# How likely is it that the Tasmanian Tiger is not extinct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375 "2011-04-22T17:03:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/21 "2011-04-24T16:05:58Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > Given the number of sightings and the intense level of scrutiny, sadly the Ivory Bill is, at best “only mostly extinct.” They simply cannot have the numbers necessary to support a growing population. For all that the great majority of birders are knowledgeable and scrupulous about interfering, nesting and mating among birds is extremely easy to disturb. > > Tris I don’t know about that. There are still biologists who are trying to bring back the California Condor, and that was starting with a total population of 22. Now, there are more than 300. Still very fragile, but at least the population is increasing. I don’t know if there is a similar effort wrt to the Ivory Bill, but there could be if there was enough interest. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/22 "2011-04-24T16:15:19Z")
Yes, but the condor was critically endangered during economically robust and predominately liberal political times. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Ayebaw](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darth_ayebaw/32/9870_2.png) [@Darth\_Ayebaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Ayebaw)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/23 "2011-04-24T19:23:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > When you say “surviving samples” do you mean living animals or tissue (for cloning)? If the former, then it’s best to assume there are none, and the billionaire thing ain’t gonna happen. If the latter, we have yet to clone an extinct mammal, so it’s hard to say if or when it will happen. > **[Pyrenean ibex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenean_ibex)** > > The Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), Aragonese and Spanish common name bucardo, Basque common name bukardo, Catalan common name herc and French common name bouquetin, was one of the four subspecies of the Iberian ibex or Iberian wild goat (Capra pyrenaica), a species native to the Iberian Peninsula and immediately adjacent southern France. The Pyrenean ibex occurred in the northeastern part of the species' range in the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees, in northern Spain and the ... First species to officially become un-extinct, if only for 7 minutes, and after hundreds and hundreds of attempts. But it seems to prove it would be possible, with enough time and funding, to create a viable population. Of course, close living relatives of that species survives; I’m not sure how they would go about recreating the Tasmanian Tiger… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/24 "2011-04-24T19:57:37Z")
> [@Darth\_Ayebaw](#): > > [Pyrenean ibex - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenean_ibex) > > First species to officially become un-extinct, if only for 7 minutes, and after hundreds and hundreds of attempts. But it seems to prove it would be possible, with enough time and funding, to create a viable population. Of course, close living relatives of that species survives; I’m not sure how they would go about recreating the Tasmanian Tiger… Cool. It actually might be easier with a marsupial because of the much shorter gestation period. But then again, I suspect the nature of the mother’s milk is much more important in marsupials, since they start suckling earlier than placental mammals. I wonder how successful we could be with artificial milk (assuming we knew what the milk would be like) and an artificial pouch. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/25 "2011-04-24T22:45:44Z")
> [@Dahu](#): > > Specifically I’m thinking that the island must be riddled with motion activated cameras (is it?) and it would be impossible for a Thylacine to have avoided these for this long. What? Do you think Tasmania is some sort of reality-show hive where there’s a camera nailed to every tree? WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/26 "2011-04-25T00:17:42Z")
[http://travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au/about/facts/facts.html](http://travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au/about/facts/facts.html) At 315 kilometres (189 miles) west to east and 286 kilometres (175 miles) north to south, Tasmania is comparable in size with the Scotland (UK), West Virginia (USA) and Hokkaido (Japan). The area of Tasmania is 68,331 square kilometres (26,376 square miles). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/27 "2011-04-25T00:44:37Z")
> [@Thylacine](#): > > [http://travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au/about/facts/facts.html](http://travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au/about/facts/facts.html) > > At 315 kilometres (189 miles) west to east and 286 kilometres (175 miles) north to south, Tasmania is comparable in size with the Scotland (UK), West Virginia (USA) and Hokkaido (Japan). > > The area of Tasmania is 68,331 square kilometres (26,376 square miles). OMG!! There’s one in this thread. Quick, shoot it and clone it! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/28 "2011-04-25T03:56:18Z")
> [@Darth\_Ayebaw](#): > > Of course, close living relatives of that species survives; I’m not sure how they would go about recreating the Tasmanian Tiger… The closest living relative is probably the Tasmanian Devil, which is much smaller. It could possibly provide an egg for nuclear transfer, but almost certainly could not bring a Thylacine fetus to term. > [@Polycarp](#): > > If I’m not mistaken, there is enough “soft” evidence for the survival of the Ivorybill in both Cuba and one of the Southern states that it’s no longer classed as “definitely extinct” but the next level up. **Colibri**? Can you confirm or correct, and expand on this? Sightings in Arkansas and Florida about 5 or 6 years ago gave some indication of its survival, but there has been no further significant evidence since then. Right now, I’m considerably less hopeful than I was back then. Regarding the Thylacine, I think the chances are pretty small that any still survive, even though animals of this kind can be pretty elusive. We know, for example, that Bush Dogs occur in Panama from a handful of sightings, although the only “hard” evidence we have is a couple of specimens taken about 1910. To the best my knowledge, no photographs have been taken and no other physical evidence found in more than a century. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/29 "2011-04-25T04:19:44Z")
