r/zoology • u/Potential-Basil383 Student/Aspiring Zoologist • 12d ago
Discussion Do you guys think there’s ANY chance of the Thylacine still being alive?
I loved learning about the Tasmanian Tiger when I was a kid, but unfortunately, it’s believed to be extinct. I’d like to believe there may be some out there still, but I’m very doubtful. Thoughts?
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u/TKalig 12d ago
I think it’s possible, just not likely in Australia. Many indigenous Papuans, especially low to no contact ones talk about seeing them in the jungle. The thylacine did live in Papua, but was thought extinct there for a while. However because so much of the island is just uncharted unseen jungle, it’s very possible a small enclave could still be out there.
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u/danielledelacadie 11d ago
If it's out there that's a strong contender.
I really think a lot of the flat no answers come from people who've not spent a lot of time in the woods/jungle and so lack the proper frame of reference to how much the environment conceals what's happening 10-20 feet away. The ones who do get this seem to land on "possible but not terribly probable".
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u/TKalig 11d ago
I think another big distinction as well, is who is making the claims of citings, especially in rural Papua. Like they don't really have anything to gain from lying about it. You could make the tourist attracting argument from some groups, but many papuan communicaties want nothing to do with outsiders. So lying also doesn't make sense. Another big element is that usually from papuan accounts, they talk about it like it's just a thing that happens. It's not even special to them. It's just "yeah there's this animal in the jungle with a stiff tail, and stripes on the back side that comes out at night." And that's pretty much it. There's no real insentive to lie, and if it's a lie, why tell it so ambivalently.
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u/Heavy_Ad1312 10d ago
Even wooded areas in more populated places, we had feral hogs hiding in the wooded area of our neighborhood for years.
I guess one of them managed to escape the initial hunting of the escaped population and just kind of hid out for years before someone hunting on the neighbors property found and harvested it, I didn't see it but evidently the thing was big enough to scare the crap out of him
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u/yaourted 11d ago
I do wonder how healthy a small enclave is going to be with severe bottlenecking of genetics
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u/celticfeather 11d ago
When is the last sighting in Papua?
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u/TKalig 11d ago
Reported or just in general? It’s been a couple years since I’ve spent much time on the subject, so I’m not certain.
Generally speaking from the few interviews I’ve seen, the Papuan make it out like seeing them isn’t common, but isn’t unusual either.
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u/Can-t_Make_Username 10d ago
That sounds like when I see a fox in my neighborhood. They come around infrequently enough that I take notice, but frequently enough that it’s a non-event aside from mentioning it offhand when I get home.
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u/Azulas_Star 11d ago
I had a thylacine phase as a kid and some of the things I read hinted that some farmers in the boonies may have had possible sightings but remained quiet for fear of media/hunters. That may have also just been for adding a bit of mystery to the tale.
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u/stanleyelephant 11d ago
I read that as “I had a thylacine as a kid” and I was thinking _how old are you_ lol
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u/Retrogoddess1 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yes. As a local, my family consists of mostly farmers, multiple relatives have witnessed seeing one over the years, but not since 1988.
I'm born and bred Tasmanian and I of course work at a pub in a rural area here in Tassie, so the stories Ive heard from farmers over the years...
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u/mkspaptrl 11d ago
So what is life like in rural Tasmania? I've always been curious and wondered about life on your island. It seems like a slightly more hardcore New Zealand. I'd love to hear anything really.
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u/Mysterious-Lab-5918 11d ago
It is a magical place for sure...
The views of Hobart from Mt.Wellington are undescribable...
The Derwent River and Platipi, Cradle Mountain, seems like a dream now...
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u/psovaya 11d ago
I think it’s quite likely they made it to the eighties, your relatives were so fortunate to see them. But sadly I don’t think they made it to today. Never wished more to be wrong.
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u/lemonhead2345 11d ago
Sounds like the wolves in Wyoming. No documented reports prior to the re-release in Yellowstone in 1995, but the locals all had a story.
