Eugene Parnell

Thylacine at the Hobart Zoo, Tasmania, in the 1930's.

The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, so far has the dubious distinction of being one of the few animals to go extinct so recently that it has been captured in motion pictures before its demise. I have seen excerpts of the films here and there on television, but today I stumbled upon this good collection of them online, at a site called the Thylacine Museum.

They are haunting. The animal is familiar-looking at first– we see the small, delicately balanced feet of a carnivore, the pointy ears reminiscent of a coyote, the muzzle– but also so alien. Especially when it opens its mouth. Where is familiar pattern of incisors and canines? And how can it open so wide? It’s crocodile-like, and the long, long, wedge-like head and strangely expressionless eyes give it an eerie, prehistoric countenance that I find thrilling.

But, despite the constant hopes and occasional reports, the thylacine is gone for good. One of the more interesting books on the subject is Michael Crewdson’s Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger, illustrated by the great Alexis Rockman. Above all, it’s a story about desire and regret– regret that it’s gone, and desire for one of the many sighting reports to be true. Well worth the read– and funny as well.

The most interesting thylacine story I have ever come across was an article in the in-flight magazine of Air Niugini, the national airline of Papua New Guinea, from the early 90’s. It was a back issue that Ralf Stüttgen had kicking around his guest house in Wewak when I was there in ‘93. This missionary in the highlands of Irian Jaya, on the Indonesian side of the border, near Puncak Jaya, had brough a picture book of animals with him to show the children at the school where he taught. People in the village got to looking at it, and amongst the photos was one of a thylacine.

The villagers got quite excited, and said they knew this animal. The missionary, of course, pointed out that was impossible; they were from Australia and Tasmania, and the last of them died out decades ago. Not so, insisted the people, there were some in the general vicinity. Well, a couple expeditions were launched and turned up nothing, although it did turn out that the local people could describe the animal’s habits, footprints, and scat with uncanny accuracy.

And, let’s not forget, Australia and New Guinea were once a single land mass, up until very, very recently: about 8,000 years ago, with the final melting of the Pleistocene glaciers. In evolutionary terms, that’s like yesterday. Recently enough, one might even think, to be remembered.