> [@Darth\_Ayebaw](#): > > [Pyrenean ibex - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenean_ibex) > > First species to officially become un-extinct… Coelacanths were believed _ **long** _ extinct before being discovered alive and well, and they’re [not the only ones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_taxon). There’s hope! ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/30 "2011-04-25T04:19:54Z")
In 2005 the Bulletin offered a reward of $1.25 million for the capture of a live Tasmanian Tiger. It was never claimed. From what I have read there is no chance of survival of any. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/31 "2011-04-25T08:53:57Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > In 2005 the Bulletin offered a reward of $1.25 million for the capture of a live Tasmanian Tiger. It was never claimed. > > From what I have read there is no chance of survival of any. Considering that most of the people likely to be in the Tasmanian forests are going to have mobile phones (lack of reception notwithstanding), and that pretty much every mobile phone has a camera in it nowadays, the fact no-one has come up with even a blurry and out-of-focus image on a Tasmanian Tiger in the past few years (at least that I’m aware of), along with the fact that a lot of people have an interest in finding a live Tiger, leads me to agree that if there are any out there, they would have been found by now… ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/32 "2011-04-25T10:45:15Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Coelacanths were believed _ **long** _ extinct before being discovered alive and well, and they’re [not the only ones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_taxon). There’s hope! Yes, but we know there are thousands of undiscovered species in the ocean: the chances that one of them may belong to a genus known in the fossil record is pretty high. That’s different than a Tasmanian Tiger being alive. As far as cloning extinct animals goes, I always wonder about gut flora. My understanding is that pretty much every species has a unique mix of bacteria living in their guts in a closely symbiotic relationship. Obviously, those bacteria are irrecoverable. Does that make it impossible to really “revive” a species in any long-term, living-in-the-wild way? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Ayebaw](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darth_ayebaw/32/9870_2.png) [@Darth\_Ayebaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Ayebaw)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/33 "2011-04-25T21:46:35Z")
I don’t know. Are we born without gut flora (I would guess yes)? If so, how do we acquire it? Would substituting from a similar species work? Take the Pyrenean ibex linked above, if it had lived, would it have had a problem? I suppose it had pretty close living relatives, and that using the same variety as those might work. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/34 "2011-04-25T22:34:05Z")
> [@Darth\_Ayebaw](#): > > I don’t know. Are we born without gut flora (I would guess yes)? If so, how do we acquire it? Would substituting from a similar species work? Take the Pyrenean ibex linked above, if it had lived, would it have had a problem? I suppose it had pretty close living relatives, and that using the same variety as those might work. You acquire it from your mother or from the environment after birth. While species may have characteristic gut floras, I think a cloned animal would acquire an adequate supply easily enough. The flora of each species is probably determined by the characteristics of the digestive tract, rather than being closely co-evolved and required for survival. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/35 "2011-04-25T23:04:42Z")
Did the marsupial wolves also inhabit the Australian manland? It would be more likely to find any survivors there. As for cloning these things, I understand that the remains we have were preserved in formaldehyde-which destroys DNA. So, cloning seems unlikely, at this time. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/36 "2011-04-25T23:15:38Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Yes, but we know there are thousands of undiscovered species in the ocean: the chances that one of them may belong to a genus known in the fossil record is pretty high. That’s different than a Tasmanian Tiger being alive. I know, the coelacanth is just a fun example because it had been thought to have been extinct for millions of years. But the link actually lists a bunch of other species–many land species directly comparable to the tiger–which have been rediscovered alive after similarly “disappearing” within or not much beyond living memory. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/37 "2011-04-25T23:25:40Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Did the marsupial wolves also inhabit the Australian manland? > It would be more likely to find any survivors there. > As for cloning these things, I understand that the remains we have were preserved in formaldehyde-which destroys DNA. > So, cloning seems unlikely, at this time. I think there were a fewThylacines present when Europeans first landed in Australia, and those were the last stragglers of a population already on the path to extinction. Huge rewards have been offered for proof of a living Thylacine, and none collected. I think 10 generations of a predator loose in an area with a sufficient food supply would be noticed in either Australia or Tasmania. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/38 "2011-04-26T02:01:54Z")
One of my favorite odd-places-of-the-Internet is [this site](http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/films/motion_film_footage.htm), which among other things gives seven short movie clips of thylacines (silrnt films from before extinction). I believe these are the only movies of an extinct mammal. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/39 "2011-04-26T04:16:34Z")
Thank you for posting that link. Interesting viewing. Very, very sad that we have lost such an interesting animal. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375/40 "2021-03-14T15:27:40Z")
Bumped. > **[Tasmanian Tigers Are Extinct. Why Do People Keep Seeing Them? (Published 2021)](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/science/thylacines-tasmanian-tigers-sightings.html?action=click&block=more_in_recirc&impression_id=6de1bb72-84d6-11eb-8a73-9760e4871526&index=3&pgtype=Article®ion=footer)** > > Quirks of the human mind and how we process information might explain the uncanny appearances of thylacines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-the-tasmanian-tiger-is-not-extinct/579375.md?page=3)