Thread by @JackDAshby

Let's talk about thylacines.
The last known #thylacine died on this day in 1936 - it was accidentally locked out of the indoor part of its enclosure at a #Hobart zoo, and died of exposure.
A 🧵based on stories of how we've represented thylacines, from my #PlatypusMatters book...

Shortly after the British invaded #Tasmania, a #thylacine was caught & illustrated in 1806. As it lay dying, its captor described how its wounds made it "exceedingly inactive and stupid". Scientists in England twisted these words to imply #thylacines were generally unintelligent.

Over the following decades, accounts painted #thylacines as a mysterious, savage killer of the wilderness - coming out of the shadows to kill sheep. (We know now it is unlikely a #thylacine would have hunted many sheep).

Based on this propaganda, the farming lobby instigated a bounty on the #thylacine in 1830. This is the same year a bounty was set up on the heads of Aboriginal Tasmanians, marking the beginning of parallel stories of concerted environmental destruction and an act of genocide.

After they claimed that Aboriginal Tasmanian people had become an extinct race (they weren't, and aren't), the Tasmanian government added their own bounty on the #thylacine in 1888. The bounties caused the death of thousands of #thylacines. Many ended up in #museums.

Events that led to the collection of natural history material are often linked with colonial violence. This can be surprising and confronting. Here's an open-access paper I wrote about it with @Curator_Rebecca natsca.org/article/2631

This is the only wild #thylacine ever to be photographed alive. It had been shot by farmer Wilf Batty in 1930, but he got a few images before it finally succumbed to the wounds.

Other names for the #thylacine included Tasmanian tiger, marsupial hyena and Tasmanian wolf. For millennia, tigers, hyenas and wolves have also been persecuted as livestock-killers, and it served the colonists' narrative to tie this association to #thylacines through their names.

Similarly, in #taxidermy and in art, #thylacines were portrayed with bare-toothed snarls. This heightened their images as dangerous killers that needed to be controlled.

Their are some really beautiful #thylacines as #taxidermy in museums, however, that are far more sympathetic. The best are in @SAMuseum and @mfnberlin. #thylacine

There is *really* strange trope going on with #thylacine taxidermy in museums around the world. More than any other species, I've noticed that they are given consistently prominent scrotums (even though in life male #thylacines kept their scrotums in a unique pouch). #taxidermy

When the last known #thylacine died, 86 years ago today, no-one knew that no more would ever be caught. Undoubtedly, they held on for at least several decades more, but now, the only place you can find them is in #museums. This date is now commemorated as #ThreatenedSpeciesDay.

If you're curious about the proposed efforts to genetically engineer a thylacine back into existence, this is why I think it's a bad idea.

https://twitter.com/JackDAshby/status/1559656815046012928?s=20&t=xpz1KHKF70Gaj4x3peUmdA

All of the above is explored in much more detail in my new book, #PlatypusMatters: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals. It's a celebation of these glorious animals, but also investigates how we've come to see them today.
harpercollins.co.uk/products/platy…