There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
The aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa) inhabitants of the island of Tasmania (until 1856 called the land Van Diemen) had a temporal history of about more than 30,000 years of permanence in this land. Before British actual colonization in 1803 there was an estimated population between 6,000 and 15,000 Palawa, its extinction, as uniquely Tasmanian descent is considered by historians to be one of the earliest genocides in modern times. Genetic studies have supported a much higher population. The first explorers who heard from Palawa that their numbers were already much larger, that "strange diseases" plagued them and entire tribes died out - possibly brought on by the successive anonymous ones who landed after the first European to set foot in Tasmania in 1642 (Abel Jansen Tasman) . Truganini, who died in 1876, is considered the last Tasmanian "pure blood." Isolated by more than 10,000 from Australia, they used more primitive technology than any other ethnic group of the modern era and made only a few simple tools of wood and stone. They had no contact with the outside world until the arrival of Europeans. In 1772 begins the first official exploratory expedition of the island and successively they were initially occupying the north and northwest of the island. The Aboriginal Tasmanians were heavily used, exploited in a manual way, enslaved, subjected to all kinds of violence, segregation, women were used in all kinds of services, consuming sexual exploitation on a large scale. Victims of a social Darwinism had a huge strain of fatal diseases in which they lacked immunity (venereal diseases were widespread). Intensified by the Black War of 1820 to 1832 their numbers fell to less than 400 individuals. At this time the government, through Martial Law, authorized to capture and to kill natives, including offering subsidies. "An institutionalized extermination".
Thylacine was not the first to be extinct: Emu (Tasmanian) - Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis so it was. Very little is known specifically about this ratite. At the time of its probable extinction (1850) no study was done, all knowledge is homologous to the native Emu of Australia. A great land bird that no one noticed of its disappearance. There is no greater analysis of its process of extinction. The problems stemming from colonialism quickly labeled the first species.
In this rapidly colonizing environment, Thylacine paid its price. A history full of gaps, lies, distorted visions intentional or not, condemned this animal to undergo a relentless persecution. European settlers introduced the sheep in Tasmania into commercial numbers around 1820 (Merino sheep). Van Diemen's Land Company has introduced gratuities for the slaughter of thylacine since 1830, and between 1888 and 1909 the Tasmanian government paid £ 1 per head. (Equivalent to £ 100 or more today) for dead adult thylacines and ten shillings for puppies. Official figures show that in this 21-year period the Tasmanian government paid 2184 rewards. About Van Diemen's Land there is no information about their amount paid for dead Thylacine. I have no doubt that the policy of gratification is inserted in a wider context, being used as a strategy of occupation of the island, an incentive for more in the colonization process, an "extra income" to cover diverse expenses. His lists, singularly similar to tigers, served to personify the popular imagination and, undoubtedly, to promote its "ferocity". You can even imagine a child seeing any thylacine and running immediately to your father saying: look there one of them ... shoot shoot.
Below some reports and a thought of the time:
"Last week, a male animal of the same species as sometime ago destroyed a number of sheep at the facilities of E. LORD, Esq., At Orielton Park, made its appearance among the herd of Mr. GW EVANS, Deputy Surveyor General In Baghdad in less than a week killed thirty sheep, was attacked by seven dogs, and made a sturdy resistance, until finally he was killed with an ax by the butcher. "
Hobart City Gazette and Southern Reporter - December 6, 1817.
"NATIF TYGER, OR HYENA - Last Sunday, around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, as one of the shepherds of Mr. Edward Abbott, June. He tended his master's herd while grazing on his farm in Russell's Falls, New Norfolk, the sheep were suddenly startled by the sight of one of these ferocious animals, who immediately descended a hill, and the man, having a dog with him, soon perceived the hyena chasing the flock to the right of his head when he made a Sudden spring between the sheep, and stuck in a lamb, which he immediately killed. The man then ran up with his dog, but Tyger left before he could get to the spot: the dog however soon after came with The Hyena when turned around and attacked the dog, who with the help of his master finally managed to kill him. The lamb was quite large, about 6 months old.The Tyger measured 6 feet from the nose to the end of A Tail, and is the second that was killed in almost the same place in the last twelve months. "
Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser - November 3, 1821.
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"Mr. Frank Archer of Landfall informs us that a large native tiger, or hyena (Thylacinus cynocephalus), was killed a few days ago, not far from Launceston. Mr. Archer's pastor at Russell's Plains was out running and Discovered a sheep that had just killed. He sent his dog away, and hearing him barking he ran up and found the dog and a very large native tiger to have a severe fight. Il shot at the tiger, which measures 5 feet 4in the nose to the tip of the tail, killing four sheep before that. "
Launceston - July 6, 1887.
