Forgotten Tasmanian Tiger Photos Have Been Rediscovered
Experts hope more images from around the world will reveal new details about this extinct species.
Tasmanian tiger researchers are excited to have uncovered two previously unknown photographs of the extinct animal in a museum archive. The Australian Museum had quietly shared the image shown above on its blog, which led to the release of the additional two photos, surprising the Tasmanian Tiger Archives team. Until now, they were aware of only 119 other images of this rare species, also known as the thylacine.
Resembling a large, striped dog, the thylacine was native to Tasmania, Australia, and New Guinea. It became extinct in the wild in the 1930s, with the last known individual dying in captivity at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania on September 7, 1936. The newly discovered photographs might have been taken in 1902 in Melbourne, as three thylacines died at the city zoo that year. The way the animal's body is posed suggests it died shortly before the photos were taken.
Researchers think the thylacine in the photos wasn’t captured in Tasmania because Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart only started housing them in 1907. It’s also unlikely the animal was photographed in the wild, as its ears lack the markings typically used to identify animals shot by hunters.
Branden Holmes from the Tasmanian Tiger Archives expressed his gratitude to the Australian Museum for providing high-resolution copies of the images. He noted that their rediscovery raises hopes of finding even more photographs in both public and private collections. While any new thylacine photo is exciting, researchers are still on the lookout for the elusive “dream find” of thylacine photography: a color image.
Holmes pointed out that thylacines were housed in various zoos around the world, including those in London, New York, Antwerp, Scotland, and Berlin, where visitors might have taken photos of them. These images could be hidden away in forgotten boxes.