Thylacine

We're back! In this episode, we're heading over to Australian and Tasmania for a cryptid(?) that has been extinct since the 30's - the Thylacine! How does this monster fit into a cryptid podcast? How do they relate to Tasmanian Devils? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

We’re back, but apologies for the delay on our return to the airwaves. I had a lovely break, but the last week has been manic at work so was a bit topsy turvy. During my break, I turned 29 and the podcast turned 3, as well as launching the new website and merchandise! Thank you if you ordered - it really means the world to me and helps me fund the podcast, so I can’t thank you enough. 

I also played through the Lego Lord of the Rings game over the Easter bank holiday so I feel very fantasy infused from all that Tolkien - so let’s hop straight back in with a really interesting monster to come back to.

DESCRIPTION:

We’re going down under this week for this cryptid, and is it even a cryptid? That is the question with the Thylacine, so let’s jump straight back in. 

The Thylacine is described as a marsupial, which as we know are pouched mammals like kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and opossums for example. They’re around the size of a large dog or even a wolf, with a beige coat of fur, but at the back end of its body are black stripes, resembling those of a tiger pattern going all the way down to its tail. They have thin, elongated snouts with sharp, canine teeth and generally get around on all four legs, much like a dog would. They also had short rounded ears and a strange straight paw print with all of the pads showing almost a straight line. They were actually unable to run very fast as they had a slightly awkward gait to them but they were able to frighten prey from a distance due to their guttural barks and whining cries. 

They were known to be able to extend their jaws to a much wider extent than any other canine, to an 80 degree angle which is pretty mad. They were an ambush, nocturnal predator and would stalk prey such as wild birds, fish and small mammals such as echidnas, wallabies, bandicoots and possums - so they were definitely not a threat to humans. The only thing that would give them away would be a pungent smell described as a faint, clean animal odour, which is seen in similar creatures such as Tasmanian devils.

Because of their marsupial nature, both genders had a pouch - which the females used for rearing their young, which were born live within it like joeys we now know within kangaroos and live with a lifespan of around 5-7 years. They would live in large packs with an alpha male and female, and males would protect the pack. The males also had pouches, but would use them to protect their external reproductive system. It sounds like something all male species would benefit from honestly. 

And speaking of which, humans were the biggest risk to Thylacines, as they would often hunt livestock such as sheep and so farmers would often be encouraged to shoot and kill Thylacines. Unfortunately, Thylacines didn’t have any extraordinary powers, they were just mammals at the end of the day - so they were quite easily taken down by a farmer's shotgun. 

These monsters were also known as Tasmanian Tigers because of their stripes and because of where they were from. They were most found on the Oceanic island of Tasmania, which is technically a part of Australia. They were also found on the mainland, but also on the island of New Guinea, which is one of the Melanesian islands in the Oceania continent. They preferred dry eucalyptus forests, wetlands and grasslands in the mainland, however, in Tasmania, they lived in the woodlands and coastal heaths where they would live in around 40-80 km spaces in their packs and family units.

ORIGIN:

However, their etymology is not at all Australian. Whilst Thylacine sounds amazing in an Aussie accent, the word actually comes from the Greek word ‘thylakos’ meaning pouch and ‘ine’ meaning pertaining to.

But before we get into history - I need to put you out of your misery. As I said, they didn’t have any mystical powers, and the reason this monster is so interesting and so difficult to discuss in a myth monster context is because, it’s a fact that the Thylacine did actually exist. Yep, they are actually very real creatures that we have actual real pictures and classifications on. 

So why am I discussing this? Well unfortunately, Thylacines no longer exist. They were hunted into extinction by us in the 1930’s, which is incredibly sad - but again, why are we talking about them? We don’t talk about the Dodo, but we know they did once exist. This is because they are technically a cryptid because there have been sightings of the Thylacine since their declared extinction, which has moved them into the cryptid space. A cryptid is technically defined as something that is believed to exist, but we have no evidence of - the Thylacine fits in because in theory, right now, it doesn’t exist anymore and sightings fuel belief that it does - making it a cryptid. Super interesting right? 

But let’s go back to the beginning - the Thylacine was discovered a very long time ago in cave paintings in Australia, dating back to at least 1000 BC. However, fossils show that they were actually around 1.7 million years ago and were originally small insect eating mammals who fit more in alongside flying foxes than dogs. Through evolution, they became larger mammals to survive to these wolf sized canines we think of now.

