Text/Fast Wind
Australia has many unique animals, such as kangaroos, emus and koalas, the first two of which have been honored with the national emblem. But Australia also has a regretful past, just 90 years ago, they personally killed another, rarer national treasure: the Tasmanian tiger.
Pictured: Kangaroos and emus on Australia's coat of arms
The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, is the world's largest carnivorous marsupial. It is medium in size, with a body length of about 1 meter and a weight of about 30 kilograms. Fierce, with a mouth that can open an astonishing 180°, it can run fast but has amazing endurance, feeding on kangaroos and small beasts.
Photo: Old photo of a Tasmanian tiger
Why is it called Tasmanian Tiger? Because of its striped back like a tiger, Tasmania has the most, hence the name. In fact, it is neither a tiger nor a wolf, but belongs to the specialized "thylacine family".
The Tasmanian tiger, once widely lived in Australia and New Guinea, was the beast at the top of the food chain, but since Europeans entered Australia, its end has come.
Pictured: Australian hunter and Tasmanian tiger, 1869
European settlers widely raised sheep and chickens, believing that Tasmanian tigers were dangerous natural enemies of their livestock, so they hunted them so much that between 1888 and 1909 the Tasmanian government even issued a high-priced reward order, paying each Tasmanian tiger carcass for 1 pound (equivalent to 100 pounds today), for a total of 2184 pounds. In fact, the number of hunts was much more than enough, because there was also a trade demand for live animals, specimens, furs, etc., and tasmanian tigers were raised in zoos in London, Paris, Berlin and Washington.
Pictured: Specimens from the University Museum of Cambridge, UK
Finally, after decades of tireless efforts by farmers and bounty hunters, Tasmanian tigers are almost invisible in the wild.
By the 1930s, Tasmanian tigers had completely disappeared from mainland Australia, and only tasmanian islands were still partially alive. In 1930, an island farmer named Wilf Batty hunted the last wild Tasmanian tiger.
Pictured: The last Tasmanian tiger to be hunted
The last wild Tasmanian tiger to be captured was caught at Hobart Zoo in 1933 and raised for three years, named "Benjamin", and died on September 7, 1936. It died a terrible death, and due to human negligence, it was locked outside the frozen nest at night and froze to death alive.
Pictured: The last Tasmanian tiger to die
Tasmanian tigers were dead, and the Australians nearly killed their national bird: the emus. In the 1930s, emus was regarded as the "pest bird" of crops, and was killed by the Australian army with a machine gun on the car frame, known in history as the "Emu War", fortunately, there are enough in number to continue to this day.
Pictured: Emu War
Today, Australians have long regretted that their intestines are blue. Since the 1990s, Australia has designated September 7 (the date of death of the last Tasmanian tiger) as "National Threatened Species Day" and has strictly legislated to protect wildlife. The result of overcorrection has made Australia the most "densely populated" country of wild animals in the world, and it is common to walk and kick hares and drive a car to hit a kangaroo.
Pictured: Tasmania's coat of arms
In australia's wild kangaroos, for example, without their natural enemies, the Tasmanian tiger, happily multiplied to 60 million today, so that the government had to spend money to organize and kill thousands of them.
Pictured: A flood of Australian kangaroos
As for the most regrettable Tasmanian tiger, although it has long been declared extinct, Australians have always been lucky, hoping that there will be survivors in the wild, and there is often shocking news of "witnessing Tasmanian tigers", but they are considered by zoologists to be foxes or other animals.
Pictured: A photo of a so-called witness to a Tasmanian tiger
In 2005, an Australian magazine and a rich man offered $1.25 million and $1.75 million to someone who could catch a live Tasmanian tiger. No one has received the money so far.