40 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



of extinction. Civilization has been the great cause of its decreasing 

 numbers. It has no legal protection. 



"In spite of his ungainly, ugly appearance, his whining snarls 

 and unpleasant smell, the Tasmanian Devil is a creature of many 

 amusing antics and distinctly unusual ways. Moreover, his position 

 as the second largest of living marsupial carnivores, soon, perhaps, 

 to be the largest when the rare Thylacine finally disappears, invests 

 him with a peculiar interest." (Fleay, 1935, p. 100.) 



Tasmanian Wolf; Marsupial Wolf; Tasmanian Tiger; 



Thylacine 



THYLACINUS CYNOCEPHALUS (Harris) 



Didelphis cynocephala Harris, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, vol. 9, p. 174, pi. 19, 

 fig. 1, 1808. ("Van Diemen's Land" [= Tasmania].) 



FIGS.: Waterhouse, 1841, pi. 5; Gould, 18*51, vol. 1, pis. 53, 54; Wolf, 1861, 

 pi. 31; Krefft, 1871, pi. 12; Royal Nat. Hist., vol. 3, p. 270, fig., 1894-95; 

 G. Smith, 1909, fig. 23; Cabrera, 1919, pi. 6; Australian Mus. Mag., vol. 1, 

 no. 3, p. 62, frontisp., 1921; Le Souef and Burrell, 1926, fig. 84; Raven, 

 1929, p. 207, fig.; Pocock, 1937, p. 614, fig.; Reed and Lucas, 1937, p. 85, 

 fig. 31; Sharland, 1939, p. 23, fig. 



This largest and most formidable of living carnivorous marsupials 

 is so seriously reduced in numbers that its fate seems to be hanging 

 by a somewhat slender thread. 



General build doglike, but hind end tapering gradually to the 

 tail; upper parts tawny grayish brown, with 16-19 blackish brown 

 bands across the back, chiefly developed on the hind quarters; 

 under parts paler. Head and body, 1230-1300 mm.; tail, 525-650 

 mm.; height at shoulders, about 560 mm. (Chiefly from Lord and 

 Scott, 1924, p. 264.) 



While a fossil form of Thylacine has been recorded from the 

 Australian mainland, the range of the living form is restricted to 

 Tasmania. The mainland Thylacine is presumed to have suc- 

 cumbed as a consequence of the advent of the Dingo during the 

 Pleistocene, for it probably could not compete successfully with 

 that more highly organized animal. 



The Thylacine "is common in the more remote parts of the 

 colony, and they are accordingly often caught at Woolworth and 

 the Hampshire hills. . . . They are usually nocturnal in their 

 attacks on sheep." (Gunn, 1838, p. 101.) 



It was with prophetic vision that Gould wrote long ago (1863, 

 vol. 1, pp. 60-61) : 



When the comparatively small island of Tasmania becomes more densely 

 populated, and its primitive forests are intersected with roads from the eastern 

 to the western coast, the numbers of this singular animal will speedily diminish, 



