Thylacines (Tasmanian Tiger / Wolf): Misc.

Ascalon said:
Thylacine1.jpg

the museum is known locally, and affectionately, as "the Dead Zoo"
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You've just reminded me that my daughter used to call the procession of skeletons in the museum in Oxford the 'Noah's Ark of Death'.
 
Put this on here as I thought anyone interested would see it first

Dmax channel 39 9pm tonight Extinct or Alive Tasmanian Tiger
it seems part 2 or something else about the same is on right after
this.
 
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RaM said:
Put this on here as I thought anyone interested would see it first

Dmax channel 39 9pm tonight Extinct or Alive Tasmanian Tiger
it seems part 2 or something else about the same is on right after
this.
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A search on the mainland in the second programme.

I find him rather irritating, a lot of self promotion and the air of a schoolmaster wanting to dictate everything to everyone else on the "expeditions". The one about the Florida ABC annoyed me as he fixated on it being the black wolf despite an experienced colleague telling him he had seen a felid; as "wolves were known to have existed in Florida and black cats weren't."

Seems I'm not the only critic;
https://recentlyextinctspecies.com/articles/damage-forrest-galante-conservation-biology
 
Tunn11 said:
A search on the mainland in the second programme.

I find him rather irritating, a lot of self promotion and the air of a schoolmaster wanting to dictate everything to everyone else on the "expeditions". The one about the Florida ABC annoyed me as he fixated on it being the black wolf despite an experienced colleague telling him he had seen a felid; as "wolves were known to have existed in Florida and black cats weren't."

Seems I'm not the only critic;
https://recentlyextinctspecies.com/articles/damage-forrest-galante-conservation-biology
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There are several concerns about Gallante, as highlighted in this article written by Branden Holmes, author, researcher, founder of the Recently extinct plants and Animals Database, and comedy chef:

https://recentlyextinctspecies.com/articles/damage-forrest-galante-conservation-biology#:~:text=There are a number of,tortoise and Rio Apaporis caiman

For some reason the link takes you to the middle of the page.
 
oldrover said:
There are several concerns about Gallante, as highlighted in this article written by Branden Holmes, author, researcher, founder of the Recently extinct plants and Animals Database, and comedy chef:

https://recentlyextinctspecies.com/articles/damage-forrest-galante-conservation-biology#:~:text=There are a number of,tortoise and Rio Apaporis caiman

For some reason the link takes you to the middle of the page.
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Umm! Actually that's a link to the same site. :)

I turned this up as well which is critical:
https://undark.org/2020/03/04/colombia-reptile-parachute-science-forrest-galante/

Frankly it was mainly his TV persona which I found annoying. However it seems his methods are pretty dubious to say the least.

A pity when we have serious efforts being made by people like our own @lordmongrove and the CFZ. Imagine what they might achieve with the funding given Galante and his crew.
 
Tunn11 said:
Umm! Actually that's a link to the same site. :)

I turned this up as well which is critical:
https://undark.org/2020/03/04/colombia-reptile-parachute-science-forrest-galante/

Frankly it was mainly his TV persona which I found annoying. However it seems his methods are pretty dubious to say the least.

A pity when we have serious efforts being made by people like our own @lordmongrove and the CFZ. Imagine what they might achieve with the funding given Galante and his crew.
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Oh yeah. Sorry.

I could say more but I don't think it'd be appropriate as I couldn't name the people whose opinions I'd be describing, but we're not alone in not being fans.
 
It's a shame as the programmes were about some lesser known critters (Apart from the Thylacines) which is a change from the hysterical "Bigfoot ate my hamster" fare we usually get which probably does more harm than good.

It was Galante's persona (or TV persona) that I found irritating. The criticism on that site is far more serious than that and maybe his methods, if this is true, are not going to help the cause of serioius cryptozoology.

What a pity.
 
Tunn11 said:
It's a shame as the programmes were about some lesser known critters (Apart from the Thylacines) which is a change from the hysterical "Bigfoot ate my hamster" fare we usually get which probably does more harm than good.

It was Galante's persona (or TV persona) that I found irritating. The criticism on that site is far more serious than that and maybe his methods, if this is true, are not going to help the cause of serioius cryptozoology.

What a pity.
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Galante doesn't align himself with cryptozoologists that I've ever seen. And I'd bet that he never would.
 
Sharon Hill said:
Galante doesn't align himself with cryptozoologists that I've ever seen. And I'd bet that he never would.
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I think there's a case to suggest that he's not aligning himself with mainstream science either, and presenting an 'individual' interpretation of what he's doing for a light entertainment programme. I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the difference myself.
 
Tunn11 said:
It's a shame as the programmes were about some lesser known critters (Apart from the Thylacines) which is a change from the hysterical "Bigfoot ate my hamster" fare we usually get which probably does more harm than good.

It was Galante's persona (or TV persona) that I found irritating. The criticism on that site is far more serious than that and maybe his methods, if this is true, are not going to help the cause of serioius cryptozoology.

What a pity.
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I'm not sure that what he's doing isn't much more insidious than any of that.
 
