The marsupial wolf, or tilacin, is an extinct animal that lived three thousand years ago in Australia and New Guinea. In Tasmania, the last individual disappeared from the face of the earth in 1936. It is believed that tilacin never attacked a person. Young individuals even succumbed to taming.
Description
Tasmanian, or marsupial wolf is a carnivore of a fairly large size. The body in length reached 1 meter, and the tail - 50 centimeters. The largest were males, they could grow to a total length of 2 meters.
Surviving photographs and drawings confirm that the wolf resembled a dog in appearance. This is confirmed by the preserved skulls of animals.
The tail is thick at the base and thin at the end, which gives reason to attribute the animal to the genus marsupials. Also, the wolf had bent legs at the back, thanks to which it seemed that the animal was skipping. On the front legs of the animal there were 5 fingers, on the hind legs only 4. But (unlike ordinary dogs), tilacin rested on all 5 fingers, since they are arranged in a row.
The coat is coarse and dense, short. Color on the back with gray, brown and yellow shades. Necessarily there were transverse dark brown stripes in an amount of 19 to 25 pieces. The color of the coat on the belly is slightly lighter than on the rest of the body. On the face there were marks around the eyes of white color. The ears of the wolf are short and erect, slightly rounded at the edges.
An amazing feature of the marsupial wolf is its very wide mouth, which could open 120 degrees. At the time of yawning, the animal opened its mouth to 180 degrees. Tilacin had 46 teeth in the paste, while other dogs had only 42 teeth.
The females had a bag very similar to that of the Tasmanian devil, consisting of a fold of skin and covering two pairs of nipples. The spine of the animal is not very flexible and is more similar in structure to the kangaroo ridge. Therefore, tilacin stood perfectly on its hind legs. Some eyewitnesses claimed that they saw the wolf moving on two hind legs.
Typical behavior
These wolves preferred to live on the plains, where there are many herbs, and in sparse forests. When a man began to attack nature, the wolves had to move to more humid forests. There they hid in hollows and burrows, rocky caves.
The marsupial wolf led a nocturnal lifestyle, occasionally getting out on a sunny day to warm up. The animal led a solitary lifestyle. In hungry periods, wolves could gather in small flocks to make hunting easier.
The animal made guttural and muffled sounds that often frightened the people of Tasmania.
Diet
In Australia, the marsupial wolf fed on medium and large representatives of the vertebral world. These were echidna, lizards and birds.
In Tasmania, when sheep and poultry were brought to the island, the wolf began to hunt for domestic animals. The predator did not disdain those individuals that fell into the trap. The animal never returned to undernourished prey.
Breeding
They carried the wolves of their cubs in a special fold bag, like a kangaroo. Typically, two to four babies were born. They were very underdeveloped, but after 3 months they already left their mother’s bag. Until 9 months old, the wolf babies no longer climbed into the crease, but lived with their mother.
Tilacin pregnancy lasted about 35 days. The animal multiplied year-round, but fertility is low. The period of full maturity has not been established.
In captivity, it was not possible to increase the wolf population.
How to find the animal
In some reports on the marsupial wolf, a bold theory has been advanced that the animal lived on Earth as far back as the mainland of Gondwan. This is the supercontinent that united 4 continents, and it was about 40-30 million years ago. Then tilacin populated all these territories. But initially appeared in the north of South America, then through modern Antarctica it came to Australia and New Guinea. Then the animal population was prosperous. In support of this theory, scientists provide evidence that animal remains were found in Patagonia, very reminiscent of a marsupial wolf.
After South and North America merged, about 8-7 million years ago, placental fauna appeared on the continent, which replaced the marsupials from their habitat. In Antarctica, colds came, wolves disappeared there.
The marsupial wolf was first mentioned around 1000 BC. Rock paintings and engravings of this period with the image of an animal are found.
Europeans first saw the animal in Tasmania around 1642, but even then the population was on the verge of extinction. This was written by Abel Tasman, he recorded that the expedition found an animal on the island, it looked like a wolf, but with claws like a tiger. In 1772, Marion-Dufren described the wolf as a “tiger cat”. Although what kind of animal the researchers wrote about is still unclear.
The officially confirmed “meeting” with the animal, the marsupial wolf, was recorded only in 1792. A naturalist from France, Jacques Labillardier, wrote about this meeting.
In 1805, a publication appeared in the Sydney Magazine with a detailed description of the wolf, compiled by Van Diemen, the current governor.
The scientific description was compiled only in 1808. It was Inspector George Harris. At first, the animal was assigned to the genus of American possums. And only in 1810 the animal was assigned to the order of marsupial wolves.
Why did the population disappear
Today you can see the marsupial wolf in the photo, drawings. It is believed that in mainland Australia, the animal disappeared 3 thousand years ago. The main causes were illness and rivalry with the dingo dog, in which the latter survived. It is also believed that man mercilessly exterminated these wolves.
At the beginning of the XIX century, the animal was still widely represented on the island of Tasmania. However, in the 30s of the same century, the mass destruction of wolves began. This happened against the background of the fact that they hunted livestock. For the head of the wolf they gave big bonuses. A lot of legends appeared around this creature, it was called almost the devil.
By 1863, the wolf could only be found in hard-to-reach forests. The last point was set at the beginning of the XX century. It is believed that then the dog plague was brought to the island along with new imported dog breeds. As a result, the marsupial wolf did not survive, in 1928 a law was passed on the territory of Tasmania to protect this animal. The last wolf living in freedom was killed in 1930. And the last animal kept in captivity died in 1936. It is believed that the wolf died due to the small genetic diversity of the species, simply degenerated.
Search for surviving individuals
Despite everything, many naturalists still hope that the marsupial wolf, or tilacin, has survived in the dense forests of Tasmania. Information appeared in the media that people met with an animal very similar to tilacin, but not a single confirmation was provided. There are no facts about catching a wolf.
In 2005, The Bulletin magazine (Australia) offered a reward of 950 thousand US dollars for the capture of an animal. But the prize is still unclaimed.
Later, in 2016 and 2017, more information appeared that animals had been discovered that looked very much like a marsupial wolf. Even one of the road cameras recorded the image of the animal, but for obvious reasons, the place where the photo was taken was not disclosed.
The fact that they saw wolves is often said by local Aborigines living in the national park. At the same time, they assure that this is not a dingo dog and not another animal, namely tilacin, which they call the “moon tiger”.
Cloning Attempts
In 1999, an unprecedented project began - the cloning of tilacin. The process was taken up by the National Austrian Museum (Sydney). In the museum itself, the cells of the cubs of the animal in alcohol are preserved. Scientists even managed to extract the cells, but they were damaged, it happened in 2002.
In 2005, they announced the termination of the project. But thanks to the enormous efforts of scientists, it was still possible to “wake up” some genes and even implanted them into a mouse embryo.
In 2009, scientists even managed to decipher the mitochondrial genome of the animal by examining the hair of a wolf. What will happen next? See you soon.