Tasmanian Wolf Amazing Facts — The Extinct Marsupial Wolf That Scientists Are Trying to Bring Back

The thylacine — commonly called the Tasmanian wolf or Tasmanian tiger — is one of the most extraordinary animals ever to have existed and one of the most haunting extinctions of the modern era. The world's largest carnivorous marsupial, it was hunted to extinction by the Australian government under a bounty system in the early 20th century, with the last known individual dying in a Hobart zoo in 1936. Now scientists are attempting the most ambitious de-extinction project ever undertaken — to bring the thylacine back from extinction using ancient DNA. Here are the most amazing thylacine facts!

Did you know? The last known Tasmanian wolf — named Benjamin — died in Hobart Zoo on 7 September 1936, reportedly locked out of its shelter on a cold night. This date is now commemorated as National Threatened Species Day in Australia. Scientists are now working to clone it back to life!

🦘 A Wolf That Was a Marsupial

The thylacine is one of the most remarkable examples of convergent evolution ever documented — a marsupial that independently evolved almost the same body form, skull shape, dentition and hunting lifestyle as the placental wolves of the northern hemisphere, despite being more closely related to kangaroos, koalas and wombats than to any dog or wolf. Its dog-like head, striped hindquarters (giving it the alternative name "Tasmanian tiger"), stiff tail and dog-like gait were the products of millions of years of independent evolution in isolation on the Australian continent — the same ecological pressures of being a cursorial predator of medium-sized prey producing virtually the same physical solution from a completely different starting point.

💀 Hunted to Extinction by Bounty

The thylacine's extinction was not an accident of habitat loss or climate change — it was the direct result of a deliberate government extermination programme. The Van Diemen's Land Company began paying bounties for dead thylacines in 1830, believing them to be significant threats to sheep. The Tasmanian government formalised this with an official bounty scheme from 1888 to 1909, paying £1 per adult and 10 shillings per juvenile — resulting in the confirmed killing of at least 2,184 thylacines over this period, with the actual total likely far higher. By the time the last bounty was paid in 1909 and the species was finally given legal protection in 1936, the thylacine was already functionally extinct — the last individual died in captivity just 59 days after legal protection was finally granted.

🎥 The Last Known Individual on Film

Short film footage of Benjamin — the last known thylacine — was captured at Hobart Zoo in 1933, providing the only moving images of the species. This footage, now preserved in the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, shows Benjamin pacing in its enclosure, yawning to reveal its extraordinary jaw gape — the thylacine could open its jaws to almost 90 degrees, far wider than any dog — and displaying the stiff-tailed posture and striped hindquarters that made it so distinctive. The footage has been colourised in recent years and is widely circulated, making the thylacine one of the most emotionally powerful symbols of human-caused extinction.

🧬 The De-Extinction Project

In 2022, the University of Melbourne and biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences announced a collaboration to attempt the de-extinction of the thylacine using ancient DNA recovered from museum specimens. The project aims to sequence the complete thylacine genome, identify the key genetic differences between the thylacine and its closest living relative (the fat-tailed dunnart — a small marsupial mouse), edit the dunnart genome to incorporate thylacine characteristics using CRISPR technology, and eventually produce living thylacine-like animals through artificial gestation. The project faces enormous scientific challenges and remains highly controversial among conservation biologists — but represents the most serious and best-funded de-extinction attempt ever undertaken for any recently extinct species.

🌏 Once Across Australia, Last in Tasmania

The thylacine was once found across the Australian mainland and New Guinea, with fossil evidence showing its presence across much of the continent for millions of years. Its extinction on the Australian mainland — approximately 2,000 years ago, well before European colonisation — is believed to have been caused by a combination of competition from the dingo (introduced to Australia approximately 3,500 years ago) and hunting pressure from expanding Aboriginal populations. Tasmania, which the dingo never reached, provided the species with a final refuge — until European colonisation and the bounty system eliminated it there too.

😮 The Jaw That Opened 80 Degrees

The thylacine's jaw could open to approximately 80 degrees — a gape far exceeding that of any dog or wolf, and approaching the extreme gape of snakes and crocodilians. This extraordinary jaw mobility, combined with powerful jaw muscles and a dentition suited for crushing bone, made the thylacine a formidable predator capable of killing prey considerably larger than typical for its body size. The jaw gape is clearly visible in footage of Benjamin yawning and has become one of the most recognisable features of the species in both life and historical film.

Amazing final fact: Reported thylacine sightings have continued in Tasmania and even occasionally on the Australian mainland for decades after the 1936 extinction — with over 3,800 unconfirmed sightings recorded since 1936. While none has been confirmed by physical evidence, the consistency and geographic distribution of sighting reports across Tasmania's remote interior has led some researchers to suggest that a small relict population may have survived in the wild beyond 1936. Expeditions deploying hundreds of camera traps across remote Tasmanian wilderness continue periodically — so far without confirmation, but the hope persists.

Convergently wolf-like, deliberately exterminated and potentially being brought back by science — the thylacine is one of the most extraordinary, most tragic and most scientifically significant lost animals in human history. 🐺

All content written originally by Geeta Singh.

Sources: Information researched from Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org), Australian Museum, Colossal Biosciences, IUCN.