Here's another Tasmanian "tiger" clip I found on YouTube. This is actually the one that's gotten the most exposure, which is why I used the other one last night. In this clip, there are a couple of good views of the thylacine's very wide gape.
Last night, after I posted the clip, I began to think about the strong possibility that polar bears may be extinct in only another century, having lost the ice sheets on which they rely to global warming. And of course it won't only be the polar bears. Worldwide, predators are at the top of the list of threatened species. The Bengal and Siberian tigers, cheetahs, snow leopards, the Eastern Timber Wolf, Komodo dragons, the Tasmanian Devil, most sharks, and on and on and on. There are few extant large to medium-sized predators that are not threatened — except, of course, man, the super-predator. And watching the clip of the last thylacine, I could not but wonder about future clips of the last tiger, the last polar bear...
The platypus, sheheit says these are not fit thoughts for late at night, but sometimes the platypus lies.
We who revel in nature's diversity and feel instructed by every animal tend to brand Homo sapiens as the greatest catastrophe since the Cretaceous extinction. — Stephen Jay Gould
Last night, after I posted the clip, I began to think about the strong possibility that polar bears may be extinct in only another century, having lost the ice sheets on which they rely to global warming. And of course it won't only be the polar bears. Worldwide, predators are at the top of the list of threatened species. The Bengal and Siberian tigers, cheetahs, snow leopards, the Eastern Timber Wolf, Komodo dragons, the Tasmanian Devil, most sharks, and on and on and on. There are few extant large to medium-sized predators that are not threatened — except, of course, man, the super-predator. And watching the clip of the last thylacine, I could not but wonder about future clips of the last tiger, the last polar bear...
The platypus, sheheit says these are not fit thoughts for late at night, but sometimes the platypus lies.
We who revel in nature's diversity and feel instructed by every animal tend to brand Homo sapiens as the greatest catastrophe since the Cretaceous extinction. — Stephen Jay Gould
- Current Location:Núrn
- Current Mood:
sober - Current Music:PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke, "This Mess We're In"
Comments
That thylacine died only because its "keeper" refused to let it get to shelter one cold night, and it died of exposure. Just one more little tale of how we regret its loss now.
I read that in Flannery and Schouten's A Gap in Nature (2001). I just didn't have the heart to include it in either of these entries, though, clearly, it could not be more relevant.