On 7 September, 1936, Benjamin died.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I still remember the first time I saw a photo of a Thylacine. Not a photo, in fact, but a short film. I was maybe 16, and fighting insomnia. It was probably 1am, and was watching the Discovery Channel or the Learning Channel or something of that ilk. The program was about cryptozoology, and the narrator, trying to convince the viewer that past events have proven time and again that mysterious, “legendary” creatures do indeed exist, used the Thylacine as an example. The narrator explained that European explorers claimed a “tyger” inhabited Tasmania, but those who had not actually seen it scoffed. It sounded so impossible! A tiger that looked like a dog!

Then, there on the tv, they showed it. Two or three seconds of grainy footage of the coolest animal I had ever seen.

Of course, this was before my family even had a computer, let alone the internet. But I remembered it’s name, and I wanted more.

That two seconds of film changed me. At first, my curiosity was simply piqued a bit. On a trip to Portland I spent an afternoon in Powell’s, reading through the zoology section, where I learned quite a bit about the worlds coolest animal. I was hooked.

Extinction was not something I thought about. Things die. Fuck 'em (teenage attitude on display, right there). But this animal that had so throughly grabbed my attention was… gone? No way! I want to see one! I couldnt believe that, extinction was something that happened to the dinosaurs, not neat-o marsupials that just blew the ‘awesome’ scale past 11.

I started studying extinction, and the effect man has on the natural world. From a I-dont-give-a-shit teenager, I slowly changed into a conservationist. I knew, still do know, people who hunt simply for the “joy” of killing. I don’t even want to understand that type of thinking, it is so alien to me. The fact the humans can, in the space of a hundred years and a bit, completely wipe out an entire species, boggles the mind.

The Dutch first sighted Tasmania in 1642. The British built the first settlement in 1803. 133 years later the Thylacine was extinct.

75 years ago today, the last Thylacine froze to death in a Hobart zoo. That sucks.

2

I am gratified by the fact that we do, in general, appear to be learning from our mistakes. The sad part is it appears to be a steep learning curve.

3

Not only that, it turned out they were innocent after all.

Also “Benjamin” was a female.

4

Gotta love this quote from the wiki page.

Great fucking job guys, well done.

I’ve always been fascinated by extinct creatures but it’s the ones that went extinct so (relatively) recently, like the thylacine, that actually make me sad. Being able to see pictures or video really drives home that these creatures were really… real… and that now they’re gone. My biggest nerd fantasy is that someday cloning will be able to bring a lot of these things back to life and let humanity undo some of the damage it’s done.

5

Video of the last thylacine

I think it would be awesome if someday someone finds conclusive evidence of wild thylacines that somehow avoided detection or if cloning is ever possible with the scant DNA from the dead thylacines that museums have. In the meantime, I think the best thing we can do is to try to preserve the other critically endangered species that still exist for now ( wiki has a partial list of some of the critically endangered creatures in trouble here: Critically Endangered - Wikipedia ).

In the old days, many people just didn’t think of conservation at all. When species become extinct these days, it seems even more tragic because we should know better now.

As for the issue of people killing animals just for fun, well, I’m a vegetarian so I don’t really like the idea, but I have no problem with allowing hunting of animals as long as it’s done in a sustainable way. I know some hunters do truly love nature and want to preserve it. I also think that people are much more likely to care enough to protect nature and its animals if you show them how it can be useful to them without being completely destroyed. If someone’s reason for wanting to preserve a forest and its animals is so that their descendants can still hunt there 100 years from now, that’s better than if people ignore the destruction of a forest because they just don’t see any value in it.

6

The Tasmanian government knew as far back as the 1880’s IIRC that most of the sheep kills that ranchers were discovering were caused not by Thylacines but by Dingoes. For some retarded reason they kept the bounty scheme. I see a lot of parallels with what happened in Tasmania in the late 19th century in regards to the Thylacine and today’s attitudes toward the wolf in the western u.s.

Robert Paddle’s book ‘The Last Tasmanian Tiger’ provides an excellent commentary on this, with lots of footnotes and an extensive bibliography.

7

I hope to not come across as too much of a tit for this but if you are interested in Cryptozoology you may want to look at a section of a magazine called the fortean times. They have run a section for around 20 or 30 years on the matter.

8

Be careful . . . ever read Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency?

9

In May the Gray Wolf was removed from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Species for Idaho, Montana, and parts of Washington and Oregon. Wyoming is finalizing a plan to work towards delisting as well.

10

Feral dogs were the problem, not dingoes. There weren’t any dingoes in Tasmania, that why the Thylacine managed to survive there when it became extinct on the mainland.

I’m from Melbourne, but my father was from Tasmania, I have relatives there and have visited a couple of times. Beautiful place, but with a number of dark stains on its history.

11

How are the cloning efforts coming?

12

On the bright side, they lasted longer than the Tasmanians themselves did. They didn’t make it to the 20th century, the last one died in 1876.

13

As I have had occasion to mention several times on these forums, the idea that “Tasmanian Aborigines are extinct” is not only wrong, it’s extremely offensive to living Tasmanian Aborigines, several of whom I have personally met.

It is generally believed that there are no living people who are entirely of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent, but that doesn’t mean there are no mixed-race people who are culturally Tasmanian Aborigines. There are. I’ve met a couple.

I know people love the story about Tasmanians being extinct, but this place is supposed to be about fighting ignorance.

14

They’re still working on that. Interesting result, but I personally have my doubts, I think it may be possible at some future date but I won’t be holding my breath.

There’s also this possibility, but again, I’ll believe it when I see it.

15

Sorry!
Change my post to say " On the bright side, they lasted longer than the Tasmanian language itself did. That didn’t make it to the 20th century, the last person to speak that language died in 1876."

I know, right? I loved that story so much I wanted to marry it! :stuck_out_tongue:

16

The wiping of the Thylacine truly pales in comparison with the obliteration (for that’s the right word) of the Passenger Pigeon.

I’m all for capitalism, but things like this are a clear example of why there needs to be regulations and limits on what can be done for profits.

17

Well, there is always some hope that the Thylacine is still around. The ivory-billed woodpecker was thought extinct in the 1940s, but living, wild specimens were discovered in 2005. Gives one hope. (There is some controversy about that, though.)

18

I said that because I’ve had people continue to claim that Tasmanian Aborigines are extinct after I’ve told them otherwise (and provided links to news stories about living Tasmanian aborigines to prove it) because, apparently, they’re in love with the idea that the British Colonial authorities committed genocide. Some folks just don’t want to give up that idea.

19

Yeah, it’s a shame that the British colonial authorities don’t get enough credit for all the wonderful things they did in support of the Tasmanian Aborigines. People always want to concentrate on the negative.

20

I’m not convinced you know very much of what you are talking about. Shakester has called you out once- you are heading that way again.