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Rare footage from 1935 offers a glimpse of extinct Tasmanian tiger. Watch
The rare video of the last known Tasmanian tiger has sparked all sorts of reactions online.
A video of the last known Thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was recently shared on Twitter by NFSA - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. It shows a rare glimpse of the now-extinct animal prowling around its cage at the long-defunct Beaumaris Zoo.
The 21-second-long video from 1935 shows the animal named Benjamin pacing around its enclosure. A few seconds into the video, a zookeeper also rattles the tiger’s cage probably to seek a reaction. The voiceover in the video narrates, “[The Tasmanian Tiger] is now very rare, being forced out of its natural habitat by the march of civilisation.”
“We have released 21-second newsreel clip featuring the last known images of the extinct Thylacine, filmed in 1935, has been digitised in 4K and released,” NFSA tweeted and shared the video.
Unseen for 85 years, the video documents the last-known confirmed surviving thylacine in captivity. Only after 18 months after this film, the carnivorous marsupial passed away on September 7, 1936.
The video gathered over 86,000 views and sparked mixed reactions among people. While some were genuinely surprised to witness a page from the book of history, others were sad that the animal became extinct.
“A sad way to end his days,” wrote a Twitter user. “Marsupial. Fascinating. I watched the video and his eyes and head dart and search like a mouse. The extension of his tail. Amazing,” expressed another.
“That’s amazing restoration work. Thanks for sharing. I still hold out hope for the Tasmanian tiger,” said a third. “It looks like it’s agonizing to find a way out. Poor thing. The fact that it’s locked in this little space of nothing but hard concrete is so sad,” tweeted a fourth.
Thylacines looked like a cross between a wolf, a fox, and a large cat, reports CNN. Besides rodents and small birds, they also hunted kangaroos and other marsupials.
What do you think of this rare video?
