Thylacinus cynocephalus

– Extinct

Taxonomy

Kingdom:	ANIMALIA
Phylum:	CHORDATA
Class:	MAMMALIA
Order:	DASYUROMORPHIA
Family:	THYLACINIDAE
Scientific Name:	Thylacinus cynocephalus
Species Authority:	(Harris, 1808)
Common Name/s:	TASMANIAN TIGER (Eng) TASMANIAN WOLF (Eng) THYLACINE (Eng, Fre) LOUP MARSUPIAL (Fre) LOBO DE TASAMANIA (Spa) LOBO MARSUPIAL (Spa)

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

EX ver 2.3 (1994)

Year Assessed:

1996

Annotations:

Needs updating

Assessor/s:

World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Justification:

The last confirmed report of a Thylacine in the wild was in 1930. The last captive animal was recorded as dying in Hobart Zoo in 1936. Occasional reports of sightings since that time have not been confirmed and several organized searches for the animal have failed to find conclusive evidence of the species' existence.

History:

1965	-	"Very rare and believed to be decreasing in numbers" (Scott 1965)
1982	-	Extinct (Thornback and Jenkins 1982)
1986	-	Extinct (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1986)
1988	-	Extinct (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988)
1990	-	Extinct (IUCN 1990)
1994	-	Extinct (Groombridge 1994)

Geographic Range

Range Description:	Thylacinus cynocephalus was endemic to Australia. Mainland populations are thought to have disappeared following the introduction of domestic dogs by Aboriginal human populations several thousand years ago. This restricted the Thylacine to the island of Tasmania.
Countries:	Regionally extinct: Australia (Tasmania)

Population

Population:

The last definite record of a wild individual being killed was in 1930, and the last captive animal died at Hobart Zoo in 1936. Since then several surveys have been undertaken, however, no conclusive evidence of the existence of wild thylacines has been found.

Habitat and Ecology

Habitat and Ecology:

The preferred habitat of the species probably was open forest or grassland, however, the last populations may have occupied the less accessible, dense rainforest areas of southwestern Tasmania.

System:

Terrestrial

List of Habitats:

1.5	Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Dry
2.1	Savanna - Dry
4.5	Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical Dry

Threats

Threats:

The Thylacine was regarded as a threat to domestic livestock and was hunted, trapped and poisoned both for private and government bounties from around 1840 through to 1909. In addition to these hunting pressures, habitat modification, increased competition from domestic dogs and disease have all contributed to the demise of this species.

Conservation Actions

Conservation Actions:

In 1938, the Thylacine received complete legal protection. In 1966 a 647,000 ha. game reserve was set up in southwestern Tasmania, partly to protect any animals possibly remaining in the area.

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Groombridge, B. 1992. Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth’s Living Resources. Report compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Chapman and Hall, London.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1986. 1986 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1988. 1988 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Maxwell, S., Burbidge, A.A. and Morris, K. (compilers) 1996. Action Plan for Australian Marsupials and Monotremes. IUCN/SSC Australasian Marsupial and Monotreme Specialist Group. .

Nowak, R.M. (ed.) 1999. Walkers Mammals of the World. Sixth edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London.

Paddle, R.N. 1993. Thylacines associated with the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. Australian Zoology 29: 97-101.

Scott, P. (ed.) 1965. Section XIII. Preliminary List of Rare Mammals and Birds. In: The Launching of a New Ark, pp. 15–207. First Report of the President and Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund. An International Foundation for saving the world's wildlife and wild places 1961–1964. Collins, London.

Sleightholme, S.R. 2006. International Thylacine Specimen Database (I.T.S.D.). 2006 Revision [Master Copy on CD-Rom]. International database of all known Thylacine specimen material held in university, museum and private collections. Zoological Society of London, UK.

Thornback, J. and Jenkins, M. 1982. The IUCN Mammal Red Data Book. Part 1: Threatened mammalian taxa of the Americas and the Australasian zoogeographic region (excluding Cetacea). IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Citation:	World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1996. Thylacinus cynocephalus. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 04 July 2008.
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