Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
What can be said, is that the thylacine was the largest marsupial predator, the
apex-predator in the Tasmanian landscape, a predator at the 'top' of the food-chain
and without threat other than from humans. Guiler (
1985
) described the thylacine
as a marsupial with a backward opening pouch, an average total length of 1.62 m
(5 ft 4 in.) [head and body length of 1.09 m (5 ft 7 in.) plus a tail length of 0.53 m
(1 ft 9 in.)], a weight of 25 kg (55 lbs), a stiff kangaroo-like tail, and 13-19 stripes
across the back of the body, extending from the thorax onto the tail. The thylacine
was nocturnal. The female, with four nipples, bore between one and four young per
litter. Thylacines exhibited “an extraordinarily wide gape which could be used to
seize the neck or chest of a wallaby and so crush it” (Guiler
1985
:81). According
to trapper accounts: “Thylacines were very persistent runners and could lope after
their prey until the animal finally collapsed with exhaustion” (Guiler
1985
:80).
Guiler reported that: “I never heard the old-timers refer to the animal as anything
but 'tiger' or 'hyaena', or more rarely 'wolf'” (1985:36).
The native Tasmanians co-existed with thylacines for 50,000 years (Guiler
1985
). Plomley states that: “The thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian
Tiger and sometimes as the Hyaena, was formerly common in Tasmania, but is now
extinct. The wide distribution of the thylacine in Tasmania is shown by the spread
of names for it through the tribes” (
1976
:312). From a variety of early sources,
Plomley reported, along with multiple variations, nine distinct indigenous Tasmanian
words for 'thylacine': cabberronenener; kannenner; kulener; larnter; longerniner;
marmener; poidrerwunne; roun; and warternounnener. Guiler and Godard (
1998
)
reported 'corinna' as another Tasmanian Aboriginal name for the thylacine. None
of these names appear to have gained any currency amongst the white newcomers.
Whether the Tasmanian management of thylacines over past millennia was
active, passive or non-existent, the result was that Tasmania served as a safe refuge
for this curiously odd and distinctive animal, until the white settlement of 1803.
It was not only the thylacine that fared poorly under the new regime. The Tasmanian
aboriginal population and along with it, the languages, culture and knowledge of
place, were decimated by misguided or malignant government action, and, in some
cases, inaction (Plomley
1966, 1987
).
What of the thylacine under the new Anglo-regime? It is reported that: “1908
was the last year of real thylacine abundance” (Guiler and Godard
1998
:143). The
Tasmanian state coat of arms appeared in 1917, the dominant graphic elements of
which are two thylacines standing on their rear legs supporting a shield decorated
with elements including a wheat sheaf and a sheep (Long
1917
). In 1930 the last
thylacine killed in the wild was a large male shot at Mawbanna, in the north west
of Tasmania by Wilf Batty. On 7 September 1936 the last known living thylacine
died in Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart (Guiler
1985
). There have been numerous
reported sightings since that 1936 day, but none authenticated.
The Tasmanian government, under advice from the Fauna Board, declared on
10 July 1936 the thylacine to be 'wholly protected'; this was less than 2 months
before the last known thylacine died. On 4 April 1937 the Fauna Board declared that
no further permits were to be granted to the Zoo for the capture of thylacines (Guiler
1985
; Guiler and Godard
1998
; Paddle
2000
). It was a triumph of the post-cautionary
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