Marsupial wolf habitat. The Tasmanian wolf is Australia's mysterious predator. The beginning of mass extermination

The history of the existence of the marsupial wolf, or, as it is also called, the Tasmanian (Tasmanian) wolf, is very sad. With the arrival of Europeans in Australia, their merciless extermination began, and then, when their numbers were already in critical condition, the situation was aggravated by canine distemper. The thylacine is now an extinct species. The last wolf died on September 7, 1936 at a private zoo in Hobart from old age.

Despite the fact that the thylacine looks more like a wolf or a dog, its closer relatives are the Tasmanian devil, or. After all, the Tasmanian wolf is the only large predator, belonging to the marsupial family. Its tail is wide at the base and its pouch is in the form of skin fold, covering 2 nipples, are clear evidence of this relationship.

Sometimes you are surprised how short-sighted people can be. Instead of thoroughly studying this animal, they exterminated it. For almost a hundred years, researchers had such an opportunity, but no. His only official description and the pictures were published only once, in the proceedings of the Linnean Society of London in 1808 by the amateur naturalist Harris. It was he who gave it the name Thylacinus kinocephalus, which means “striped dog with a wolf’s head.”

The marsupial wolf was of medium size. The length of its body, including its tail, reached 180 centimeters, while the height at the shoulders was 60 centimeters. The wolf weighed about 20-25 kilograms.

Outwardly, he looked more like a dog than a wolf. His thick hair was grayish-yellow in color. On the back, hind legs and at the base of the tail there were 16-18 transverse dark stripes.

Even the thylacine's skull was shaped like a dog's. But its elongated mouth was of particular interest. While yawning, a wolf could open it up to almost 120 degrees. A special structure its hind legs gave the gait a spasmodic movement and gave the animal the opportunity to stand on its hind legs.

These wolves are loners. But for hunting they often gathered in pairs or small groups. This small predator had prey of appropriate size - wallabies, other small marsupials, echidnas and even lizards. They exhausted their prey with a slow but lengthy chase. In their natural habitat, thylacines never returned to a half-eaten carcass. Therefore, when people tried to kill them by planting poisoned carcasses, they did not succeed.

Like all marsupial mammals, the thylacine had a pouch with 2 nipples, in which from 1 to 4 cubs could grow at the same time. They were born very tiny, literally a couple of centimeters, and moved into their mother’s pouch. They spent 3 months there, and then the female looked for a good shelter, where she left the cubs and went hunting. She also brought prey here and also taught the kids how to deal with it.

Before the arrival of man on mainland Australia, the marsupial wolf was distributed over a large part of this continent, as well as about. Tasmania and New Guinea. But with the advent of Europeans and the dingoes they brought, the life of these marsupials turned into hell.

They originally lived in sparse forests and grassy plains, but were then driven out by humans into rain forests and mountains, where the main shelters for them were holes under the roots of trees, caves and hollows of fallen trees.

In the 30s of the 19th century, their mass extermination began, caused by the fact that these animals were allegedly guilty of mass death sheep But these were false accusations. Of course, marsupial wolves could sometimes steal poultry or other small animals from the colonists, but the harm attributed to them was exaggerated tenfold. The main cause of death of sheep was precisely wild dingoes or stray dogs brought by humans. But the farmers had no time for a showdown, and they declared the marsupial wolf enemy No. 1. Their mass extermination began.

As a result, thylacines survived only on the island. Tasmania, where people and dingoes simply couldn’t get to. But at the beginning of the 20th century, another misfortune occurred with these animals - an epidemic of canine distemper began. Thus, the Tasmanian wolf was almost completely defeated. By 1914, there were only a few of them left. In 1928, a law was passed to protect the fauna of Tasmania, but, despite the almost complete disappearance of this animal species, it was not listed as a protected species. This is how the last marsupial wolves died: one on May 13, 1930, from a hunter’s bullet, and in 1936, the last marsupial wolf in the world died in captivity.