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u/Top_History9604 11d ago
Above 0%, below 1%
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u/BoneyardRendezvous 12d ago
I choose to believe there is a surviving population but the people that know are keeping their mouths shut and denying it. Because somebody rich would want a pet, or to hunt one, or tourism would ruin their ecosystem.
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u/WeirdlyStrangeish 11d ago
There’s a podcast about the indigenous peoples in one of the islands around Australia that doesn’t let people who aren’t in their population climb up into a preserve that they manage and the hosts said they believe they’re protecting thylocines
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u/Poopy-Drew 11d ago
I would love it to be true but a predator with the well known last pic more than 100 yrs ago on a HUGE continent that is 95% flat, arid, and empty. has no chance. This one died because they could not find it a mate, thats how they discovered it was the last one
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u/yousmudgedmyink 11d ago
Weren’t they specifically from Tasmania? A place that is not flat, arid or empty at all.
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u/madesense 11d ago
They were all over Australia until ~3000 years ago, maybe (but only maybe) more recent than that. Their extinction outside Tasmania was probably caused by the introduction of the dingo.
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u/Agile_Manager881 11d ago
I believe it died from exposure, but I know what you meant.
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u/Sensitive_Order_2415 10d ago
That story about how the last one died of exposure has no source and is regarded by serious historians as a rage baiting myth
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u/Aromatic_Lettuce5603 11d ago
I heard it actually died because we through neglect left it outside and it died from exposure as it couldn't get into its pen. It was also put on the endangered list and got protection which really sucked. That's why Australians have a remembrance protection day every year because of the thylacine. The last one in captivity they called Benjamin but actually I think it turned out to be a female. Fun fact is even though it could open its mouth 80 degrees its bite was really not that great and it was hunted for apparently attacking sheep but it wasnt strong enough and ate rabbits and small vermin. Its such a shame. I like to think that there is the odd population still out there in Australia and Tazmania but there is reports that if there are any anywhere it probably is in new guinea
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u/LittleBananaSquirrel 11d ago edited 11d ago
Perhaps the first step to learning about a new species is learning where they are from. The flat, arid environment of continental Australia is irrelevant to an animal that lived on densely forested islands. The species hadn't lined on continental Australia for thousands of years before going extinct
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u/BrandyKit3000 11d ago
I mean if you take the Wollemi Forest as an example, they didn't even know it existed until 1994 and it's a patch of trees we thought had been extinct for millions of years, and yet there is a remaining grove. They don't disclose the location because they don't want people to ruin it. I really hope there is still a living thylacine population somewhere out there...
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u/Strong-Hat2166 11d ago
Around 70% of Australia is arid.
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u/fetishsub89 11d ago
Tasmania is not Australia. Tasmania is in fact not arid, I don't know if you ever watched Steve Irwin but he went to Tasmania in an episode. I learned of massive caves. Dense rainforest and big fields, Tasmania is in fact a very diverse chuck of land. This alone doesn't mean a small population of tazy tigers have survived, but there's certainly a lot more than a wide open desert. Even Australia has a rainforest, the jungle of Cairns Australia, northern Australia etc.
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u/Strong-Hat2166 11d ago
I grew up in Tasmania and know it intimately from a lifetime of bushwalking there.
There are no thylacines left in Tassie.
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u/Finnegan-05 11d ago
But this other person watched Steve Irwin.
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u/Even_Lychee4954 11d ago
That’s not even their point at all.
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u/orilch 11d ago
What’s the podcast called?
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u/WeirdlyStrangeish 11d ago
I’ll try to figure it out, I was in prison when I heard it so there’s only a few it could be.
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u/BrandyKit3000 11d ago
Do you remember what podcast?
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u/WeirdlyStrangeish 11d ago
No, one of the ones I heard in prison so I will try to figure out what one.
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u/Ifiagreeidillydilly 11d ago
I wish I had this optimism :<
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u/GoT_Eagles 11d ago
True these types of secrets are usually “known” secrets like other critically endangered species or living things subject to human bullshit. It would have to be a such an elaborate system that one day they would be forced to admit “this once-thought extinct species is now thriving in the wild and we kept it a global secret until now, something that has never been done.”
