The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s; the last one died in a Tasmanian zoo in 1936.
Courtesy of The Tasmanian National Museum and Art Gallery
15 comments:
Nate
said...
Wow. That is sad that the tigers would not have survived on their own. I thought they were cute. :( This expresses the fact that crossbreeding is NOT a good idea, because it spreads diseases such as cancer. It is also weird that they only talk about Tasmanian animals having this problem. I wonder if Tasmania has something to do with this. Another thing is since they were hunted to extinction, it could be possible that this article was partly written to make people not as mad about the extinction of such an adorable creature.
I agree with Nate that these Tasmanian tigers are adorable. I had never even heard of them, probably because they were hunted to extinction. It's interesting because earlier in the year we learned about how certain plants clone themselves as their way of reproducing, which makes the plant population not very diverse and if one of them gets a disease, they will all die and suffer because they are not different at all to help them protect themselves. This relates a lot to that, and maybe some of these plants also suffer from being extinct or endangered. This was a very interesting article and I could relate it to other lessons throughout the year.
I wonder how these animals came about. They look like a dog with zebra stripes, of course that may not mean anything since the pictures were black and white. I wish that the pictures were in color. It makes me sad to think that a doomed species was hunted to extinction, couldn't the hunters let them live a little bit longer? I mean, they were going to die off anyways. Also, I wonder if this species could be re-bred and introduced into the wild? I also wonder if we can learn why this species only had 1 DNA difference between animals, and thus learn how to prevent it. I can understand the isolated population theory on this, but these animals weren't really isolated on a small island! They had the whole country of Australia for heaven's sakes! There has to be another reason! I also agree with Nate, Tasmania and Australia probably have something to do with this, but what? Will the kangaroos eventually fall prey to the same problem? Or does it only pertain to creatures that have "Tasmania" in their name? :)
This is a weird looking Tiger. It is pretty cute though. I would think that scientists would have learned their lessons on crossbreeding. It make the crossbreeds very vulnerable to cancers and other diseases. Nate is right. Maybe tasmania does have something going on that is endangering so many animals.
That tiger is so cute. It is kind of weird looking though. I agree with Nate and Chloe in that maybe it has something to with tasmania. I hope the breeders learn that crossbreeding is very bad, because they have done it so many times.
One thing that confuses me is that a tiger is a cat, but when they were comparing it to other species they compared it to a dog. I feel like they should have compared them to other cats. Maybe all cats have the same problem just not as intense. Or what if dogs are one of the most diverse species? That confused me. Also I don't think it has to do with Tasmania or having Tasmania in their name. As Gwen was saying I don't understand how there can be that much inbreeding in such a large continent. Maybe it's because they might not migrate so they're always breeding with cats from the same area. Also, I looked up Tasmanian Devils and they are SO cute!
This was so sad. Especially the fact that even if we didn't hunt them to extinction, they still wouldn't have made it. I agree with Gillian: it was confusing that tigers are cats and they compared this one with a dog. Huh... This was REALLY cute though. Ugh, crossbreeding is horrible, and its horrible that it makes the offspring more vulnerable to cancer and other diseases.
I think that this article is sad, but I do realize that if not hunted to extinction, they would still be wiped-out by disease such as cancer and others. Although cross-breeding does make dogs and cats have more diseases, think about it, many of the dog and cats that are here today are the result of cross-breeding. Actually, Tasmanian Tigers (Thylacinus cynocephalus) are not dogs OR cats. They are marsupials. Also, they are only called Tasmanian Tigers because of their stripes on their bodies, and where they can be found. Apparently humans were not the only threat, I found that dingos were possibly a threat to the Tiger. This is doubted by some scientists because Tasmanian Tiger hunt are nocturnal and dingos hunt during the day. Also, the last Tasmanian Tiger was in a zoo 1933, proving that people were aware that the Tigers were struggling to survive. The last Tasmanian Tiger was named Benjamin, but the funny thing is that they people at the zoo didn't know that she was a female (this was discovered by scientists looking a her bones).