Nowadays, due to successful development science in the field of cloning, attempts were made to restore the function of thylacine DNA. The DNA material was a cub preserved in alcohol, which had lain in a Sydney museum for more than 100 years. The gene from an extinct animal was transplanted into a mouse embryo. As a result, this gene began to function successfully in the rodent body. But cloning the most extinct animal requires much more genetic material than is currently available.

Marsupial or Tasmanian wolf, or thylacine(lat. Thylacinus cynocephalus) - an extinct marsupial mammal, the only one that survived to historical era representative of the family of marsupial wolves. Its description was first published in the proceedings of the Linnean Society of London in 1808 by the amateur naturalist Harris. Generic name Thylacinus means “marsupial dog” - from ancient Greek. θύλᾰκος "bag" and κύων "dog", specific cynocephalus- from κῠνοκέφᾰλος "dog-headed"

Opening

By the time the first explorers arrived in Australia, these animals were already scarce in Tasmania. Europeans may have first encountered the marsupial wolf in 1642, when Abel Tasman arrived in Tasmania. Members of the expedition who landed on shore reported finding traces of “wild animals with claws like a tiger.” Marc-Joseph Marion-Dufresne reported seeing a "tiger cat" in 1772. But this information does not allow us to unambiguously determine which animal we are talking about. The first officially recorded meeting of a representative of the species by French explorers occurred on May 13, 1792, as noted by naturalist Jacques Labillardiere in his journal of the expedition led by d'Entrecasteaux. However, it was not until 1805 that William Paterson, Lieutenant Governor of northern Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania), sent detailed description for publication in Sydney Gazette .

First detailed scientific description was made by the representative of the Tasmanian Society, Surveyor George Harris in 1808. Harris first placed the marsupial wolf in the genus Didelphis which was created by Linnaeus for the American opossum, describing it as Didelphis cynocephala- "possum with the head of a dog." The idea that Australian marsupials are significantly different from famous genera mammals, led to the emergence modern system classification, and in 1796 the genus was identified Dasyurus, to which the marsupial wolf was classified in 1810. To resolve the confusion of Greek and Latin specification, the variety name was changed to cynocephalus. Common name comes directly from the family name, originally from the Greek θύλακος (thýlakos) meaning "pouch" or "bag".

Spreading

Possible habitat on the island. Tasmania

Unlike, for example, the undoubtedly exterminated Falkland fox, the marsupial wolf may have survived in the deep forests of Tasmania. Over the following years, cases of encounters with the animal were recorded, but none of them received reliable confirmation. There are no known cases of a marsupial wolf being captured, and attempts to find it have not been successful. In March 2005, Australian magazine The Bulletin offered a AU$1.25 million ($950,000) reward to anyone who catches a live marsupial wolf, but the reward has yet to be claimed. Another yet unconfirmed case occurred in September 2016, when a certain animal (presumably a marsupial wolf) was caught on a road video camera.

In March 2017, there were press reports that animals similar to the marsupial wolf were captured on camera traps in Cape York Park; photographs were not released to the public, citing the need to keep the animal's habitat secret.

Appearance

The marsupial wolf was the largest of the predatory marsupials. The similarity of its appearance and habits with wolves is an example of convergent evolution, and it differed sharply from its closest relatives, the predatory marsupials, in both size and body shape.

The length of the marsupial wolf reached 100-130 cm, including the tail 150-180 cm; shoulder height - 60 cm, weight - 20-25 kg. Outwardly, the marsupial wolf resembled a dog - its body was elongated, its limbs were digitigrade. The marsupial wolf's skull also resembled that of a dog and could be larger in size than the skull of an adult dingo. However, the tail, thick at the base and thin at the end, and bent hind legs were reminiscent of marsupial origin this predator. The marsupial wolf's hair is short, thick and coarse, with a gray-yellow-brown back covered with 13-19 dark brown transverse stripes running from the shoulders to the base of the tail, and with a lighter belly. The muzzle is gray, with blurry white markings around the eyes. Ears are short, rounded, erect.