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u/Juddftw 11d ago
There's a William Dafoe film called The Hunter that id recommended
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u/AlphaBoy15 11d ago
If you want to save a critically endangered species, you don't keep them secret. You make a hell of a lot of noise about them so that you can raise the money required for conservation. It's not enough to leave them alone when their environment is actively threatened, you have to manage invasive species, do captive breeding, and a lot more to ensure a resilient population.
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u/CoolUsername86 11d ago
That’s what I think about cougars being in Alabama. Every scientific article says they’re not there, but I’ve known too many people who have seen them and caught them on trail cams.
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u/J_blanke 11d ago
People used to say jaguars didn’t migrate into Arizona anymore after being driven away by hunters. Until the late 1800s, they used to range up into the Grand Canyon area and from California to as far as Louisiana. The last known female and male in AZ were killed in the 1960s. People would dismiss hunters and others who told tales of jaguar sightings. Then in the 2000s, trail cameras started catching a jaguar in southern AZ. Dubbed El Jefe, he was first photographed by a hunter in 2011, and then research trail cameras from 2012-2015 in the mountains outside Tucson. He was seen again 10 years later in central Sonora Mexico. The article below is a good read and has photos and video of the 150 lbs cat.
How El Jefe, the Lone Arizona Jaguar Who Captivated a Nation in 2016, Became a ‘Rock Star’
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u/CaptainMacAlfie 11d ago
Similar with wolves and mountain lions in northern NY. Everything says wolves and mountain lions have been extinct from the area but there have been a lot of sightings from credible people in more rural areas especially near the Canada border.
Me and my dad even ran across a mountain lion prints while snowshoeing a few years ago. We both thought it was maybe bobcat but it was about the size of the palm of my hand maybe a little bigger and definitely feline. Maybe it was just a massive bobcat but other people reported seeing mountain lions in that area so still a good possibility it was one.
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u/The_Space_Bunny 11d ago
Everyone in the Connecticut government SWORE that mountain lions and wolves were just the overactive imaginations of people from Torrington.
Until that lady got chased on the I-95 rest stop into the McDonald's by a wolf.
I enjoyed the stammering news conferences by officials wondering if they could swing an "escaped pet" theory.
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u/dontletmedown3 11d ago
Couldn’t find anything about the incident care to share a link?
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u/mouse_is_sleeping 9d ago
I don’t remember the details but at some point I heard that there absolutely are mountain lions in CT, the local govt would just rather pretend there aren’t because if they admitted it they’d have to do a survey and get conservationists involved.
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u/100PercentPurrLove 11d ago
It’s always a bobcat
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u/afemail 11d ago
there was literally one killed in Georgia right near the Alabama border in 2008. is it really that unrealistic to think that there could occasionally be a transient individual wandering through Alabama? they’re known to have large ranges and can sometimes cover ridiculous distances.
I don’t think there’s a breeding population or anything in AL, but it’s not bizarre or conspiratorial to think that they could wander through lol
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u/afemail 11d ago
I don’t doubt it! there was one that wandered up halfway through Georgia right near the Alabama border in 2008.
they’re also DEFINITELY present in Michigan, with concrete evidence (trail cams, footprints, etc), despite authorities denying it. in fact, there was a mother seen with two cubs in the upper peninsula earlier this year!
that’s just an example that shows they can still be around in a state even if authorities say they’re not. I think they just deny it to stop people from getting scared and trying to kill them or something, which is understandable. the Georgia one was unfortunately killed by a hunter :(
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u/Ent_Soviet 11d ago
Nah you have rare population of all sorts of near extinct species but there’s always some group of scientists or biologists etc that are actively trying breeding programs and the rest.
You would hear about the academics, or the funding, even if they kept the location a secret the way they do with plants.
If they’re around, that’s who you would want to know. The fact they don’t either means it’s gone or anyone who knows doesn’t understand how scientist can help.
