The marsupial – or Tasmanian tiger as it is known in Australia – was declared extinct in 1936 when the last specimen in captivity died at a zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. The carcass was then taken to a museum, but there the traces of it ended and the skin and bones have presumably disappeared.
Until now.
Researcher Robert Paddle, together with museum curator Kathryn Medlock, has managed to trace the remains to a cabinet in the museum’s education department. Due to a cataloging error, the animal is said to have ended up in a collection taken around Australia for educational purposes, with the staff blissfully unaware that they were handling the last known specimen of the species.
“It was chosen because it was the skin in the collections that was in the best condition, we didn’t know at the time that it was from the last animal,” says Kathryn Medlock.
The miss is also explained by the fact that when the animal died it was not believed to be the last specimen.
“At the time, it was believed that the species still existed in the wild,” says Medlock.