The elongated mouth could open very wide, 120 degrees: when the animal yawned, its jaws formed an almost straight line. The curved hind legs made possible a specific galloping gait and even jumping on the toes, similar to the jumping of a kangaroo. The marsupial's pouch, like that of the Tasmanian devil, was formed by a fold of skin that opened backwards and covered two pairs of nipples.

Lifestyle and diet

Marsupial wolves at the New York Zoo, 1902

Originally an inhabitant of sparse forests and grassy plains, the marsupial wolf was driven by people into rain forests and mountains, where its usual shelter was in holes under tree roots, hollows of fallen trees and rocky caves. He was nocturnal, but was sometimes seen basking in the sun. The lifestyle was solitary, sometimes couples or small family groups gathered for hunting.

The marsupial wolf fed on medium and large terrestrial vertebrates - wallabies, small marsupials, echidnas, birds and lizards. After sheep and poultry were brought to Tasmania, they also became prey for the marsupial wolf. Often ate animals caught in traps; therefore, he himself was successfully caught in traps. According to different versions, the marsupial wolf either lay in wait for prey in ambush, or leisurely pursued prey, bringing it to exhaustion. The marsupial wolf never returned to half-eaten prey, which was used more small predators, like marsupial martens. The voice of a marsupial wolf on the hunt resembled a coughing bark, dull, guttural and piercing.

Marsupial wolves never attacked humans and usually avoided meeting them. Adult marsupial wolves were poorly tamed; but the young lived well in captivity if they were given, in addition to meat, live prey.

Reproduction

The females had a pouch on their belly, formed by a fold of skin, in which the cubs were born and raised. The bag opened back between the hind legs, preventing leaves from getting inside tall grass and sharp stems through which the animal had to run. The marsupial wolf did not have a specific breeding season, but apparently was confined to December, since most cubs were born in December-March. The pregnancy was short - only 35 days, after which two to four underdeveloped cubs were born, which after 2.5-3 months left the mother's pouch, although they remained with her until the age of nine months. In captivity, marsupial wolves did not reproduce. Life expectancy in captivity was more than eight years.

Cloning

Gallery

Notes

1. Sokolov V. E. Five-language dictionary of animal names. Mammals. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of academician. V. E. Sokolova. - M.: Rus. lang., 1984. - P. 17. - 10,000 copies.
2. Anna Salleh. Rock art shows attempts to save thylacine (undefined) . ABC Science Online (December 15, 2004). Retrieved November 21, 2006. Archived August 26, 2011.
3. Rembrants. D. (1682). “A short relation out of the journal of Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, upon the discovery of the South Terra incognita; not long since published in the Low Dutch". Philosophical Collections of the Royal Society of London, (6), 179-86. Quoted in Paddle (2000) p.3
4. Roth H.L. (1891). "Crozet's Voyage to Tasmania, New Zealand, etc....1771-1772." London. Truslove and Shirley. Quoted in Paddle (2000) p.3

The last Tasmanian wolf died in Australia more than 80 years ago, although our contemporaries periodically appear, assuring that the strange beast is alive and they saw it with their own eyes.

Description and appearance

The extinct predator has three names - marsupial wolf, thylacine (from the Latin Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Tasmanian wolf. He owes his last nickname to the Dutchman Abel Tasman: he was the first to see a strange marsupial mammal in 1642. This happened on an island that the navigator himself called Van Diemen's Land. Later it was renamed Tasmania.

Tasman limited himself to stating the meeting with the thylacine, a detailed description of which was given by naturalist Jonathan Harris already in 1808. “Marsupial dog” is the translation of the generic name Thylacinus given to the marsupial wolf. It was considered the largest of the marsupial predators, standing out from their background in anatomy and body size. The wolf weighed 20-25 kg with a height of 60 cm at the withers, body length was 1-1.3 m (including the tail - from 1.5 to 1.8 m).

Colonists disagreed on what to call unusual creature, calling him alternately zebra wolf, tiger, dog, tiger cat, hyena, zebra possum, or simply wolf. The discrepancies were quite understandable: the exterior and habits of the predator combined the features of different animals.