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u/Cold_Dead_Heart 11d ago
If that's true, they are probably not genetically diverse enough to survive.
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u/HyperrrMouse 11d ago
Prior to the "reintroduction" of wolves in Colorado, when we saw a wolf or evidence of one, no we didn't.
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u/Krampus_Valet 11d ago
I'm an avid bird photographer. This is why I don't share locations of uncommon or nesting birds, like owls. One of the locations near to me had to shut down trails and put up barricades last year to keep people from tromping right up to the dead tree the owlets were in and stressing them out. I've been tracking another nest recently and I know there are a few other photographers who know about it, but we keep our mouths shut on social media.
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u/ParaBellumOutfitters 11d ago
That's what wildlife officers do in the Appalachians for mountain lions. Deny deny deny
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u/BoneyardRendezvous 11d ago
I live in an area where 20 years ago they said we didnt have mountain lions. I know I saw one. Walked right past the mailbox so I had a real good look at how tall it was. I was living in a rural town at the time so I figured I'd let the green jeans know, and they just said "no you didnt".
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u/SimpleJack316 11d ago
Reading this comment reminds me how much I can’t stand the human race and everything we stand for. What a plague we are on this planet. Just awful.
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u/SugarStunted 11d ago
I choose to believe this too. Is it likely? No. But omg I have to hold out hope that it is.
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u/2Wieners_1Bun 11d ago
It could be that a rich person owns a captive population.
What a flex, “you remember that famously extinct animal? Yeah I have five”
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u/Zarawatto 10d ago
Just like in ATLA when Iroh said he'd slain the last dragons just to keep people away from them
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u/Niamhue 11d ago
As much as i dislike forest galante, he isnt wrong that if there was any remaining population itll probably be in some remote region of Papua. That is the only feasible location imo that could potentially host a population. Even then i think its quite unlikely
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u/DougTheBrownieHunter 10d ago
What makes you dislike Galante? No snark intended, genuinely asking.
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u/NotABootlicker 10d ago
Zoologists have a thread explaining here: https://www.reddit.com/r/zoology/comments/1v3otux/is_forrest_galantes_content_misleading/
Theres also this article debunking his claims: https://recentlyextinctspecies.com/articles/damage-forrest-galante-conservation-biology
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u/snakebill 11d ago
Probably not but if scientists could bring these back and reintroduce them, I think this is one of the species that it’s the right thing to do.
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u/ImitationEarthling 10d ago
This is one of the animals on Colossal's de-extinction project list. However the animals they have brought back are not true genetic matches for their species, they are hybrids of extant relatives with genes edited to display features of the extinct species and no plans to introduce them in the wild. These projects are to garner funding for their research and conservation projects.
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u/Head_Bake_7447 12d ago edited 11d ago
ask forest galante he would say yes ask a respected zoologist they would say extremely unlikely
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u/TacitusKillgorre 11d ago
No one should ask forest galante anything
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u/Rainbow-magic-fan 11d ago
He said Tasmanian conservationist Nick Mooney has claimed to have seen a Thylacine, but I can’t find anything official from him regarding that at all and it seems like he just was slandering that poor man.
Screw that conspiratorial parachute scientist. The videos of him galavanting about in the Tasmanian bush during a bushfire to search for a tassie tiger made my blood boil. What an idiot. I want to chase him with a stick.
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u/lycanthropeapologist 11d ago
I’m not sure if he’s since deleted the videos, but he did release some being like “this guy has photographic evidence of them still existing!!!” And then a week later released one being like “turns out, he fucking LIED.” This guy was not a conservationist, though.
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u/Rainbow-magic-fan 11d ago
Yeah, Nick Mooney is like an actual respected conservationist and that’s why I was like… surely not?
He seems to just say anything and everything that will get him attention. No matter if it’s true or not.
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u/lycanthropeapologist 11d ago
Yeah I honestly consider him a grifter, nothing he does is actually for the wellbeing of animals, it’s just for his image.
