Thought Y'all Might Enjoy This.

General Zoology. Written by Mary J. Guthrie and John M. Anderson. 1957.

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Hey y'all, I'm having the same thoughts

Here's some more images of Benjamin compared to the pelt

Do with that what you will

Also paddle is very much confusing me

The thylacine museum has a good section talking about Benjamin's sex as well.

BRUH????

The central continent of my worldbuilding world is dominated by marsupials and monotremes, and birds. There are several species of thylacine, and one — which is essentially our Thylacinus cynocephalus — is domesticated.

They are a recent domestication, with about 250 generations having passed. Compared to the wild ancestors, they have similar builds, but with more colours, variation in size, and longer lifespans (12-20 years). They have lost their natural reclusive nature and though shy, are friendly and inquisitive and trainable to a point. Most prefer to be solitary or tolerate the presence of 1-2 others, though get along well with other calm-tempered species. Their prey drive is greatly reduced but many suffer anxiety in loud or busy environments.

thylacines made good pets?? ;_; they do look like they'd feel soft and glossy to the touch. I'm obsessed with tassie devils, myself, but I'm resigned that they may go extinct before I can travel far enough to see them. I wish I could pet one.

They were obviously not domesticated to the level of having domestication syndrome features (not that I'm sure a marsupial animal *would*), but there are historical records of Tasmanians who kept them as pets, including both white settlers and indigenous people.

Thylacines were somewhat prone to capture myopathy (a stress reaction that causes some animals to die if trapped/captured) and sometimes died after capture, but many did not. If the animals were treated kindly they would generally respond well to attempts to tame them, and this was even more true of orphaned baby thylacines that were raised by humans. There are several stories of people who tamed thylacines very shortly after capture. One such thylacine was let go when she went into season and became restless, and she later introduced her pups to the man she had lived with.

Indigenous people were recorded as having kept them. One indigenous informant stated that they called them "stripey dogs" when they spoke English.

One of my favourite stories was of a white settler family had a large house and kept their thylacine on an extremely long chain in the front so that she could act as a sort of watchdog. This thylacine would watch over the children playing and did not react violently to them even if she was accidentally hit by a ball (she knew that this was an accident) and would give warning of anyone approaching.

The likely reason that thylacines did not become popular household companions was the hate campaign that sprung up around them, stating that they were sheep killers. Once that got to be a big issue and bounties were offered for killing them, people who were taming and raising the animals frequently found them killed, and they gave up on it.

Many of these stories are in Robert Paddle's book, which is an academic study but is extremely readable.

Preserved head of a female thylacine at Oxford University Museum of Natural History and a photo of the same animal when she was alive. This individual was captured in 1925 and sold to Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, before being transferred to London Zoo in 1926. She died on the 9th of August, 1931. She was the last living thylacine to be exhibited outside of Australia. 

Top photo by S. Sleightholme

This is an adult male thylacine taxidermy from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The most striking aspect of this mount is the little fangs - they may not be anatomically correct, but they’re pretty cute and give him a unique look :)

Unfortunately there is no information about where this specimen came from, the date it was collected or who donated it to the museum.

The mount is in fair to poor condition, with significant damage on the ears, belly, medial aspects of the legs, and near the base of the tail. The white band was placed around the belly in an effort to prevent the skin from cracking further. I did my best to show only his good side, but he’s in need of some serious restorative work. It’s a shame because his facial expression, pose and color are all quite good.

Eternal thanks to @diplotomodon for alerting me to the existence of this specimen!

(My main blog, @sixth-extinction is listed on the images.)

The thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, is not a tiger. Nor is it a dog, a fox, or a wolf. It is an extinct carnivorous marsupial…

I still haven't found a way to colorize gifs. But I don't think a lot of people know about this thylacine footage.

(will update when I pull out my info I wrote down, I just woke up =w=)

EDIT IM SO SORRY

LOOK BEHIND THE DEVIL GDFSGDHFFVB LOL

images of the thylacine you have probably never seen before