This is interesting! Its skull looked like a dog's, but its elongated mouth swung open so that the upper and mandible turned into an almost straight line. No dog in the world does such a trick.

In addition, the thylacine was larger than the average dog. It was also related to dogs by the sounds that the thylacine made in an excited state: they were very reminiscent of a guttural dog bark, both dull and piercing.

It could well be called a tiger kangaroo because of the structure of its hind limbs, which allowed the marsupial wolf to push off (like a typical kangaroo) with its heels.

The thylacine was not inferior to cats in the ability to climb trees, and the stripes on its skin were extremely reminiscent of a tiger's color. There were 12-19 dark brown stripes located on the sandy background of the back, base of the tail and hind legs.

Where did the marsupial wolf live?

About 30 million years ago, the thylacine lived not only in Australia and Tasmania, but also in South America and, presumably, in Antarctica. In South America, marsupial wolves (due to the fault of foxes and coyotes) disappeared 7-8 million years ago, in Australia - about 3-1.5 thousand years ago. The thylacine left mainland Australia and the island of New Guinea due to imports from South-East Asia dingo dogs.

Tasmanian wolf established himself on the island of Tasmania, where he was not disturbed (they were not there). The predator felt good here until the 30s of the last century, when it was declared the main destroyer of farm sheep and began to be destroyed en masse. For the head of each marsupial wolf, the hunter received a bonus from the authorities (5 pounds sterling).

This is interesting! Many years later, having examined the skeleton of the thylacine, scientists came to the conclusion that it cannot be accused of killing sheep: its jaws are too weak to cope with such large prey.

Be that as it may, because of people, the Tasmanian wolf was forced to leave its usual habitats (grassy plains and copses), moving to dense forests and mountains. Here he found refuge in the hollows of fallen trees, in rock crevices and in holes under the roots of trees.

Lifestyle of the Tasmanian wolf

As it turned out much later, the bloodthirstiness and ferocity of the marsupial wolf were greatly exaggerated. The animal preferred to live alone, only occasionally joining the company of its relatives to take part in the hunt. He was most active in dark time days, but at noon he liked to turn his sides sun rays to keep warm.

During the day, the thylacine sat in a shelter and only went hunting at night: eyewitnesses said that predators were found sleeping in hollows located from the ground at a height of 4-5 meters.

Biologists calculated that the breeding season of sexually mature individuals most likely began in December-February, since the offspring appeared closer to spring. The she-wolf carried the future puppies for a short time, about 35 days, giving birth to 2-4 underdeveloped cubs, which crawled out of the mother’s pouch after 2.5-3 months.

This is interesting! The Tasmanian wolf could live in captivity, but did not breed in it. Average duration The life of a thylacine in artificial conditions was estimated at 8 years.

The pouch where the puppies were located was a large abdominal pocket formed by a leathery fold. The container opened backwards: this trick prevented grass, leaves and cutting stems from getting inside when the she-wolf ran. Leaving their mother's pouch, the wolf cubs did not leave their mother until they were 9 months old.

Food, prey of the marsupial wolf

The predator often included in his menu animals that were unable to escape from traps. He did not disdain poultry, of which the settlers bred in abundance.

But its diet was dominated by terrestrial vertebrates (medium and small), such as:

• small marsupials, including tree kangaroos;
• birds;
• echidnas;
• lizards.

The thylacine disdained carrion, preferring live prey. Disdain for carrion was also expressed in the fact that, after finishing its meal, the Tasmanian wolf threw away the half-eaten victim (which was used, for example, marsupial martens). By the way, thylacines have repeatedly demonstrated their fastidiousness to the freshness of food in zoos, refusing defrosted meat.

Biologists are still arguing about the method by which the predator obtained food. Some say that the thylacine attacked the victim from an ambush and bit the base of its skull (like a cat's). Proponents of this theory claim that the wolf was a poor runner, occasionally jumping on its hind legs and maintaining balance with its powerful tail.

Their opponents are convinced that Tasmanian wolves did not sit in ambush and did not frighten prey with their sudden appearance. These researchers believe that the thylacine methodically but persistently pursued its prey until it ran out of strength.

