Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Thylacines among us

 


A mildly skeptical YouTube video about supposed post-extinction reports of thylacines on New Guinea (from where the thylacine disappeared thousands of years ago). It seems people still se them here and there, often in the hills. While the animal´s existence sounds plausible enough, there are some problems with the idea, too. 

For instance, tribal hunters don´t wear thylacine skins - and they seem to hunt virtually all large mammals on the island. Another problem is that thylacines resemble large dogs, and such a breed actually exists on New Guinea: the so-called "singing dog", a distant relative to the dingo. Feral and wild(?) populations exist in the highlands.

Surviving thylacines on Papua (singing or not) would be fascinating, but misidentification with said doggie can´t be ruled out. The YouTuber suggests that it could also be a kind of cope, since we haven´t been able to find any surviving thylacines on Tasmania, and not for want of trying...

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