By the time settlers appeared in Australia in the early 1600’s, the Thylacine had already been wiped out on the mainland and in New Guinea, so it was only ever seen in Tasmania when they settled there in 1642. Bear in mind, there were people there before the European settlers and Australian history doesn’t start there - however because of the tribal nature of the Aboriginal culture, we don’t know much about them before this point in history, so this is our bouncing pad.

The Thylacine was officially discovered by Europeans in 1792 by French explorer Jacques Labillardiere who called them a ‘tiger cat’ and ‘having claws like a tiger’. The first proper scientific study of them happened in 1808, 5 years after the first full settlement on Tasmania, and they were placed among the opossum family, calling it the ‘dog-headed opossum’. They were then moved to the Dasyrus genus family, which is mostly small mammals until they were formally given their own genus in 1824 called the Thylacinus.

Their closest living relative now is actually the Tasmanian Devil - and I know we’re all thinking of Looney Tunes, but they look nothing like Taz did. These are small mammals with very dark fur and rodent-like faces, however are around the size of wombats. I think they’re really cute, but I think I’m in the minority. 

I do have to go more into the extinction event sadly, and this happened because Australia is generally not very leafy in the first place for their habitats, but as well as this, the dingo was introduced to Australia around 3,200 years ago - these wild dogs are omnivores as well as being much more versatile in their hunting habits, outsmarting the Thylacine and taking more of their prey. Unfortunately though, the main factor within the 1800-1900’s was humankind taking valuable resources from the native species, changing the climate and terraforming the land for human use. As well as this, we also hunted them voraciously due to them eating our livestock. However, the biggest contributor was climate change, which is sad to think of back then having such an impact. 

They did survive until the 1930’s in Tasmania, but they had active bounties on their heads from farmers up til 1909 with both the government and private companies paying a pound per Thylacine. By the 1920’s, it was immensely rare to see a Thylacine and many zoos started to try and pick up as many as they could. But the damage was done and the last wild Thylacine was shot in 1930, with the last Thylacine in captivity, a female, then passing away on the 7th September 1936 in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. 

There was even a hoax made up about this incident in 1968, that it was actually a male specimen called Benjamin and it was neglected by volunteer zookeepers, but this was found to not be true. However, there were records of neglect to Thylacines in captivity, just not to the last one, or endling as we would call the last of a species. Unfortunately Australia acted too late and called for protection on the Thylacine on 10th July 1936, 59 days before the death of the last one. The species was not marked as extinct until 1982, as it can only be declared 50 years after the passing of the last known specimen.

However, this brings us to the cryptid bit. There were at least 3800 reported sightings of this creature all through the 20th and 21st centuries up til today, with interest in the creature still really high. The first launched investigations into sightings across Australia and Tasmania were in 1967 and 1973 by zoologist Jeremy Griffith. He searched through the Tasmanian west coast extensively, but found nothing. In 1983, American Ted Turner who founded CNN offered $100,000 for proof of the Thylacine’s continued existence and was followed by an Australian news magazine offering $1.25 million in 2005 - however neither produced any evidence. There is an ongoing offer for $1.75 million for proof though if you fancy hunting around the Australian outback for a Thylacine.

There have been several pictures and incidents of supposed Thylacines through the last 50 years, including  In 1973, Gary and Liz Doyle shot ten seconds of an unidentified animal running across a South Australian road - however the footage was too unclear. In 1982, Hans Naarding, a researcher, saw a Thylacine for three minutes during the night in Tasmania and actually kicked off a huge government search. In 1985, Aboriginal Kevin Cameron had five photographs which appeared to show a digging Thylacine in Western Australia. In 1995, a Wildlife officer reported seeing a Thylacine in northeastern Tasmania in the early hours of the morning. In 1997, it was reported that locals and missionaries in New Guinea had sighted Thylacines. The locals had apparently known about them for many years but had not made an official report.

In 2005, Klaus Emmerichs, a German tourist, claimed to have taken photographs of a Thylacine he saw in Tasmania, but were considered inconclusive. In 2012, two brothers uncovered skeletal remains of what they believed to be a Thylacine. The bones were taken back to experts and zoologists to observe the remains and compare them to any known animal - but eventually were concluded as dog bones. However, the brothers didn’t give up and these bones are still a mystery. In 2017, whilst filming the sunset in Australia, a man saw what he believed to be a Thylacine, this was followed by government hunts over the next few days to check, but nothing was found. 