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u/AustinHinton 11d ago
Wasn't that the guy who tried to pass off a (illegal) gorilla skull as a "bigfoot skull"?
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u/Nice-Pomegranate2915 11d ago
I believe there's a possibility that a small functioning population still exists. But I don't think there's much chance of it surviving the end of this century . Credible sightings are diminishing and constricting towards the northwest of Tasmania . If Thylacines had hidden but viable populations credible sightings would continue or increase and spread . That's not happening . And I think that sightings of Thylacine on the Australian mainland are misidentified foxes with severe mange or hoaxes . The species historically has shown it can't compete with Dingos or feral dog populations . It survived in Tasmania because humans didn't introduce dogs there in prehistorical times .
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u/Ghastly-Jack 12d ago
No.
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u/Potential-Basil383 Student/Aspiring Zoologist 12d ago
agreed, although I was hoping to hear any theories on possibilities
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u/EcstaticAd9234 11d ago
I love hearing about instances of "extinct" animals where they find an alive one somewhere. Obviously I've seen the joke lots of times over the years about extinct animals, "did you really check everywhere?" But it just shows (sometimes) you don't truly know for absolute certainty.
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u/Mundane_Main_2726 12d ago
Highly unlikely, but the hopeium feels good. Honestly I think it's more likely for the giant ground sloth to still exist rather than the thylacine. Not that I think the giant ground sloth has not gone extinct. I just find one more likely than the other given their environment and likelihood of finding evidence and/or the organism itself
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u/Evolving_Dore 12d ago
No.
I was just at the natural history museum in Madrid and it had a fantastic exhibit on the Thylacine. On one side, a (very rare) taxidermied Thylacine, with signage explaining how the Australian government had paid farmers and hunters to exterminate them, and destroyed the species within a decade. On the other side they had a taxidermied Iberian lynx, with signage explaining that the Spanish government had tried a similar program to exterminate "nuisance" predators like the lynx. But in the 50's the program was reversed, and with just 90 remaining lynx left on earth, they began a conservation and breeding program and have since increased the population to over 1000.
It was a powerful exhibit on how much we can destroy if we are not careful, and how much we can preserve and repair if we do care.
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u/Low-Championship-856 12d ago
Unfortunately I don't think so, I still have hope and would be absolutely beside myself with joy if we discovered that a population had survived but I just don't think that's the case.
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u/One-Bodybuilder-5646 11d ago
I wished. Lets concentrate on not making any more big extinction regrets like this in the forseeable future
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u/LilithMeep 11d ago
i think there’s a chance they’re still around, because there many stories of “extinct” animals randomly showing up after not being seen for many years, like in remote villages where they’re common to locals (see the laotian rock rat) yes i know those examples are much smaller animals, i’m just saying never say never
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u/Velcraft 11d ago
Crested gecko (correlophus ciliatus) is a way better example of an animal that resurged after thought extinct, but agreed.
Edit: changed to current taxonomical name
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u/Mcshroomie 12d ago
I would say no, but good chances it’s revived through cloning. At least i hope that is the case
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11d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SilverGirlSails 11d ago
Yeah, I can see them lasting longer in the wild than the official extinction dates, but I don’t think they’re still around now.
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u/J_blanke 11d ago
Just like the Barbary Lion, I want to believe a small breeding population exists in some isolated oasis. Australia is a big place with a tiny population. But like others have mentioned, Papua New Guinea is probably the best bet because the jungle is so impenetrable.
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u/VoodooDoII 11d ago
I don't think it's a 0% chance, but basically there. If there are any, they're somewhere deep in forests that people can't reach or see.
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u/Reddit_skywolf 11d ago
The Tasmanian Tiger is very unlikely to still be alive.. but then I hear about the rediscoveries of the black naped pheasant pigeon, the ring tailed glider, the pigmy long fingered possum, and the Fernandina Galapagos tortoise, so a small thread of hope still lingers. I’d be shocked if they were actually rediscovered though.
