Did you know Australia has tigers?
Well - had - sadly, they’re all but extinct, although some people maintain a bizarre conspiracy
that they’re still roaming around in Australia’s interior.
And when I say tigers, what I really mean is striped marsupials - that kind of resemble
more of a wolf-like creature than anything else.
And when I say Tasmanian … oh wait - no.
That bit’s correct, sorry I was on a roll there.
But you get the picture, right?
Believe it or not - for thousands of years, the indigenous people of Australia, New Guinea
and Tasmania - lived side by side with perhaps one of the most awesome creatures that evolution
has managed to spit out.
Part kangaroo, part wolf - part tiger - part bizarre amalgamation of all three - the Tasmanian
Tiger is one of the coolest character creations in history.
So let’s see what life would be like if they weren’t sadly driven to extinction.
Hello internet - and welcome back to the most inquisitive channel on YouTube - Life’s
Biggest Questions.
As per usual, I’ll be your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch - as today, we strap on our
Blundstone’s - head out into the outback, and curiously ask the question - What If The
Tasmanian Tiger Didn’t Go Extinct?
Roll the clip.
It’s strange, isn’t it?
How could an established, scientifically credited species go from being a verified ancestral,
Australian creature - to being regarded in modern times as a cryptid, and find itself
amongst the ranks of Bigfoot, the Yeti and the Jersey Devil?
That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?
Usually, and sadly - more often than not - when humanity drives a species to extinction, we
later mourn them in passing like a bumbling Lenny with his puppies in John Steinbeck’s
Of Mice and Men.
Although, strangely enough - the similar circumstance of the Tasmanian Tiger has in fact happened
before.
The Beast of Bodmin Moor - was a giant panther-like cat that supposedly prowled the coastal areas
of Cornwall, England during the late 1970s - with the majority of reported sightings
including evidence of mutilated slain livestock - as well as alleged photographic evidence
of the giant feline.
These sightings became so widespread that the UK government were forced to conduct an
official investigation, despite the fact that the English coastal climate and food supply
would make it nigh impossible for a creature of that size to survive.
It happened again though - this time with the Beast of Buchan in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
- a rumour which emerged as early as the 1930s - although it reached its peak again throughout
the 1970s.
And this trend isn’t just exclusive to the United Kingdom, because across the planet
sightings of creatures that just don’t belong in a given, specific climate are more commonplace
than you can shake a stick at - baffling locals and leaving farmers scratching their heads,
questioning why a rhino is drinking from their pigs troff.
Well, not that - but you get the picture.
But the Tasmanian Tiger is different.
Because this guy DOES belong in his given habitat - and yet still, as recently as 2017
- the Tasmanian Tiger is still being purportedly sighted in the Australian mainland.
But let’s scale it back a bit - and give ourselves a timeline of our stripy, marsupial
friend.
The Tasmanian Tiger, more commonly known as the thylacine - was the largest ever known
carnivorous marsupial mammal - which evolved around 4 million years ago until it’s tragic
extinction in 1936.
The last ever known confirmed live thylacine in captivity was in 1933 in its native Tasmania,
and it’s extinction is contributed to the rapid expansion of modern Australia alongside
the illegal and systematic poaching of the relatively shy and nocturnal creature.
Despite that though, the Tasmanian Tiger was an incredibly formidable and adaptable apex
predator, and ancestrally dominated the Australian mainland all the way up to the mid 1600’s,
before being exclusively found in the surrounding Tasmania and New Guinea islands up until its
extinction.
Numerous examples of Aboriginal rock art of the thylacine have been found across Australia,
dating back to at least 1000 BC - and were an intrinsic part of Aboriginal ecology.
WERE - sadly - being the key word.
But then, in 1973 - two Australians, Gary and Liz Doyle, shot ten seconds of 8 mm film
which allegedly showed an unidentified animal running alongside a South Australian road.
Then again in 1982, a researcher named Hans Naarding of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife
Service observed what he believed to be a thylacine for three minutes during the night,
at a site near Arthur River in Northwestern Tasmania.
This sighting was so prolific, and reported by a highly accredited individual - that it
led to an extensive year-long government funded search for the creature.
Again - I’m going to say again a lot - in 1985, an Aboriginal tracker named Kevin Cameron
produced five clear photographs which appeared to show a digging thylacine which he took
in Western Australia.
In January of 1995 - a Parks and Wildlife officer reported a clear sighting of a thylacine
in the Pyengana region of North East Tasmania during the early hours of the morning.
In 1997 - locals of a village near Mount Carstensz in Western New Guinea claimed that they’d
seen the thylacine on so many separate occasions that they had no idea it was still extinct.
Much later, following two detailed historical sightings in 1983 in the remote Cape York
Peninsula of Mainland Australia, scientists led by Bill Laurance announced in 2017 that
they were conducting extensive research surveys utilizing camera trap technology to track
down the elusive thylacine.
This is important - because this guy, Bill Laurance, is a highly distinguished research
professor of James Cook University in Australia - and the fact that even he isn’t entirely
convinced of the Tasmanian Tiger’s extinction isn’t just food for thought - it’s a twelve
course tasting menu.
In fact, the Island of Tasmania is still so convinced that the thylacine is alive that
they issued out Thylacine Response Kits to locals, to keep in their car in case they
find clear, startling evidence of the creature.
Tasmania is a big, dense area - filled with brutally thick bushlands and deep forest - and
it’s a lot of needles in a lot of haystacks.
Combined with the fact that Tasmania’s next apex predator, the Tasmanian Devil - is the
perfect evidence destroying creature, as in - it literally eats everything and anything
that it kills - the search for the thylacine may be one that is never fully explored.
Perhaps we’ll never know.
Perhaps the Tasmanian Tiger has adapted to be such an elusive creature that it’s very
survival has depended on its ability to avoid humanity.
Or perhaps the evidence has been there all along - the last Tasmanian Tiger died in captivity
in 1936, but when hearing the news - the mayor of Hobart issued an order to capture another
thylacine for display at the zoo.
Yet, little did he realise and to his surprise - there were none left to capture.
Well folks, what do you think?
Why don’t you let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below.
Unfortunately, that’s all we’ve got time for in today’s video - but before we depart,
let’s read out some of your more creative comments from over the past few days.
First up, First Name Last Name says -- What If I actually made an actual creative comment?
-- Hm, well First Name Last Name - that’s actually a pretty creative comment.
So actually.
Good job.
Next up, Spirit Thief says -- Which do you prefer, PC Gaming or Console Gaming?
-- Well, Spirit Thief, we know that there’s only one true answer to that question, and
only one device capable of truly crushing your opponents.
PC.
Of course.
But hey, consoles are fun if you’re into that kind of thing.
On that note questioneers - I better get out of here before the flame war begins.
Cheers for sticking around all the way until the end.
If you were a fan of this video, make sure to hit that thumbs up button - as well as
that subscribe bell - and I’ll be seeing you in the next one.
As per usual, I’ve been your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch - you’ve been
watching Life’s Biggest Questions - and until next time, you take it easy.