New footage of the extinct Tasmanian Tiger has recently emerged from the files of the National Fim and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), which shows a video of the last known member of the species trapped in a cage, pacing back and forth as two men can be seen rattling it in the Beaumaris Zoo in Tasmania.
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Benjamin the Tasmanian Tiger footage at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA)
It is believed that this video is the last existing ever filmed of Benjamin, the last surviving Tasmanian Tiger. The existing film was shot back in December of 1933, while this newly discovered clip dates back to 1935, just a year or so before Benjamin's death in September 1936.
The entire video was taken from "Tasmania the Wonderland," a travelogue that showed some of the attractions of the island for visitors to see. According to the narrator, as told by New Atlas, Benjamin was the only thylacine in captured at the time and the species was considered very rare in the wild, but never knew they had the very last one in the cage.
This was recently discovered by the National Fim and Sound Archive of Australia and then converted and digitalized into 4K which followed a release online. The video has no sound of the tiger and is black and white with no known color video.
Simon Smith, the National Fim and Sound Archive of Australia's curator has said that the rarity and scarcity of the Tasmanian Tiger footage make every second of the film very precious.
It was believed that they were hunted to extinction by the first Europeans in Australia but recent studies have shown that the species were already in the brink of extinction before humans ever got there. Some people even believe that Tasmanian Tigers are still among us with various sightings persisting today.
Why did it become extinct?
Reports from the Australian Museum have said that "Although the precise reasons for the extinction of the Thylacine from mainland Australia are not known it appears to have declined as a result of competition with the Dingo and perhaps hunting pressure from humans. The Thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland not less than 2000 years ago. Its decline and extinction in Tasmania was probably hastened by the introduction of dogs, but appears mainly due to direct human persecution as an alleged pest."
When it comes to fossils, there have been numerous found from Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria. The most incredible and spectacular fossil that was found was an almost complete skeleton of the Tasmanian Tiger from the AL90 site at Riversleigh.
It was first seen back in 1996 when a limestone boulder was cracked to reveal a part of a skull after 17 million years. After months of working and preparation, the skeleton has been reassembled.
