Wednesday, February 13, 2013

NO HUMAN CAN HARM THEM (TASMANIAN TIGER)




     

The Tasmanian tiger’s scientific name, Thylacinus cynophalus, means “pouched dog with a wolf head.”  It is not a tiger, a dog or a wolf.  But it is a bit like all of them put together.  Like a tiger, it has stripes.  It runs on tiptoes as dogs do.  It looks rather like a wolf.  At one time these animals were heavily  hunted. Most of them were killed.  Nobody is sure if any are still alive.  It is thought that a few may be safely living in a place where no human can harm them.




Text: Geraldine Sherman, Animals With Pouches – The Marsupials, New York, Holiday House, 1978.

Top Photo:  Petryoglyph image of Tasmanian tiger, ca. 1000 B.C., Ubirr, Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia.

Bottom Photo:  The last known Tasmanian Tiger, "Benjamin," photographed at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart, Tasmania, in 1933.


 

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