Marsupial wolf, or thylacine (lat. Thylacinus cynocephalus) is extinct marsupial mammals and the only representative of the thylacine family. This animal is also known as the “marsupial tiger” and “Tasmanian wolf”.

At the beginning of the Holocene and the end of the Pleistocene, the marsupial wolf was found on Australian mainland and the island of New Guinea. About 3,000 years ago, Aboriginal settlers brought the wild dog dingo to the island, as a result of which the marsupial wolf disappeared from the area.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. Tasmania was considered the main habitat of the marsupial wolf, but in the thirties of the 19th century, mass extermination of the animal began, which was mistakenly considered a destroyer of domestic sheep. In addition, the thylacine was credited with hunting poultry and exterminating game caught in traps. Most of These legends turned out to be untrue.

By 1863, the number of thylacines had decreased significantly; the marsupial wolf could only be found in mountainous and forested areas of Tasmania, almost inaccessible to humans. A further reduction in the number of animals was probably facilitated by the canine plague, which broke out at the beginning of the 20th century with the help of imported dogs. This led to the fact that in 1914 the number of animals was only a few.

In 1928, a law was passed to protect the fauna of Tasmania, but the marsupial wolf was not on the list of protected animals. On May 13, 1930, the last marsupial wolf was killed, and in 1936, the last thylacine kept in captivity in one of the private zoos died of old age. Only in 1938 was there a ban on hunting the marsupial wolf, and in 1966 a reserve was organized near Lake St. Clair with an area of ​​647,000 hectares.

Further searches for the marsupial wolf were unsuccessful, and all the stories about meeting this animal were not documented.

By appearance The marsupial wolf resembled a dog, the shape of the skull was also similar to that of a dog, and was larger in size than the skull of a dog. The tail had a structure similar to marsupial representatives. The thylacine's mouth opened 120 degrees, which allowed the animal's jaws to form an almost straight line when yawning. The curvature of the hind legs gave the thylacine's gait a certain leaping, jumping, similar to the movement of a kangaroo.

The thylacine was characterized by a nocturnal solitary lifestyle. The diet of the marsupial wolf included medium and large terrestrial vertebrates, small marsupials, birds, echidnas and various animals caught in traps. During the hunt, the thylacine produced a coughing bark, piercing, guttural and dull.

In 1999, the cloning of the marsupial wolf was announced, for which DNA samples of animals preserved in an alcohol solution in the museum were used. However, the DNA turned out to be damaged and unsuitable for the experiment. On February 15, 2005, the project was closed. In May 2008, one of the thylacine genes was introduced into a mouse, where it functioned successfully.

Today there is an assumption that, despite all the facts known about the disappearance of the marsupial wolf, he still managed to survive. Perhaps the wolf's habitat is the deep and unexplored forests of Tasmania. Sometimes there are reports of encounters with this animal, but so far there is no evidence of this in the form of photographs or video footage.

And this seems to be latest video recording of Tasmanian tigers... 1936...

The marsupial wolf, or thylacine, is simply an amazing animal, which, with great regret, we have to talk about in the past tense. Indeed, according to official data, the last marsupial wolf died at the Hobart Zoo in 1936, and in natural conditions the last thylacine was shot even earlier - in 1930. After this, reports of the existence of this species often began to appear. Many people are still looking for this animal, trying to find traces or at least something to confirm that this species somehow miraculously escaped extermination, but so far no one has been able to present compelling arguments in this regard. It's a pity. After all, I really want to hope that this amazing view animals managed to be preserved in remote areas Tasmania.
About 3,000 years ago, the thylacine was also found in Australia, but from there it was displaced by dogs (dingoes) brought there by settlers. The marsupial wolf is a fairly strong animal and a dingo alone cannot cope with it. But the fact is that dingoes are pack animals, and the thylacine is a solitary animal. In addition, I think that dingoes were intellectually superior to the thylacine, because they are representatives of the canid family, which are among the smartest animals after the great apes.
The marsupial wolf, as the name suggests, is a marsupial mammal (Marsupiala, or Metatheria) of the order Dasyuromorphia, which includes many other marsupial predators along with Tasmanian devil- the largest predatory marsupial today, after the extermination of the marsupial wolf. Despite the fact that both of these animals, as mentioned above, are predators and belong to the corresponding order, they belong to different families. Marsupial devil belongs to a fairly extensive family Dasyuridae, which is conventionally called predatory marsupials, since all its representatives are carnivores. And the marsupial wolf is a separate family of marsupial wolves, or thylacines - Thylacinidae. Below are the taxonomic details of this animal:

