As for Australian star species, in many people's view now, they may be such cute animals as kangaroos and koalas, but if we expand the scope a little, to the extinct animals, the Tasmanian wolf will undoubtedly be the most famous one.

Due to the special geographical environment in Australia, although there have been many large carnivorous animals in history, they have not been as complex and powerful as those in Africa and Asia, so the Tasmanian wolf naturally became the most dazzling one. In some areas, they were also called the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf.

Tasmanian wolf

From the name, some people may mistakenly think that the Tasmanian wolf is already extinct, just like the gray wolf we know today. From an animal classification perspective, the Tasmanian wolf is closer to the possums and kangaroos, but it looks very similar to wolves, so it was finally classified as a separate family and only one genus, belonging to the Tasmanian devil order and Tasmanian wolf family, without subspecies differentiation.

Recently, discussions about Tasmanian wolves on the Internet were also boisterous. Scientists discovered relatively complete gene libraries in several wolf specimens, which may be revived with modern scientific means. This is indeed very magical.

Vanishing Star Species

Just like many other already extinct animals today, the disappearance of Tasmanian wolves is closely related to humans. Especially 5000 years ago, people brought dogs to Australia. As the number of dogs increased, some dogs escaped human control and became wild dogs.

Social attributes are stronger and their diet is more diverse, so they quickly showed strong competitiveness in this land, and clashed with the Tasmanian wolf, gradually compressing the survival space of the Tasmanian wolf. Eventually, under the influence of many factors, the Tasmanian wolf could not survive. With the death of the last Tasmanian wolf living in the Hobart Zoo in 1936, this species officially exited the historical stage.

Tasmanian wolf image

From the existing data, the Tasmanian wolf is not a very large carnivorous animal. Even the adult individuals weigh only about 30 kilograms and their height is 60 centimeters, and their length is 1.8 meters. From the morphology, the Tasmanian wolf is generally slender, with thin bones and weak muscle power, so their hunting methods are mainly ambush. They usually hide in the surrounding cover and wait for the prey to come within their ambush range, then they will rush out to hunt.

The Tasmanian wolf's main hunting method is to jump on the back of the prey. Because its mouth opening is very large, the Tasmanian wolf can ensure a large biting area, even when facing large prey, the Tasmanian wolf can ensure that it can bite its neck.

The Tasmanian wolf was widely distributed in Australia and New Guinea, mainly living in open areas or grasslands in forests. From this habit, we can see that the Tasmanian wolf is not a solitary animal. They are more or less social, because many social animals like lions and wolves live in groups in the forest, they prefer to live in open areas, which can play the advantages of group hunting.

The Tasmanian wolf prefers to hunt small animals such as small possums, non-flying birds, and small mammals.

The female Tasmanian wolf has a backward-opening pouch for raising its young. After the young are born, they crawl into the pouch to suckle. Because the Tasmanian wolf cubs are usually born without fully developed, so they live in the pouch for about 9-12 weeks, and then they will go out of the pouch to see the new world. It takes more than 9 months to reach the weaning stage.

From the entire process of Tasmanian wolf rearing, it is very fragile, at least weaker than most large carnivorous animals we know now.

The extinction of the Tasmanian devil gave the Tasmanian wolf its heyday.

Although the Tasmanian wolf has disappeared, it has experienced a glorious period during its historical survival. This glory is indirectly brought by humans. It's ironic that the Tasmanian wolf's prosperity depends on humans, and its decline is due to humans.

The Tasmanian wolf originated 4 million years ago. Although they are small and not fast, they rely on their hunting techniques and good endurance, and combined with the special environment of the region, they had already adapted to the environment before humans arrived, becoming one of the most eye-catching carnivorous beasts. Together with the double-jawed beast and the Tasmanian devil, they coexisted in this era, mutually constrained and mutually developed.

However, with the arrival of humans, this balanced situation was soon broken. The humans at that time had the most powerful ability in nature – fire. People used primitive slash-and-burn methods to quickly become the strongest beings on this land. Wherever the fire went, not only plants but also many animals perished.

Affected by this, many large carnivorous animals such as the double-jawed beast and the Tasmanian devil, which could not adapt to the rapidly changing environment, were extinct one after another. The Tasmanian wolf survived. Because there was no competition, the Tasmanian wolf's ecological niche increased sharply, and it became the largest carnivorous animal in Australia.

The disappearance of the Tasmanian devil and the double-jawed beast gave the Tasmanian wolf its short period of prosperity. At that time, the Tasmanian wolf developed very quickly. Although they clashed with humans, such as preying on livestock, but at that time, humans had primitive hunting tools and low hunting ability, so even with human hunting, it did not have a major impact on the development of the Tasmanian wolf population, but it also had some benefits for the Tasmanian wolf population development, however, this situation did not last long.

For example, starting in 1830, companies publicly offered rewards for killing Tasmanian wolves. By 1888, even the official joined the ranks of offering rewards for killing Tasmanian wolves. In just 20 years, all the Tasmanian wolves on the island were almost killed, and by the early 20th century, people could hardly find the traces of the Tasmanian wolf even in some remote areas of the island.

Finally, the last Tasmanian wolf was shot.

Tasmanian wolf ‘Benjamin’

Can the Tasmanian wolf be seen again?

As of now, with the repeated searches by Australian wildlife enthusiasts, it is unlikely. Some people have captured blurry images of the Tasmanian wolf, claiming it is a Tasmanian wolf that has disappeared, which has caused a sensation on the internet. However, after the zoologists identified it, it was probably a wild dog with patterns.

Museum Tasmanian wolf specimen

Looking back at the Tasmanian wolf’s journey from weak to strong, and then from prosperity to decline and finally extinction, it is closely related to the development of human life. The development of navigation techniques, let people discover ‘Paradise Lost’; the evolution of farming methods, let people quickly plunder nature’s resources, the Tasmanian wolf is just one of the countless extinct species.

“”

300

1642·

191803

180318241.3

183018882020

1930

193697“”

“”

“”

“”3800

“”DNA“”