Lastly, we do have good news and that’s that plans to clone a Thylacine were made by the Australian Museum in 1999. In late 2002, scientists were able to extract DNA from a Thylacine pup that had been preserved. However, this came crashing down in 2005, when it failed after finding that the DNA was too badly degraded. But in 2008, at the University of Texas, scientists were able to reconstruct a bone gene, which was from 100 year-old Thylacine tissue samples from museums. Samples of the same bone gene were injected inside a mouse embryo, and it came back with surprising results. In 2013, there were plans to de-extinct many extinct animals, including the Thylacine and in 2022, they started to recreate the Thylacine’s closest relative, the fat-tailed dunnart in a cloning lab. 

Now I’ll save the mythical and real life comparisons this week because of the circumstances around this one. However, we can still talk about cultural impact and this is still really massive in Australia and Tasmania. 

The Thylacine is used as a symbol of Tasmania, used in their coat of arms and for the logo of the government, as well as licence plates and as a cultural icon. They also are considered within Aboriginal culture and it is said that Aboriginals believed bad weather was caused by a Thylacine carcass being left exposed on the ground, instead of being covered by a small shelter. They also have a myth around Thylacines, that a Thylacine pup saved Palana, a spirit boy, from an attack by a giant kangaroo. Palana marked the pup's back with ochre as a mark of its bravery, giving Thylacines their stripes. A constellation, "Wurrawana Corinna" near Gemini, was also created as a commemoration of this mythic act of bravery and they are written in the stars. 

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there’s not much in regards to this monster and it was quite hard to find a matching trope so I’ve popped in some other Australian monster bits in here to stick with the theme.

For art, I’d actually really recommend having a look at John Gould’s illustrations of the Thylacine from his book; the Mammals of Australia for portrait art - but otherwise, look at the old photos of the real ones and the independent art made of them!

In movies, we have; The Hunter, Extinct, Godzilla: King of Monsters, Frog Dreaming, Carnifex, Bunyip Moon & Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire.

For TV, we have; The Peripheral, Taz-Mania, Alexander Bunyip, Charmed, Danger 5, Family Guy, Mona the Vampire, The Secret Saturdays, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, The Wild Thornberrys, Looney Tunes & Shape, Shape, Shape.

In video games, we have ones such as; Far Cry 3, Crash Bandicoot, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Valorant, The Path Of Exile, Runescape, Final Fantasy 10, Chrono Cross, The Adventures of Down Under Dan & Escape Velocity.

My book recommendation this week is for The Hunter by Julia Leigh for a fictional novel about hunting down the last Thylacine, which was made into the film with Willem Dafoe mentioned in the movie section. Or Platypus Matters: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals by Jack Ashby for more information on Australian mammals, which I bought because it sounded interesting. 

For folklore though, there are books written on the Thylacine, and I’d recommend Tasmanian Tiger: The Tragic Story of the Thylacine by David Owen or Extinct the Story of Life on Earth: Thylacine by Ben Garrod for this monster specifically.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

This is probably the easiest answer I will ever give to this question, and duh of course I believe this existed, because it did. The real question here is do I believe they still exist and have come back from the brink of extinction and the answer to that is unfortunately no. 

That is because good friends, bringing back animals from the brink of extinction is hard enough - let alone ones that died off in the 1930’s. I know that they’re trying to bring them back and the Tasmanian devil is a close comparison, but let's be real here, the sightings are most likely dingoes. It’s really sad that they were hunted into extinction and I’m glad that they might be a good candidate for cloning once we have the technology to do so. 

It’s also nice that we’d be adding back another marsupial to Australia and the rest of Oceania - I do really like that they are just the land of these types of animals, and who doesn’t like kangaroos and wallabies?

I really like the Thylacine though, and I love that this monster has become a cryptid through trying to bring it back into existence, which is usually the opposite of what we see with cryptids - so I’m glad people are happy that an extinct animal might be coming back, it fills me with joy.

But what do you think? Does the Thylacine still roam about in Tasmania? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

A great monster to come back to and actually it fits in quite well with April Fools week I suppose because they’re not reaaaaallly a myth monster - but they fit enough into the category and I liked them so that’s that.

Next week, we’re heading over to a new part of the US and technically a new folklore that we’ve not touched on yet and that’s Cajun and Louisianan folklore for a listener suggestion of the terrifying Rougarou. Thank you Jeremy and your wife for sending this one in, and I hope you’re prepared to trawl through the bayou for this one next Thursday.

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk along with all of our cool merchandise, and you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.