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)
Type: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (mammals, or animals)
Subclass: Theria (viviparous mammals, or true beasts)
Infraclass: Metatheria, or Marsupialia (marsupials)
Squad: Dasyuromorphia (carnivorous marsupials)
Family: Thylacinidae (thylacines, or marsupials)
Genus: Thylacinus (thylacines)
View: Thylacininus cynocephalus (thylacine, marsupial wolf, Tasmanian wolf, marsupial tiger, Tasmanian tiger)

Now that we have more or less figured out the classification of this amazing animal, let’s move on to describing its physical features and behavior. The marsupial wolf really resembles in its appearance a representative of the canine family (wolves, dogs and others), but if you take a closer look at the appearance and movements of this predator, it becomes clear that the thylacine has nothing in common with dogs (except for the fact that both animals are mammals). The front part of the thylacine's body is similar in structure to that of a dog, but the back part is typical of a marsupial. Let's start from the beginning, that is, from the head. The skull of a marsupial wolf is approximately 22 cm long. And it really looks like a wolf. However, the thylacine has 46 teeth, while most canines have only 42. In general, the thylacine is almost the record holder for the number of teeth among land mammals. Of these, only the big-eared fox surpasses him in this regard. This small animal has as many as 48 teeth! But let's return to the marsupial wolf. If you continue to carry out comparative analysis thylacine and wolf skulls, you can see that the sagittal crest of the wolf is more developed than that of its namesake. But the most amazing difference lies in the amazing ability of the thylacine to open its mouth very wide. The jaws of this marsupial predator are designed so that it can open its mouth wider than any other mammal! When a marsupial wolf opens its jaws it is an impressive and quite unexpected sight. This jaw structure made it possible for the thylacine to make a deep grip on the prey. However, despite this advantage of his jaws over a wolf’s, the force of their compression was hardly greater than that of a wolf and, I think, even less. This is evidenced by the sagittal crest already mentioned above, which is more clearly developed in the wolf.
The marsupial wolf has five toes on its front paws and four on its hind paws. Moreover, unlike dogs, he rests his front paws on all five toes, since they are all located in a row. It places its hind limbs at a greater angle than canines, so its hind paw print is longer. The back of its spine is not as flexible as that of placental carnivores; it more closely resembles the structure of the kangaroo's spine. This makes it easier for the thylacine to stand on its hind legs than for dogs, and moreover, according to some sources, the thylacine can only move on its hind legs, jumping in the manner of a kangaroo. Unfortunately, the marsupial wolf didn’t find me anymore and I didn’t have a chance to watch it live, so I can’t say whether the marsupial wolf jumped on its hind legs or not. However, if we take into account the specific structure of his skeleton, then there is nothing surprising in this.
The thylacine's tail is long and thick, especially at the base, and is more similar to the tail of a kangaroo than to the tail of wolves or dogs. It is not as mobile and flexible as that of representatives of the canine family and is more elastic.
Marsupial wolves lived alone, in pairs, or formed family groups. Initially they preferred open spaces, but later, under the pressure of humans and dingoes, who hunted in packs, they began to go further into the forest, to more inaccessible places.
The natural prey of this predator were wallabies (small kangaroos) and other small animals. Less often he attacked large kangaroos. All its prey was very fast, and the thylacine could not develop such high speed like dogs, however, he was a very hardy animal and could run without stopping for an entire day, literally exhausting his victims with a long chase.

Photos:

Skeletons: