The Tasmanian tiger’s original range included mainland Australia & New Guinea, but it was wiped out in both of those places before the arrival of the Europeans. There is speculation that this decline had to do with the competition between thylacines and the dingoes brought by the Aboriginee. Though much is not known about its early history, their population decline in Tasmania was directly caused by people. Between 1803 - 1853 the British sent 7,000 criminals to start settlement for criminals. The Tasmanian colony was officially named in 1856. As early as 1830, bounties were put on thylacines, meaning people would pay hunters and ranchers money for each dead thylacine they collected. Between 1888 and 1909 the Tasmanian government paid a bounty of 1 pound (approximately $133 today) per adult killed and 10 shillings for each pup. Sheep ranchers and farmers killed thylacines to protect their farm animals and profits. The addition of professional bounty hunters began to take a toll on the population. It is thought that many thylacines died from distemper, a disease brought by dogs to Tasmania. This was a disease that killed many Tasmanian tigers in zoos. Wilf Batty killed the last known wild Tasmanian tiger in 1930. In 1932, a conservation movement led by the Tasmanian Advisory Committee recommended setting aside two stretches of land to protect any remaining thylacines. The last living thylacine named Benjamin died on September 7th, 1936 at the Hobart Zoo due to neglect. The weather that day was extremely hot, with freezing temperatures that night. Benjamin was left outside for the night. It has been a point of debate whether Benjamin was indeed a boy or a girl. There have been almost 1,000 reported sightings of Tasmanian tigers since its extinction in 1936, but no videos or photographs to date have proven conclusive. A quick search on youtube.com will lead you to many videos “proving” the existence of this amazing creature including a major one in 2021 which turned out to be a group of padamelons, which are an animal similar to a small wallaby or kangaroo. Could the thylacine live in Tasmania today? Although Jurassic Park is fiction, scientists are working on several de-extinction projects. In fact, in 2003 scientists did bring back the extinct Pyrenean ibex, a type of wild goat, for 7 minutes before it died, showing de-extinction is possible. The Tasmanian tiger might be a good candidate. Scientists would potentially use DNA from the 714 museum specimens to try to bring them back to life. If the thylacine was brought to life, could it ever be reintroduced to its native homeland in Tasmania? Tasmania & Australia have made great strides since 1936 in caring for and preserving various native species. Much of the habitat is being restored and many of the invasive species which have devestated native wildlife have been removed from the picture, so maybe the thylacine could make a comeback in Tasmania.