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Tasmania’s most iconic native animal is the Tasmanian devil, yet the island’s lost marsupial, the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), might have earned even greater fame. The name “tiger” refers only to the striped pattern on its back; genetically, thylacines belong to the marsupial infraclass, not the feline family.
Historically, thylacines ranged across mainland Australia until competition from dingoes and early settlers pushed them onto Tasmania around 5,000 years ago. There they flourished until 1936, when farmers—devastated by livestock predation—labeled them pests and offered rewards for their elimination. The government later recognized the mistake and granted protected status that same year, but the last known thylacine died in captivity before the protection could take effect.
Today, a bold de‑extinction project is gathering DNA from museum specimens to revive the Tasmanian tiger. Reintroducing a species that has been absent for almost a century would reshape the island’s ecological balance, making it vital to consider the possible outcomes if the thylacine had survived.
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As the apex predator, thylacines regulated populations of herbivores such as kangaroos and wallabies. Their extinction removed a critical control point, leading to unchecked growth of these species. Australia hosts roughly 50 million kangaroos—twice the human population—and their numbers have surged since the loss of natural predators, including dingoes on the mainland and thylacines on Tasmania. The resulting competition forces kangaroos onto croplands, sparking conflict with farmers and large‑scale culling in affected regions.
Comparable dynamics occurred in Yellowstone National Park, where the removal of wolves in the late 20th century allowed elk numbers to explode, devastating vegetation. When wolves were reintroduced, the elk population stabilized, preventing ecological collapse. A thriving thylacine population would likely have kept kangaroo numbers in check, averting similar over‑grazing problems in Tasmania.
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Had thylacines persisted beyond 1936, they would still confront severe genetic bottlenecks. Small, isolated populations are prone to inbreeding, which reduces genetic diversity and resilience to disease. The Tasmanian devil, a close relative, suffered a devastating contagious cancer that has decimated up to 80 % of its population, prompting its endangered status.
A 2021 study published in PLOS ONE sequenced genomes from museum specimens and found that all thylacines were 99.5 % genetically identical—greater homogeneity than the devil population. Such uniformity would make any outbreak of disease catastrophic, potentially wiping out the species within a single event.