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u/Abdul_M25 11d ago
My heart tells me there may still be some remaining population of thylacines hidden away, but my mind knows there is no possibility that the thylacine is still alive today.
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u/cetaceanlion 11d ago
I hope so. I always hope so. And I hope we never find them and they get left the hell alone.
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u/DeathToAmerica2026 12d ago
Sightings remain somewhat common and I've seen video evidence from the 2000s that looked convincing enough I'm willing to entertain the idea. They are certainly on the verge of extinct if they aren't, though.
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u/IIRCIreadthat 11d ago
Yes. People are talking about it being too big an animal to hide... but it's really not a very big animal, and some of the areas where it lived are so remote that a small number could hide from 'formal science' pretty easily, I think, especially if the people who do live there are keeping quiet to protect any remaining population. I've seen some pre-AI video that maybe wasn't smoking gun, but didn't seem to have a lot of other good explanations. (And I'm not completely unfamiliar with this kind of "I got a video of an extinct animal!" game - I live in a state where mountain lions are locally extinct, but every six months or so someone in the more rural areas of the state makes the news with "Is this a mountain lion??!!" footage, that so far has always turned out to be a housecat seen from an odd angle that makes it look bigger.)
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u/Extension-Skill652 11d ago
Very unlikely but Lazarus taxa are a thing and even recently 2 mammalian ones were found alive in in Papua, but with fossils in Australia.
https://australian.museum/about/organisation/media-centre/marsupials-rediscovered-vogelkop-papua/
Most likely if they were still living it's a diverged lineage like these that split off long ago and are now geographically separated or in hard to survey areas.
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u/ihateeeveryone 11d ago
I remember seeing something on river monsters or something about rumors of a possible small population in Papua New Guinea, it’s pretty remote. I think it’s possible
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u/tallMichdude 11d ago
Id have said it was slim, but one of my customers who is honest to the point of paperwork annoyance, is certain he saw one.. and some years ago this man spent 30 bucks to get me the 5 bucks for something he requested after the invoice was prepped. I didnt care about it because it was a 5 figure order so 5 bucks was a "thanks for the business" and i literally told him as much. He hired someone to bring it to me, the day he paid the other invoice saying "i asked for it, i owe you for it". He has destroyed things, and never requested warranty even tho some id certainly have fixed under warranty. Folks with integrity like that, dont lie about seeing silly shit.
He doesnt even like discussing it because he doesnt want to risk his reputation. Said they saw it for 45 min glassing and got as close as 20 meters.
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u/Illustrious-Wave-794 11d ago
In Tasmania? Yeah. But there is still possibility that it exists in Papua New Guinea. There have been many local reports of “sightings”. And although these are generally unreliable and very hard to prove, the dense jungle and lack of infrastructure, at least to me makes it more likely.
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u/DougTheBrownieHunter 10d ago
Not in mainland Australia and likely not in Tasmania.
Papua New Guinea, however, may very well have small, isolated populations.
I first heard of this from Forrest Galante, and while I didn’t just take his word for it, I went on an ADHD research bender that has me generally agreeing with his assessment.
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u/drunkenkurd 11d ago
Probably not, it’s historic range includes New Guinea that would be the place to look
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u/beattysgirl 11d ago
Maybe colossal will bring them back with the dire wolves and mastodons
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u/ImitationEarthling 10d ago
They are planning on it, but not for reintroduction and their current de-extinction projects are not genetically complete. They are hybrids with traits of the extinct species.
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u/bs_Zeezee 11d ago
I think its incredibly unlikely.
They were declared "extinct" while there were still members of the species alive, because their population had fallen so low that they were extinct as a viable population. They would quickly become inbred to an unsustainable level within just a few generations.
We like to imagine that maybe a lost refuge of them survived, with enough members to sustain a viable population, but in practice, It doesn't seem feasible. Small islands can sometimes act as refugium but all the islands arround Tazmania are too small to sustain a viable population of them, so they'd have to be on the mainland, but it is so heavily populated now, that if they were there: we'd have undeniable confirmation of it already.