Did you know that Tasmanian Tigers are found on the Tasmanian coat of arms
Tasmanian tigers are adorable and it is sad they were unable to overcome this DNA problem. I suppose it was necessary for them to be destroyed so they would not spread their faulty DNA to other animals. Hopefully, in the future, scientists could re-create this animal from their DNA when the technology and knowledge exist on how to correct their DNA and then recreate the species. It would be interesting to learn why these particular animals developed this problem, is it too much interbreeding or was it perhaps environmental.
I think that even though the Tasmanian tigers might have gone extinct on their own, it is still sad that they were killed off by poachers. I don't know if the Tasmanian tiger in the picture was underfed, but just by looking at it you can see that it might die quickly.
The thought that even if they weren't hunted, the species would go extinct is a lot like what is happening with humanity. Even if we didn't hunt each other, we will go extinct sooner or later. I cite H. G. Well's book; "War of the World" when I say that humans are to ignorant and couldn't tell when their doom was near. I disagree with the article when they say that the Tasmanian Tiger would have died on their own. If the species were facing such illnesses, they could adapt. In H. G. Well's "Time Machine" it is explained that harsh lives make animals evolve into bigger, stronger versions that will survive in harsher conditions, while being shiftless leads to feebleness.
The one thing that we can all agree upon is that the Tasmanian tigers were very adorable.
Cool. I agree with Nate and Sinclaire. The tasmanian tigers are so cute!! I never thought anything like this could be created!! Well, I thought wrong!!
I did think the Tasmanian Tigers were cute, but it's too bad that they would have died if the Cancer wasn't contained. Although, this could all be a conspiracy to give a pardon to the TT hunters. A CONSPIRACY! Dun dun dun...
This article is very misleading. It says: “Even if humans hadn’t hunted the Tasmanian tiger to extinction, its low genetic diversity may have naturally doomed the curious marsupial.” Maybe one of the reasons the Tasmanian tiger had less genetic diversity was because it was being hunted to extinction by humans. Maybe the tigers were living in small isolated populations to hide from humans and humans were taking over their natural habitat. This is why they had too little genetic variability to survive. This may also be why the Tasmanian devil is being wiped out by cancer. The article says: “There are a lot of fragile animals in Australia and Tasmania.” Maybe humans are the reason why many animals don’t have a chance to survive. If they really want to save the animals, they have to give them back some of their natural habitat.
15 comments:
Wow. That is sad that the tigers would not have survived on their own. I thought they were cute. :( This expresses the fact that crossbreeding is NOT a good idea, because it spreads diseases such as cancer. It is also weird that they only talk about Tasmanian animals having this problem. I wonder if Tasmania has something to do with this. Another thing is since they were hunted to extinction, it could be possible that this article was partly written to make people not as mad about the extinction of such an adorable creature.
I agree with Nate that these Tasmanian tigers are adorable. I had never even heard of them, probably because they were hunted to extinction. It's interesting because earlier in the year we learned about how certain plants clone themselves as their way of reproducing, which makes the plant population not very diverse and if one of them gets a disease, they will all die and suffer because they are not different at all to help them protect themselves. This relates a lot to that, and maybe some of these plants also suffer from being extinct or endangered. This was a very interesting article and I could relate it to other lessons throughout the year.
I wonder how these animals came about. They look like a dog with zebra stripes, of course that may not mean anything since the pictures were black and white. I wish that the pictures were in color. It makes me sad to think that a doomed species was hunted to extinction, couldn't the hunters let them live a little bit longer? I mean, they were going to die off anyways. Also, I wonder if this species could be re-bred and introduced into the wild? I also wonder if we can learn why this species only had 1 DNA difference between animals, and thus learn how to prevent it. I can understand the isolated population theory on this, but these animals weren't really isolated on a small island! They had the whole country of Australia for heaven's sakes! There has to be another reason! I also agree with Nate, Tasmania and Australia probably have something to do with this, but what? Will the kangaroos eventually fall prey to the same problem? Or does it only pertain to creatures that have "Tasmania" in their name? :)
This is a weird looking Tiger. It is pretty cute though. I would think that scientists would have learned their lessons on crossbreeding. It make the crossbreeds very vulnerable to cancers and other diseases. Nate is right. Maybe tasmania does have something going on that is endangering so many animals.
That tiger is so cute. It is kind of weird looking though. I agree with Nate and Chloe in that maybe it has something to with tasmania. I hope the breeders learn that crossbreeding is very bad, because they have done it so many times.
