Some 90 years after the death of the last documented thylacine – better known as the Tasmanian tiger – the species remains a global symbol of human-made extinction.
The carnivorous marsupial fell victim to 19th-century colonists’ perception that unfamiliar creatures were primitive, vermin-like imitations of more familiar European animals. The species was later exterminated due to sensationalist claims that it was a ferocious, wolf-like predator of sheep.