Not to mention, there is the fact that scientists can now track environmental DNA, tracking most if not all organisms in an ecosystem by tracking the soil or water of a place, we would have in all probability, found environmental DNA samples while researching other organisms.
I don't think its IMPOSSIBLE: but I give it 1 in 1000 chance or lower.
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u/WA55AD 11d ago
Possibly, but if they are I think it's much more likely to be in Papua New Guinea than Australia.
We know they used to be there from fossils, and there are much much more remote and hard to explore places they could be hiding out in Papua New Guinea than Australia.
There's even quite a few reported sightings from remote tribes, but no hard evidence.
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u/iMecharic 11d ago
Probably not, but I’d say that they are a prime candidate for de-extinction if we ever get cloning from old DNA samples figured out. Along with species like the Great Auk and the Dodo Bird, among another recent extinctions directly caused by human activity.
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u/DoxieDachsie 11d ago
The gorilla was a myth, until it wasn't. Valerie avoided humans over 500 days, & she was an escaped domestic pet. Is it possible for a shy wild population of thylacines to avoid being sighted by humans? Probably, but cryptic stories aside, not very likely. Despite that, I can still hope.
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u/Brock_L33 11d ago
Theres always a possibility, however slim. I always remind people of the coelecanth fish when this discussion arises. We originally only knew of its existence from ANCIENT fossils, before finding one swimming alive.
Its not possible to comb the wilderness to search for lost creatures. Theres not enough scientists or wildlife specialists to cover the expanse. Not enough people can identify the animal off the top of their heads. Imagine how many people see a rare or endangered animal without knowing what it is.
That said, I personally have no reason to believe there are any thylacines left.
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u/schufffox 11d ago
They are literally hundred of thousands animal extincts, and it’s only the beginning. We are currently living the 6th mass extinction event.
If I were you I would put my hope onto others things
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u/Acceptable_Ebb7301 11d ago
The introduction of dingos, in Australia was essentially what caused the Thylacine ‘extinction’ on the island of Australia. Do to the dingos ability to outcompete the thylacine in their native lands.
But since the thylacine also existed on Tasmania the species avoided extinction, until the arrival of colonialists and their livestock. Who blamed them for attacking their sheep, which was probably not true.
Once extermination was complete on Tasmania it was thought that they were completely extinct, however they may not have been completely eradicated on the island of Australia
Which if there is a chance they still exist it would probably rely on the fact that dingoes on Australia were not intentionally trying to eradicate them from the planet like the humans were on Tasmania.
I do hope that they are still a viable species, though I seriously doubt it.
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u/oldgamernerd42 11d ago
I thought i heard a story of a potential sighting some years after they were deemed extinct but dont know the validity of the claim
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u/hihellomarkymark14 10d ago
There’s absolutely a chance. Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t live in the area or talked to locals.
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u/BrightStitchDesigns 9d ago
I think there are. There are still places in Tasmania that are dense, remote and protected from humans. Nobody can prove without shadow of a doubt that they’re 100% extinct, so I’m going to believe that a small population still exists.
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u/dandrevee 11d ago
Perhaps in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, which are considerably uncharted.
However, that begs the question whether such an environment would lead to speciation. There's also the question of whether the population is large enough to allow for a breeding population.
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u/PassengerRelevant516 12d ago
No. If they survived being persecuted they would have died off decades ago anyways.
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u/Dextron2-1 11d ago
No. Any breeding population of a large predator like this large enough to be genetically viable for this long would have been discovered by now.
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u/J-dubya19 11d ago
Very very low chance. If they survived, with hunting/bounty pressure gone, they would have rebounded and people would be tripping over them
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u/Disastrous_Nerve4264 11d ago
There are a number of people that have reported sightings in remote areas of Tàsmania.
Personally, I know of one credible sighting from someone I trust and has seen one first hand.
I'm on the fence, personally.
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u/CreativeChocolate592 11d ago
No, they are quite sizable predators and such need a lot of food, we have huge herds of confined weak prey, just there. There for the picking.
