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

by Robert Paddle

This insightful examination of the history and extinction of one of Australia's most enduring folkloric beasts--the thylacine, (or Tasmanian tiger)-- challenges conventional theories. It argues that rural politicians, ineffective political action by scientists, and a deeper intellectual prejudice about the inferiority of marsupials actually resulted in the extinction of this once proud species. Hb ISBN (2000):0-521-78219-8

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Natural History, Science, Biology, Nature, Wildlife

284 pages, Paperback

First published December 4, 2000

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I've read all the good parts of this book...answering the most interesting question: what were they really like? So technically, I'm not actually finished with the book, but I'm not sure I care about going into detail about the bounties, hunting them to extinction, and failed attempts at conservation at the very last minute. I'm much more interested in what were they really like. And Paddle does a good job discussing eyewitness accounts and human-thylacine interactions.

And he does a great job slamming academia in that era for being biased, unprofessional, making unsupported claims, and overall being useless. I also like the writing. While citing so many sources and making complex statements about behavior, it doesn't read as too dry.

And while I skipped the most depressing and truly sad parts, the end has a very good section addressing all the rationales put forth about why they weren't saved...it turns out there were plenty of scientists and naturalists who knew even before the bounties began. They knew.

Enough with the book review...did you know there was an account of a pet thylacine wagging a tail at the owner?

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was incredibly upsetting. Desperately hoping Genetic company 'Colossal' are able to revive this species in the near future

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book with "new" information (technically simply so far unpublished in our times) and interesting thoughts. There is information on diet, behavior (19th century information suggest a social animal), vocalization, captivity, repdroduction, extinction and human society at the time. Actually many things stated about the thylacine look similar to what is now claimed to be true about the Australian wild dog, except that so far scientists do not seem to be taking part in the myth making).
The author did one hell of a job, but to be honest it might be possible that by that he will fall under the "great man" phenomenon he himself criticised because it lead to so much misinformation about the thylacine.
I can definitely recommend that book for all its information and despite being 284 pages long it is for the most part easy to read.

However, how much I like it, I cannot give it 5 stars due to 2 main points that made me wonder about the objectivity of the author:
1) He spends so much time on blaming scientists but doesn't seem to think general public to be responsible. Also the people scapegoating the thylacine don't seem to be blamed for its demise in the same degree that scientists are. His points are valid, but still it is odd, because I think he makes it look as though only scientists can be blamed as a group.
2) He just accepts that the dogs attacking sheep were feral despite the fact that he himself named incidences where dogs were set upon sheep by their owners to destroy flock of rivals and how owned dogs killed sheep. He also simply accepts that feral dogs mostly kill for pleasure due to their "domesticity." But the problem is that even at the time the book was written there had been studies and books available about feral dogs either having no contact with livestock or being only a nuisance and free-ranging owned dogs being the major attackers. So I think in this regard he is "guilty" of the same thing as the scientists who accepted blood-sucking and mass sheep-killing of sheep by thylacines. He basically takes popular mythology as granted.

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and exhaustively researched natural history of the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, extinct since 1936 (officially). Great chapters on what aboriginal people believed and their interactions with, the thylacine, and the wanton destruction perpetuated by the earliest colonists against the wolf-like marsupial over the last 100 years of the species' existence. Paddle has a lot more open mind than most writers of natural history and concedes that there was a South Australian population of thylacine as late as the 19th century.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the saddest books I have ever read, the more so because it is true. The thorough and painstaking research that Paddle has presented here proves that the thylacine's extinction was completely avoidable, and has implications for many extant species, including the koala. It also puts forward the idea that scientists must be educated to put their ideas across more forcefully, not just to other scientists, but to politicians, economists, and the general public. The issue of climate change springs to my mind here.

[Adrian]

I feared it was going to be dully academic but it wasn't. Paddle does complete job of tracking down the demise of this unique Australian animal. Politicians caved in to the unreasonable fears of farmers and allowed the thylacine to die.