THE TASMANIAN TIGER

balance in the ecosystems of their day. Some species were for sized, while others were barely the size of kittens. But when a period of climate change cooled Australia about 12 million years ago, the numbers of these ancient thylacines began to decline. By about 3 million years ago, only one species was left. About 4,000 years ago, these vanished completely from Australia. Tasmania was then the last remaining place where thylacines existed. They ruled the animal life of that island unchallenged until Europeans with sheep, dogs, and a great indifferent to native flora and fauna, seem to have brought about their extinction. In 1936, the last captive Tasmanian died in Hobart Zoo, but no definitive evidence has been found. Despite this, there are many who keep searching. In 1981 Dutch-born zoologist Hans Naarding was in Tasmania conducting a survey of Latham's snipe, a species of endangered bird. One night he saw an animal in the light from the searchlight mounted on his vehicle. He described it as about the size of a large dog, but with slightly sloping hindquarters and a fairly thick tail continuing straight on from its backbone. He said that it had 12 distinct stripes on its back, running down to the point where the tail…