjecture as the images to me don't show proof either way (thylacine, pademelon, cat).

[@chrisbarwick4807]

nice little doco well done

[@FedSmokerSaverOfBabies]

Wow interesting stuff! Poor Benjamin :(

[@StrangeAustralian]

The way Benjamin passed just adds another level of sadness to the whole story - not a way to go at all and could have easily been avoided.

[@265hemi7]

Another quality , interesting upload . 👍

[@danielbogdanoski4412]

I have to say that this video is very well made but extremely underrated, it deserves like 100k at least

[@StrangeAustralian]

Thank you friend, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I don't know about deserving that many views, but I'm thankful that you got something out of it.

[@sonoraaurora]

best channel

[@StrangeAustralian]

I don't know about being the best channel in any way, but I do try and do a bit better with each video. I'm glad you're enjoying my channel!

[@sidstevens9035]

Frank Darby, who claimed to have been a keeper at Hobart Zoo, suggested Benjamin as having been the animal's pet name in a newspaper article of May 1968. No documentation exists to suggest that it ever had a pet name, and Alison Reid (de facto curator at the zoo) and Michael Sharland (publicist for the zoo) denied that Frank Darby had ever worked at the zoo or that the name Benjamin was ever used for the animal. Darby also appears to be the source for the claim that the last thylacine was a male. Robert Paddle was unable to uncover any records of any Frank Darby having been employed by Beaumaris/Hobart Zoo during the time that Reid or her father was in charge and noted several inconsistencies in the story Darby told during his interview in 1968.

[@Morgan-pf8nu]

Good documentary!

[@StrangeAustralian]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@eferguson6136]

I never knew they were a marsupial that makes then so much cooler.

[@StrangeAustralian]

They really were amazing - not only were they marsupials, but some accounts said they could stand on their hind legs and even occasionally hopped very short distances, sort of like a kangaroo. Stuff like that and how the females could carry around four joeys really puts them in a new light for me. Fascinating animals!

[@eferguson6136]

@@StrangeAustralian oh thanks that's so awesome what a shame about them though great video 👍

[@aldenconsolver3428]

I am going to go with deextincting the Thylacine. The thylacine still has an environmental place and an area where it could be a stable creature . Of course the protection of endangered species would yield better results with available resources. The resource issue however could be solved for certain species which have wide spread public support and the thylacine has this.

[@Dab-studios]

1936 September 7th he died his name was Benjamin died of neglect he died as the last Thylacine

[@sidstevens9035]

Frank Darby, who claimed to have been a keeper at Hobart Zoo, suggested Benjamin as having been the animal's pet name in a newspaper article of May 1968. No documentation exists to suggest that it ever had a pet name, and Alison Reid (de facto curator at the zoo) and Michael Sharland (publicist for the zoo) denied that Frank Darby had ever worked at the zoo or that the name Benjamin was ever used for the animal. Darby also appears to be the source for the claim that the last thylacine was a male. Robert Paddle was unable to uncover any records of any Frank Darby having been employed by Beaumaris/Hobart Zoo during the time that Reid or her father was in charge and noted several inconsistencies in the story Darby told during his interview in 1968.

[@davida.4933]

Re: University Tasmania study alluded to at 11:45 who were the researchers and/or do you have a link? I have unpublished sightings/interviews and would like to contact the author(s). Thanks for any help.

[@StrangeAustralian]

Certainly, I've added a link to the study in the description of this video. The main author is Barry Brook at the University of Tasmania.

[@Kenjineering]

Of those researchers, Stephen Sleightholme was instrumental in creating the database of sightings and would likely be the best person to contact and entrust your unpublished sightings/interviews :)

[@keithprice475]

I think you have not given the mainland sightings anything like the attention they deserve. To my mind, they point to a very widely spread and tenacious though thin remnant mainland population that never actually went away. It is well known that the thylacine was/is a very secretive and elusive creature and some of those sightings are pretty compelling, by very credible witnesses. There are also many more photos and videos than you have covered, and some are much superior to those shown.

[@nicholasshade]

That's unbelievable.😱 A whole species gone.😠 Those people were selfish. To only care for their cattle. 🐄 Even if I had cattle and needed to protect them, i wouldn't have killed all of them. I would have caught them and fenced them. They would have became my pets. Just think if I had 20 or 30 of them. I would be a big star. 🌟 I'd be YOUR king. 👑 I would ask for the Nobel Prize. 🏅 And you would give it to me. There would also be a fee to see my Thylacines. I'm thinking about $10.00 for adults and $15.00 for children. 💰 $15.00 for children, because I hate kids.

[@frankgallacher6598]

agree mate ,it was the tasmanian sheep farmers that caused their extinction because they falsely accused them for killing their sheep and chickens but it was a deliberate lie. I wonder if their descendants throw a party on the anniversary of the death of Benjamin.

[@sidstevens9035]

Sheep not cattle !

[@natefontana5757]

Those Europeans should've stayed in Europe....