The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine

THE LAST TASMANIAN TIGER: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine. By Robert Paddle. Cambridge (U.K.), New York: Cambridge University Press. 2000. x, 273 pp. (Map, illustrations, B&W photos.) US$64.95, cloth. ISBN 0-521-78219-8.

Few creatures have been as poorly understood and as much maligned as the thylacine. The last known thylacine (Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus) died on 7 September 1936, in a zoo in Hobart, Australia. Drawing on archival and ethno-historical data, this volume details the behaviour, social history and extinction of Australia's legendary marsupial carnivore. This study contrasts with most others of the thylacine by dismissing post-1936 reported sightings and relying on nineteenth century sources, many of them very early, for a reconstruction of thylacine behaviour. Paddle argues convincingly that the earlier narratives recount a time when the species was under less pressure and consequently acted more naturally. The resultant portrait is of...