Tasmanian tiger— back from the dead

Extinct Tasmanian tiger lives again - 10th October 2022

A bold and innovative project now under way at the University of Melbourne is endeavouring to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, a historic animal that features in Aborignal rock art. Despite becoming extinct around a century ago, thanks to ancient DNA retrieval, gene editing and artificial wombs, scientists intend to bring the striped marsupial back to life.

The Tasmanian tiger, known as the thylacine by zoologists, wasn't feline at all, but a doglike, coyote-sized marsupial with black markings striping its back and haunches. The carnivorous animal gobbled anything it came across, and its prey even included its cousin, the kangaroo.

Thylacines were blamed for destroying livestock and a bounty system was implemented to reward those who successfully hunted them down. Ultimately, the species was wiped out, with the last example, Benjamin, dying in captivity in 1936.

Professor Andrew Pask is one of many geneticists hoping to rekindle the species by digital reconstruction of the animal's DNA and modification of the DNA of the thylacine's nearest surviving relative – a dunnart. Pask summed up, "We are essentially engineering our dunnart cell to become a Tasmanian tiger cell."

The dunnart, a mouse-sized marsupial, will then also be used as a surrogate mother for the thylacine foetus. Being the size of a mere coffee cup, the process may sound implausible, but both species deliver miniscule offspring, comparable to a rice grain in proportions.

News of the thylacine's comeback hasn't been greeted with rapturous applause across the board and critics complain the project's funding should be used to halt global extinctions of species such as the amur leopard or the hawksbill turtle.

Pask agreed this was a huge problem, but added "Unfortunately, we are not seeing a slowing down in species loss." He went on to say, "This technology offers a chance to correct this and could be applied in exceptional circumstances where cornerstone species have been lost."