Australia’s Strange Animals – Tasmanian Tiger
Australia has a lot of weird and strange animals. Most of these animals are so unusual that as soon as you see these strange animals most people are easily able to identify them as coming from Australia. Animals like the koala bear, kangaroo, and the duck billed platypus are just a few of these strange creatures, but I have one that you have possibly never heard of. It is the Thylacine or as it was commonly known the Tasmanian tiger.
The Tasmanian tiger also sometimes referred to as the Tasmanian wolf believe it or not is not a wolf or a tiger even though it kind of resembles a wolf with stripes. The Tasmanian tiger is actually a marsupial, just like the kangaroo or the koala bear, but unlike these typical marsupials that have forward opening pouches these strange animals have pouches that open to the rear of the animal that covers it’s four mammary glands.
The Tasmanian tiger was capable of growing up to 51 inches long from the base of it’s tail to the tip of it’s nose. Although their bodies resemble that of a dog or wolf, the tail of the Tasmanian tiger is that of a typical marsupial and not that of the typical canid family. It just gradually tapers off of the body instead of sharply protruding like most mammals. As far as animals go these strange animals tails add an additional 20 to 26 inches to the over all length of their bodies.
The average Thylacine or Tasmanian tiger also stood around 24 inches tall at the top of their shoulder. As far as fur color these weird animals varied in range from a yellowish brown to a greyish brown color, with anywhere between 13 to 19 blackish brown tiger like stripes that start behind their shoulders and runs to the base of their tails. These animals were also comparable in weight to a medium size dog with average weight in a 35 to 65 pound range.
Unfortunately the Tasmanian tiger was hunted and trapped to the brink of extinction in Australia in the early 1900′s with a few rare creatures left in zoos. Then unfortunately the last known surviving thylacine died on August 9, 1931 at the London Zoo, where it had been on display since January 26, 1926. So officially this strange animal has been extinct since 1931, but still to this day people claim to see these creatures from time to time. Although no one has been able to come up with any pictures or physical proof of these claims.
