{"id":398840,"date":"2025-09-05T02:41:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398840\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T02:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:41:17","slug":"nine-decades-on-a-witness-to-the-last-tasmanian-thylacine-recounts-her-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398840\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine decades on, a witness to the last Tasmanian thylacine recounts her experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even after nine decades, Peggie Bassett can still remember the guttural growl and striking scent of the last known thylacine as it prowled its concrete enclosure.<\/p>\n

Sunday is the 89th anniversary of the animal’s death at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936, which is generally regarded as the end of the species commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger.<\/p>\n

Ms Bassett, 94, was just a young child when she visited the zoo with her family in the years before the animal died, but the memories have stayed with her.<\/p>\n

\"Peggie<\/p>\n

Peggie Bassett shared her memories in a film of seeing the last known thylacine in Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo. (NSW Government Saving our Species program: Alex Pike)<\/p>\n

Alongside her grandmother and aunts, she would catch the tram from Lenah Valley into the CBD before trekking up the Queen’s Domain to have a picnic at the zoo.<\/p>\n

“Before you actually got there you could hear it \u2026 not barking or howling, just a low guttural sort of sound,” Ms Bassett said.<\/p>\n

“It was in an enclosure \u2014 very small \u2014 with a concrete floor \u2026 just there, by itself, prowling around.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Bassett remembered thinking the animal was “lonely” and sad, trapped on its own while other animals roamed their larger enclosures in groups.<\/p>\n

She said its appearance was moth-eaten and unkempt as it repeatedly walked “round and round” in its small enclosure.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know that I realised it was the very last one until later, but it’s something that I will never forget,” Ms Bassett said.<\/p>\n

“If it was still there today, I don’t think I would ever want to go back and see it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Loading…From wilderness to extinction<\/p>\n

The world’s largest marsupial carnivore, the thylacine roamed across mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea before going extinct in those regions about 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

It survived in Tasmania through to the 20th century, but was targeted by farmers after being blamed for killing sheep and other livestock.<\/p>\n

New Tasmanian tiger research aims to correct ‘misunderstandings’<\/a><\/p>\n

New research disputes a recent hypothesis the\u00a0last captive Tasmanian tiger was\u00a0a female, and argues the animal\u00a0did not die from neglect.<\/p>\n

A government bounty accelerated its decline, alongside hunting, habitat destruction, and the introduction of competitive species like wild dogs.<\/p>\n

While some researchers have disputed whether the animal at Beaumaris Zoo was truly the last known thylacine<\/a>, it is generally accepted that the species disappeared in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Fred Ford, a senior threatened species officer with the New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW), said the thylacine’s demise was a “strikingly different story” to Australia’s other extinctions.<\/p>\n

“The first thing is that it was a spectacularly unusual animal, so it was going to grab attention as a living or an extinct species,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr Ford said.\"Thylacine<\/p>\n

It is generally accepted the species disappeared in the 1930s. (Libraries Tasmania)<\/p>\n

“Most of the other species that have gone extinct \u2026 [did so] because of insidious processes that humans have caused \u2014 things like the introduction of feral species.<\/p>\n

What happened to Hobart’s zoo?<\/a><\/p>\n

Hobart’s old zoo is famous as being where the last thylacine in captivity died, but in its heyday visitors could also view elephants, zebras, monkeys and even see a girl walking her pet leopard.<\/p>\n

“But the thylacine went extinct because we persecuted it to death [as] it was seen as a stock killer \u2014 a large predator.”<\/p>\n

Dr Ford said the species’ uniqueness explained why its story had pierced the public’s consciousness more than other species.<\/p>\n

“I think that probably does lead to some of the sadness and the iconic status of the extinction as well, across the world, not just in Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n

A warning for the future<\/p>\n

Decades after the death of the thylacine at Beaumaris Zoo, the date of its demise was declared National Threatened Species Day.<\/p>\n

Ms Bassett originally shared her memories of the animal in a short film<\/a> produced by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water of Australia to mark the anniversary of its passing.<\/p>\n

Meet the Tasmanian tiger hunters<\/a><\/p>\n

The thylacine is considered officially extinct, but that hasn’t stopped people searching for them in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ABC, she said the thylacine’s fate should serve as a reminder of the importance of preserving threatened animals.<\/p>\n

“There are so many animals, insects, birds that are going the same way, unfortunately,” Ms Bassett said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to realise and take care of them and look after them while they’re here, not wait until they disappear.<\/p>\n

“I just hope my great grandchildren and my great-great grandchild will be able to see some of the animals running free.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Ms Bassett, the lonely image of the last thylacine is a memory \u2014 and a warning \u2014 that has lasted a lifetime.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

The date of its demise was declared National Threatened Species Day. (Supplied: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even after nine decades, Peggie Bassett can still remember the guttural growl and striking scent of the last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[51064,137627,1502,3928,137626,70,95328,10799,10801,16,15,1717,137628,68289],"class_list":{"0":"post-398840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal","9":"tag-beaumaris-zoo","10":"tag-biology","11":"tag-conservation","12":"tag-extinct","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-species","15":"tag-tasmanian-tiger","16":"tag-thylacine","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-witness","21":"tag-zoo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115149385612797757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}