LIFESCIENCE: Extinct 'Tiger' May Be RebornLast Tasmanian Tiger Died In 1936

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
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Scientists Hope To Recreate It Using DNA
CANBERRA, Australia
CBS'Benjamin', the last known Tasmanian Tiger in the Hobart Zoo 1936.
Reuters Australia's Tasmanian Tiger, a marsupial wolf believed to be
extinct, may be reborn in only a few years by geneticists cloning it
from perfectly preserved baby "tigers" kept in museums.
Australian Museum director Mike Archer said the discovery of a baby
"tiger" preserved in a jar in his Sydney museum had encouraged him over
the past year to investigate the possibility of bringing the wolf back
to life using its DNA.
His Jurassic Park-style plan was reinforced on Thursday when six other
baby Tasmanian Tigers, also known as the thylacine, were discovered in
other museums, meaning a greater gene pool could be used, boosting the
animal's chances of future survival.
"I've found out that there's a total of seven thylacines around the
world, so this isn't the only one -- there's a population waiting to be
kick-started," Archer said. "There's been several geneticists who are
now saying it's not a joke, it's not silly, it could be done," he added.
La Trobe University's senior lecturer in genetics, Mike Westerman, said
it was possible the thylacine could be cloned in the "not-too-distant
future" if the funds were available. Archer said he was prepared to hand
the baby "tiger" over to anyone with a serious cloning proposal.
Sydney's pouch-young thylacine was put into its jar in 1866 and was
preserved in alcohol rather than formalin, which would have destroyed
its DNA.
There are also thylacines stored in alcohol in the British Museum in
London and in American museums as well as several in a museum in
Australia's island state, Tasmania.
Archer said he had previously thought it feasible that Tasmanian Tigers,
which grew to about six feet long with a long rigid tail and tapering
stripes on their bodies, could be sold as pets within 50 years.
But some geneticists had suggested it might happen in only a few years.
"The important thing is it's not a question of if, it's a question of
when," he said. Australia had a moral duty to revive the Tasmanian
Tiger, which looked similar to a wild dog, after early British settlers
in Tasmania mercilessly hunted it down to stop it killing flocks of
sheep, he added.
The last known Tasmanian Tiger, named 'Benjamin' by his keepers, was
captured in 1933 and died at a zoo in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart in
1936. There have been numerous reported sightings of apparent thylacines
since then in both Tasmania and on the mainland, but no evidence has
ever been found to prove they still existed.
Thylacines once roamed all across the Australian mainland and New
Guinea. They are thought to have lost out in competition with wild dogs
introduced by man into both places thousands of years ago, and became
extinct there long before European settlement.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All Rights Reserved.

(c) 1999, CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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