"It was when he was at a place called The Island on the Macquarie River near Pooms Lake, following his call as pastor to the late Mr. William Burbury, that Mr. William Burbury, that Mr. Willett fully realized that a threat For the success of Tasmanian tiger sheep breeding
became. From the Eastern Tiers on the one hand, and from the Western Tiers on the other, a large number of this dreaded animal invaded sheep runs, and heavy losses were recorded. In many cases, the sheep had to be removed from certain more infested areas. Burbury's losses in three consecutive epochs were 450, 350, and 300. A reward of 1 pound per head, when displayed to the police, or any member of the commission formed by shepherds, marked the beginning of the end for the tiger, and their numerous Descendants, for today, if any survive, it can only be in the strength of mountains, far from the haunts of man. The ewes, in their bed lands, or resting places at night, were an easy prey for the cunning tiger, whose method of attacking them seemed to be mainly from the neck, from which blood was sucked; And an entrance made close to the chest.
Mr. Weaver bags from a tiger - 1869.
"If it is a fact, as many shepherds say, that each tiger destroys two sheep per week at least, a very simple calculation will explain the loss of a few thousand sheep each year, and also point to the need to put down these worms ".
Mercury, June 3, 1885.
The sensationalistic and largely fictional content of these reports served to create in the popular imagination the threatening figure of the Thylacine (Natif Tyger or Hyena so-called), building a panorama of fear and terror.
My perception is of an unequivocal process of behavioral mystification. Thylacine is par excellence a small animal eater, including birds. Wallaby and Kangaroo would be their larger but not their favorite. It was a shy animal, of an elusive habit, solitary or couple, at most male and female with their respective puppies; He did not go around in groups, curious, a born researcher. Monogamy or polygamy is not known. New tests on his jaw indicated a very small chewing force. The accusation of being a predator of sheep is questionable, its approach in "farms of creation" is due much more to the encounter of poultry of the animal than the sheep. According to some reports, either throwing a stone or a simple scream was enough to frighten him away. The invisible predator of the island in this context were the "domestic" dogs, packs occurred in good numbers. Let us also take into account that in the 20th century, The colonists' dogs practically fed on their own. The habit of feeding dogs as we currently have is due to our modern style of living. These dogs may be along with settlers the culprits by extermination of the Emu Tasmanian and an unsorted amount of thylacine. I recently read an article in PLOS ONE featuring Dingo as the preponderant extermination of thylacine in Australian territory. In Australia the British brought the fox to serve as a game. Culturally the habit of hunting is rooted in the British people and thylacine was the perfect target. His hunting also served as entertainment for established farmers. We also report to the entire British colonial process on the countless islands around the world and the extermination provoked by these invaders in the local native fauna, where the total absence of any criterion of common sense in the animal exploration is verified, a method of simple plunder . The existing mentality is that everything and everyone on these islands is owned by the conquerors.
It is said that they were affected by: Canine distemper disease- parvovirus - adenovirus - innumerable nematodes - toxoplasmosis - rabies? The context in which diseases are involved, relate to thylacine in captivity. There are no indications during this extermination process of finding tall numbers of dead specimens naturally. In their behavior, the stress of imprisonment and captivity is referred to as a "factor" mortis, even when captured it is relatively common for the animal to collide and die. Much more than bullets were killed, the thylacines were snared within a broad context of hunting, being direct and indirect victims. Snared was the most common form of capture of animals for food use. After 1905 their numbers dropped dramatically, and catch requests for zoos and the like grew exponentially in the face of the species' current rarity. As far as I know, there is no report on the mortality rate of such journeys, notably for London and the United States (after weeks on ships, trains and other land transport the survival rate must have been very low). The process of extinction was very fast, and in terms of behavior the species did not have time to adapt, more cunningly to face their persecution. The Tasmanians Aborígens (Palawa) are the only ones that could really clarify the true hunting behavior of thylacine. When the island's first "official" explorers arrived, no information on the existence of an alleged beast was reported, the natives of the island were not afraid of the animal, had no surveillance behavior over it, not reporting any possibility To suffer attacks. Throughout the colonial process there is no narrative of attacks on any human being, adult or child. In short, like the Palawa the noble animal was, above all, a victim of the brutality of this colonial process.
