Two Wolves in Tasmania

This entry takes place down south. No, not Arizona, you silly Americans, but south down Australia way, all the way to the island state of Tasmania. For a long time, a critter known as the Tasmanian wolf (or tiger, also the unromantic name of thylacine) was uninhibited. Unfortunately, they are probably extinct now since the last one known died in captivity in 1936.

Thylacine art by John Gould, 1863

The thylacine was not something to roll over and play dead. It had no problem killing fresh meat at chow time, and was not known to scavenge or even return to a previous meal. It was a marsupial. Through evosplaining, marsupials are considered "primitive" and placental mammals are "advanced", but in reality, marsupials and placental mammals were created on the same day. 

Now enter the dingo. Bad dog. Bad! They are opportunist predators, and do a a passel of rotten things. But these "advanced" placental mammals, which are smaller than the fierce thylacines, are given credit (or blame) for their extinction due to Darwinian "competition". This is probably a case of a known criminal receiving blame for a crime for which he was innocent.

Australia’s wild dog, the dingo—classified by some as a subspecies of the wolf, Canis lupus dingo—is certainly viewed by many as sinister and savage, not to be trusted. It has been blamed, with good cause, for mauling sheep, stealing (a British tourist was robbed by a dingo on an Australian beach in 2012) and even ‘murder’. There’s something else the dingo is blamed for, though, that is worth examining. Through competition (for food, habitat, etc.) the dingo is said to have caused the disappearance from mainland Australia of the Tasmanian wolf—a marsupial carnivore also known as the thylacine, or (because of its stripes) Tasmanian tiger.

Dogs/wolves/dingoes are placental mammals, while marsupials (e.g. the kangaroo, koala and possum) have a marsupium, or pouch, in which they carry their young. The thylacine’s scientific name, Thylacinus cynocephalus, means ‘pouched one with a dog’s head’.

Evolutionists have traditionally viewed marsupials as more ‘primitive’ than the ‘more advanced’ placental mammals. Albert Le Souef, then curator of Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, wrote in 1923:

You can find out what Al wrote and read the rest of the article by clicking on "Placental versus Marsupial: A tale of two ‘wolves’". As for the video below, it would be nice if some were still living.