One thing that confuses me is that a tiger is a cat, but when they were comparing it to other species they compared it to a dog. I feel like they should have compared them to other cats. Maybe all cats have the same problem just not as intense. Or what if dogs are one of the most diverse species? That confused me. Also I don't think it has to do with Tasmania or having Tasmania in their name. As Gwen was saying I don't understand how there can be that much inbreeding in such a large continent. Maybe it's because they might not migrate so they're always breeding with cats from the same area. Also, I looked up Tasmanian Devils and they are SO cute!
This was so sad. Especially the fact that even if we didn't hunt them to extinction, they still wouldn't have made it. I agree with Gillian: it was confusing that tigers are cats and they compared this one with a dog. Huh... This was REALLY cute though. Ugh, crossbreeding is horrible, and its horrible that it makes the offspring more vulnerable to cancer and other diseases.
I think that this article is sad, but I do realize that if not hunted to extinction, they would still be wiped-out by disease such as cancer and others. Although cross-breeding does make dogs and cats have more diseases, think about it, many of the dog and cats that are here today are the result of cross-breeding. Actually, Tasmanian Tigers (Thylacinus cynocephalus) are not dogs OR cats. They are marsupials. Also, they are only called Tasmanian Tigers because of their stripes on their bodies, and where they can be found. Apparently humans were not the only threat, I found that dingos were possibly a threat to the Tiger. This is doubted by some scientists because Tasmanian Tiger hunt are nocturnal and dingos hunt during the day. Also, the last Tasmanian Tiger was in a zoo 1933, proving that people were aware that the Tigers were struggling to survive. The last Tasmanian Tiger was named Benjamin, but the funny thing is that they people at the zoo didn't know that she was a female (this was discovered by scientists looking a her bones).
Did you know that Tasmanian Tigers are found on the Tasmanian coat of arms
Tasmanian tigers are adorable and it is sad they were unable to overcome this DNA problem. I suppose it was necessary for them to be destroyed so they would not spread their faulty DNA to other animals. Hopefully, in the future, scientists could re-create this animal from their DNA when the technology and knowledge exist on how to correct their DNA and then recreate the species. It would be interesting to learn why these particular animals developed this problem, is it too much interbreeding or was it perhaps environmental.
I think that even though the Tasmanian tigers might have gone extinct on their own, it is still sad that they were killed off by poachers. I don't know if the Tasmanian tiger in the picture was underfed, but just by looking at it you can see that it might die quickly.
The thought that even if they weren't hunted, the species would go extinct is a lot like what is happening with humanity. Even if we didn't hunt each other, we will go extinct sooner or later. I cite H. G. Well's book; "War of the World" when I say that humans are to ignorant and couldn't tell when their doom was near. I disagree with the article when they say that the Tasmanian Tiger would have died on their own. If the species were facing such illnesses, they could adapt. In H. G. Well's "Time Machine" it is explained that harsh lives make animals evolve into bigger, stronger versions that will survive in harsher conditions, while being shiftless leads to feebleness.
The one thing that we can all agree upon is that the Tasmanian tigers were very adorable.
Cool. I agree with Nate and Sinclaire. The tasmanian tigers are so cute!! I never thought anything like this could be created!! Well, I thought wrong!!
I did think the Tasmanian Tigers were cute, but it's too bad that they would have died if the Cancer wasn't contained. Although, this could all be a conspiracy to give a pardon to the TT hunters. A CONSPIRACY! Dun dun dun...
This article is very misleading. It says: “Even if humans hadn’t hunted the Tasmanian tiger to extinction, its low genetic diversity may have naturally doomed the curious marsupial.” Maybe one of the reasons the Tasmanian tiger had less genetic diversity was because it was being hunted to extinction by humans. Maybe the tigers were living in small isolated populations to hide from humans and humans were taking over their natural habitat. This is why they had too little genetic variability to survive. This may also be why the Tasmanian devil is being wiped out by cancer. The article says: “There are a lot of fragile animals in Australia and Tasmania.” Maybe humans are the reason why many animals don’t have a chance to survive. If they really want to save the animals, they have to give them back some of their natural habitat.
I think the comments on this blog are very interesting. I want to make one correction: I think some of you mean “inbreeding,” not “crossbreeding.”
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