Why did the Thylacine become extinct?
Thylacine at Taronga Zoo Sydney 1922.
Photographer: G.P. Whitley
(G.P. Whitley Papers Australian Museum Archives)
Although the precise reasons for extinction of the Thylacine from mainland Australia are not known it appears to have declined in competition with the Dingo and became extinct on the mainland not less than 2000 years ago. Its decline and presumed extinction in Tasmania was hastened by the introduction of dogs, and by people actively hunting the animal.
Copyright © Australian Museum, 1999, 2002