Scientists recover RNA from an extinct species for the first time

/recovery was from a 130 year old thylacine specimen

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/19/world/scientists-recover-rna-tasmanian-tiger-thylacine-scn/index.html

-----------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Pask, who leads a project aiming to resurrect the thylacine, said the paper was “groundbreaking.”

“We had previously thought only DNA remained in old museum and ancient samples, but this paper shows you can also get RNA from tissues,” said Pask, a professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia and head of the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/05/australia/last-thylacine-tasmanian-tiger-identified-intl-hnk-scn
“This will add significant depth to our understanding of the biology of extinct animals and help us to build much better extinct genomes,” he added.
 
Druk said:
The last known wild thylacine was shot by an Englishman.
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No, whilst Yorkshireman Wilfred Batty (born in Bradford) shot the last individual known to have been killed in the wild it was not the last Thylacine known in the wild. The Batty shooting occurred on the 13th May 1930 but two juveniles, a male (7th July 1930) and a female (3-9th August 1930), were captured later by the Delphin family of Waratah, who were of French-Mauritian extraction. Whilst those captures were publicly reported, put on public display, and in the case of the male, displayed at a public zoo between October 1930 and September 1936, there's strong evidence that a further individual was later captured in a rabbit trap at Preolenna in early 1931. Incidentally, full legal protection in 1936 was also instigated by a Yorkshireman.
 
oldrover said:
No, whilst Yorkshireman Wilfred Batty (born in Bradford) shot the last individual known to have been killed in the wild it was not the last Thylacine known in the wild. The Batty shooting occurred on the 13th May 1930 but two juveniles, a male (7th July 1930) and a female (3-9th August 1930), were captured later by the Delphin family of Waratah, who were of French-Mauritian extraction. Whilst those captures were publicly reported, put on public display, and in the case of the male, displayed at a public zoo between October 1930 and September 1936, there's strong evidence that a further individual was later captured in a rabbit trap at Preolenna in early 1931. Incidentally, full legal protection in 1936 was also instigated by a Yorkshireman.
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Ah,I was unaware of that,thank you,I just watched the Wilfred Batty interview a few days ago.
 
Druk said:
Ah,I was unaware of that,thank you,I just watched the Wilfred Batty interview a few days ago.
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No problem. Which one was it? Was it the filmed one?

Have you heard this one with Peter Thompson,


I'm not sure if this link gives the full interview, but if it is it's really charming, "I kicked him in the head a time or two and he couldn't just take it".
 
oldrover said:
No problem. Which one was it? Was it the filmed one?

Have you heard this one with Peter Thompson,


I'm not sure if this link gives the full interview, but if it is it's really charming, "I kicked him in the head a time or two and he couldn't just take it".
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That’s the one,remarkable how blasé they were with tigers on the brink of extinction.
 
Druk said:
That’s the one,remarkable how blasé they were with tigers on the brink of extinction.
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It's a very complicated situation. There's reason to wonder whether the thylacine was functionally extinct by 1930. Nick Mooney recently re-examined some footprints taken by a Fauna Board expedition in 1938 and found that they were consistent with thylacines, but other than that, there's no evidence after 1931, and then very little in a restricted area. I think Batty could only see the potential for making money, and didn't really give anything else much thought. That's how it was then with many, although probably an equal amount wanted to conserve the species. I doubt it's any different now.
 
A response to the recent proposal that the last captive thylacine was a mystery female, whose remains were found in a cupboard at the Tasmanian Museum. The full paper is subscription only or has to be purchased from the journal, so I've linked to the ABC article. If anyone outside of academia is interested in this I'd recommend that both papers be read. Both are in Australian Zoologist but Paddle & Medlock (2023) is open access.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11...9e8MsEtxTz6ei6lqBlAjbI5A5syRU8z_1rSMXFTi4b8Wc

Just to add, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with links to media sites, I haven't quoted any of the text as I'm sure I remember this was problematic. I have though given a clear indication of what's at the link.
 
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Thats the thing we find surprising; in the 1930s a species in decline was regarded as inevitably doomed; even with protection.
 
Kondoru said:
Thats the thing we find surprising; in the 1930s a species in decline was regarded as inevitably doomed; even with protection.
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I think that's because the quality of information that's communicated to the public has been so poor. The thylacine was not in decline in the 1930s, that ship had sailed decades before. By then it was restricted to a relatively small area of what was probably / possibly sub-optimal habitat from where there were sporadic captures up until 1931, after that nothing. It's a bit like saying Elvis' health decline sharply after 1977. Protection was completely ineffectual and the potential for the same degree of collateral persecution continued for decades afterward. Plus it was never really intended to preserve the wild population as they were aware this was economically and politically impossible, but to allow Tasmanian institutions to obtain specimens. This was explicitly stated at the time.
 
brownmane said:
The colour film of the animal shown at the link is good. While it's sad to see the conditions the animal lived in, it is a beautiful animal.
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It's a wonderful bit of work and has cleaned up the film, unfortunately the colour is that of a faded museum mount. For a much more accurate idea of the colour Damir G. Martin's work is the most accurate.
 
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