The tragic story of how ignorance, fear and lack of care led to the disappearance of the famous Tasmanian tiger. This updated edition includes the latest research on whether it could ever be cloned and returned to the wild.
Is it still out there?
People claim to keep seeing it still.
Once the world's largest marsupial predator, the Tasmanian tiger roamed the Australian mainland. Then confined to Tasmania for thousands of years, it was deliberately hunted down by settlers through fear, ignorance and greed. But was it a savage sheep killer or a shy and fussy nocturnal feeder? Did the last tiger die in a Hobart zoo in 1936, or did a few survive in the wild? And did it really drink its victims' blood?
A number of Australian species have miraculously reappeared after being labelled as extinct. Perhaps the tiger is still with us. And if it's not, can it really be brought back by cloning and returned to the wild?
'Sweeps us along with wonderful writing as we meet a truly incredible animal that became the centrepiece in an ecological tragedy. Anyone interested in nature and the conservation of the diversity of life should read this story.' -
Professor John Seidensticker, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute