# Tasmanian Tiger did Not Kill Sheep **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasmanian-tiger-did-not-kill-sheep/594833 "2011-09-01T12:36:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [September 1, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasmanian-tiger-did-not-kill-sheep/594833/1 "2011-09-01T12:36:44Z")
So, there was a bounty on the thylacine and it was hunted to extinction about 70 years because it liked a feed of mutton. New research suggests it ate nothing bigger than bandicoots and possums. [Story here.](http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/09/01/3307455.htm?site=science&topic=enviro) ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasmanian-tiger-did-not-kill-sheep/594833/2 "2011-09-01T13:55:57Z")
Well, computer models and all are very well and good, but I can’t believe that in a hundred years of European settlement shepherds or farmers never SAW a thylacine take down or at least hunt for a sheep. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasmanian-tiger-did-not-kill-sheep/594833/3 "2011-09-01T14:02:26Z")
Amen. Talk about too little, too late. Not that the Van Diemen’s Land Co. would care if that information had been presented to them at the time. By the 1820s Tadmanian farmers knew, for the most part, that wild dogs were to blame for their livestock losses. Didn’t matter. The bounty stayed in place. Sad. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasmanian-tiger-did-not-kill-sheep/594833/4 "2011-09-01T14:20:35Z")
Given thylacines were (semi) nocturnal they would have heard the flock being disturbed and certainly saw livestock carcases that Tassie tigers (and devils) had partially consumed, but the question is whether they actually killed or were just scavenging. ---
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasmanian-tiger-did-not-kill-sheep/594833/5 "2011-09-01T18:46:52Z")
So I see th Tasmanian Tiger lobby got to you huh? 🙂