Thylacine: Remains of last known Tasmanian tiger are found in Tasmanian museum after 86 years

The remains of the last known thylacine, thought for decades to have been lost, have been rediscovered sitting in a cabinet in a Tasmanian museum.

The last known Tasmanian tiger died at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo on the night of 7 September 1936 and its body is presumed to have been discarded.

However, researchers recently realized that the remains actually entered the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) collection in 1936, but had not been properly catalogued.

“For years, many museum curators and researchers searched for his remains without success,” said researcher Robert Paddle.

Pictured is the remains of the last known thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, which died at Hobart Zoo on September 7, 1936. The body was supposed to have been lost.

“No thylacine material dating to 1936 had been recorded in the zoological collection, so it was assumed that its body had been discarded.”

But recent investigations by Dr Paddle and TMAG Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Kathryn Medlock revealed that the remains of the last known thylacine were in the museum, putting an end to a mystery of generations.

Dr Medlock said they discovered a taxidermist’s report in the museum’s unpublished 1936/37 annual report that mentioned a thylacine among the list of specimens worked on.

This led to a review of all thylacine skins and skeletons in the TMAG collection.

‘We tried to find out which specimens we could trace back to something. There was only a skeleton and flat skin left,” Dr. Medlock said.

‘We were able to determine that the specimen…had been prepared by a taxidermist. Not as a research specimen, which is why it was not recorded, but as an educational specimen.

Paddle said the thylacine in question was an old female that had been captured by trapper Elias Churchill in rugged southern Tasmania and sold to the zoo in May 1936.

“The sale was not recorded or publicized by the zoo because, at the time, ground traps were illegal and Churchill could have been fined,” Dr Paddle said.

“The thylacine only lived a few months and when it died its body was transferred to TMAG.”

Above, what appears to be the jaws of a thylacine, found at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

The remains of the thylacine’s legs are seen above, along with assorted bones.

Unknowingly, the skin of the last known thylacine had been used in the past to teach students about marsupials.

“It’s bittersweet that the mystery surrounding the remains of the last thylacine has been solved,” said museum director Mary Mulcahy.

“Our collection of thylacines at TMAG is very valuable and is held in high regard by researchers.”

Dr Paddle said the discovery should put to rest thoughts that the last surviving thylacine was a much-photographed and filmed male, often referred to as ‘Benjamim’.

Bounties on the thylacine, described as shy and nocturnal, were placed during European colonization in Tasmania out of concern that it would attack livestock.

The skin and skeleton of the last known thylacine were on public display at the museum.