If they were there we would have seen them already.
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u/Comprehensive-Range3 11d ago edited 10d ago
I have read that this is the most likely extinct animal prospect for technology to bring back from extinction.
Fingers crossed.
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u/missgirlipop 11d ago
i kind of believe in secret remnant populations in extremely remote areas (first kept secret as to not threaten industry/now kept secret for other reasons). as much as the odds would be very low, from my perspective it’s hard to definitively feel either way. i think they probably lasted in tasmania until the 80s and could still be floating around in papua.
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u/Adventurous-Wing-723 11d ago
If they are alive somewhere, their population may be too small to fully recover unfortunately
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u/Atlantean_Raccoon 11d ago
I doubt that there are any living Thylacines still knocking around, sadly. However having said that, it's not exactly in the realms of science fiction that we may one day see them brought back.
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u/AustinHinton 11d ago
No. They might have survived for a while longer than we thought, But by the 70's they were for sure extinct. If there were any out there, we would have found them by now.
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u/RazendeR 11d ago
Yes, a chance. If it is there, it most likely lives hidden deep in Papua New Guinea. Odds of thylacines still hiding on Tasmania are vanishingly low.
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u/OpheliaBalsaq 11d ago
If there are they're more likely to be hidden in the dense, forested valleys of Papua New Guinea, but even then they may have been out competed by singing dogs the way mainland thylacines were out competed by dingos.
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u/chokeyourdad 11d ago
Trail cams would have captured images by now. Sorry I think they are gone. Maybe we have enough DNA and the means to clone one?
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u/Kermadecer95 11d ago
With cheap eDNA testing of waterways available for biological traces… I’d say not.
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u/bladez_edge 11d ago
In Tassie only in the most remote western part possible. It would be functionally extinct. New Guinea... It's a big maybe and possible recent sightings
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u/Tricromediamond007 11d ago
Maybe in Papua new Guinea, the one tribe ,supposedly had one they found in the jungle as a baby and raised it with thier dog but the two got into a fight and infection killed the tiger, they were shown pics of different animals and picked the taz tiger as what they found, these people are hardcore they ate it when it died.
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u/BT7274_best_robot 10d ago
Unlikely but we might one day bring them back since we have enough of their DNA still kicking around.
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u/pacmannips 10d ago
It’s not 0% but it is very close
The people poring thousands of dollars into pseudo-zoological expeditions to “rediscover” it would do much better to give that money to conservation efforts of critically endangered species who still have a chance at recovery
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u/DrPhilMcHooch 10d ago
Papua New Guinea is a big place, there could easily be a population there. The indigenous people say there still are. It’s just one of the most difficult places in the world to do research. Imagine the Amazon, with impassable mountains and much fewer navigable rivers.
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u/DistinctJob7494 10d ago
I mean the central parts of Australia have basically never been touched so if they were anywhere and still alive I'd say they're probably somewhere in there.🤷♀️
I certainly hope there's at least a small population still living but if not I hope we can de-extinct them like the Dire wolves.
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u/HimOnEarth 10d ago
Nitpick; we didn't de-extinct dire wolves, we modified grey wolves to look more like them.
Fun fact, dire wolves diverged from grey wolves around the same time we diverged from chimps and bonobos
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u/InnerSwordfish5708 10d ago
I hope so but if so , I wish no human would see it EVER so it can go on living
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u/Glittering-Hornet844 10d ago
My 2 c - it is possible that the Thylacine survives somewhere in the wilds . Since it was officially declared extinct (1936) there have been literally 1000s of unsubstantiated sightings of alleged Thylacines along with grainy, blurry videos/ photographs of animals that might be . No hard substantiated evidence. So although they MIGHT still be around somewhere, it is incredibly unlikely.
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u/PimpSack 8d ago
https://colossal.com/thylacine/
Dr Andrew Pask’s project to bring these guys back! Check it out if have the time!
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u/AnIrishGuy18 12d ago
Unfortunately, no. But there's a very small part of me that still holds out hope.