Thylacinus Cynocephalus
The name thylacine roughly translates as ‘dog-headed pouched one’. The thylacine was the world’s largest marsupial carnivore and was known as the Tasmanian Tiger due to the distinctive stripes down its back.
Benjamin at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo, 1936.
Once widespread, the fossilised remains of thylacines have been found throughout mainland Australia and as far north as Papua New Guinea. A number of factors, including the introduction of the dingo, led to its extinction on the Australian mainland roughly 2,000 years ago.
At the time of European settlement an estimated 5,000 thylacines remained in Tasmania.
Eradicating a threat
By the early 1800’s, the thylacine had been unfairly portrayed as a blood thirsty killer of sheep and a bounty was placed upon its head by the Van Diemen's Land Company and later by the Tasmanian Government.
Between 1888 and 1909, the Tasmanian Government paid out on a total of 2,184 bounties, with £1 paid for an adult and 10 shillings for a juvenile. It is likely that a great many more thylacines were killed than bounties paid. Introduced dogs, disease and extensive habitat destruction all contributed to a further decline.
Hunter poses with dead thylacine, 1869.
Last of its kind.?
By the late 1920’s, sightings of the thylacine in the wild had become increasingly rare such that the scientific and zoological communities raised their concerns and sought protection. The last known thylacine to be killed in the wild was shot on a property at Mawbanna in the state’s northwest in 1930.
Official protection of the species was finally granted by the Tasmanian Government in 1936, just 59 days before the death of 'Benjamin' (the last known thylacine) at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo on the 7th September 1936.
Numerous sightings of the thylacine in Tasmania’s wilderness continue to this day, however, with a lack of conclusive evidence, the thylacine has been officially extinct since 1986.
To log this Geocache
- to log this cache you will need to visit Launceston's Civic Square,
- take a photograph of a thylacine bronze sculpture - there are many to choose from,
- the photograph is to include a thylacine and either: yourself; part of you; or your GPSr,
- post the photograph to the cache Galley.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.