The Tasmanian wolf, also called the thylacine or marsupial tiger, is one of the most mysterious animals to ever live on our planet. Three and a half centuries ago, a large island was discovered by a Dutch navigator off the southwestern tip of the Australian continent, which later received the name of its discoverer. The sailors sent from the ship to explore this piece of land talked about footprints they saw that looked like tiger paw prints. Thus, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the mystery of marsupial tigers was born, rumors about which persisted over the next several centuries. Then, when Tasmania was already sufficiently populated by settlers from Europe, eyewitness accounts began to appear.

The first more or less reliable report about the marsupial wolf was published in one of the English scientific publications in 1871. The famous naturalist and naturalist D. Sharp studied local birds in one of the river valleys of Queensland. One evening he noticed a sand-colored animal with clearly visible stripes. The unusual-looking animal managed to disappear before the naturalist could do anything. Sharpe later learned that a similar animal had been killed nearby. He immediately went to this place and carefully examined the skin. Its length was one and a half meters. Unfortunately, it was not possible to save this skin for science.

The Tasmanian wolf (the photo confirms this) has in some respects a certain similarity with representatives of the canine family, for which it received its name. Before white settlers appeared on the Australian continent, who brought with them their beloved sheep, the thylacine hunted small rodents, wallabies, marsupial possums, bandicoot badgers and other exotic animals then known only to local aborigines. Most likely, the Tasmanian wolf preferred not to pursue game, but to use ambush tactics, lying in wait for prey in a secluded place. Unfortunately, today science has too little information about the life of this predator in wildlife.

Forty years ago, based on numerous expert reports, scientists announced the irretrievable disappearance of this animal. Indeed, one of the last representatives of the species was a Tasmanian who died of old age in 1936 at the zoo in Hobart, the administrative center of the island of Tasmania. But in the forties, several fairly reliable evidence of encounters with this predator was recorded. Consequently, it still continued to exist in its natural habitat.

True, after this documented evidence, it was possible to see this animal only in photographs. But even less than a hundred years ago, the Tasmanian wolf was so common that visiting farmers were obsessed with genuine hatred of the thylacine, which gained among them the bad reputation of a sheep thief. There was even a considerable prize placed on his head. Over the last twenty years of the century before last, the authorities paid 2,268 such rewards. Thus, the thirst for easy money gave rise to a wave of real hunting for the thylacine. It soon turned out that such zeal led to the almost complete extermination of this predator. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Tasmanian wolf was endangered. The law on his protection came into force only when, in all likelihood, there was no one left to protect...

But, apparently, the marsupial wolf still did not suffer the fate of the tarpan, and in 1985, amateur naturalist Kevin Cameron from the town of Girraween, Western Australia, suddenly presented to the world community quite convincing evidence that the thylacine continues to exist. Around the same time, evidence of occasional fleeting encounters with this beast in New South Wales began to appear.

Eyewitnesses noted a strange wagging with the tossing of the back of the body, which, according to experts who studied the skeletons of representatives of this species, is quite consistent with the morphological and anatomical structure of the marsupial wolf. Moreover, of all Australian animals, only he is characterized by similar features. So isn’t it time to exclude the Tasmanian marsupial wolf from the “martyrology” of the animal world and once again add it to the list of living, albeit not thriving, contemporaries?

The history of the existence of the marsupial wolf, or, as it is also called, the Tasmanian (Tasmanian) wolf, is very sad. With the arrival of Europeans in Australia, their merciless extermination began, and then, when their numbers were already in critical condition, the situation was aggravated by canine distemper. The thylacine is now an extinct species. The last wolf died on September 7, 1936 at a private zoo in Hobart from old age.

Despite the fact that the thylacine looks more like a wolf or a dog, its closer relatives are the Tasmanian devil, or. After all, the Tasmanian wolf is the only large predator belonging to the marsupial family. Its tail, wide at the base, and a pouch in the form of a fold of skin covering the 2 nipples are clear evidence of this relationship.

Sometimes you are surprised how short-sighted people can be. Instead of thoroughly studying this animal, they exterminated it. For almost a hundred years, researchers had such an opportunity, but no. Its only official description and pictures were published only once, in the proceedings of the Linnean Society of London in 1808 by the amateur naturalist Harris. It was he who gave it the name Thylacinus kinocephalus, which means “striped dog with a wolf’s head.”

The marsupial wolf was of medium size. The length of its body, including its tail, reached 180 centimeters, while the height at the shoulders was 60 centimeters. The wolf weighed about 20-25 kilograms.

Outwardly, he looked more like a dog than a wolf. His thick hair was grayish-yellow in color. There were 16-18 transverse dark stripes on the back, hind legs and at the base of the tail.

Even the thylacine's skull was shaped like a dog's. But its elongated mouth was of particular interest. While yawning, a wolf could open it up to almost 120 degrees. And the special structure of its hind legs gave the gait spasmodic movements and gave the animal the opportunity to stand on its hind legs.

These wolves are loners. But for hunting they often gathered in pairs or small groups. This small predator had prey of appropriate size - wallabies, other small marsupials, echidnas and even lizards. They exhausted their prey with a slow but lengthy chase. In their natural habitat, thylacines never returned to a half-eaten carcass. Therefore, when people tried to kill them by planting poisoned carcasses, they did not succeed.

Like all marsupial mammals, the thylacine had a pouch with 2 nipples, in which from 1 to 4 cubs could grow at the same time. They were born very tiny, literally a couple of centimeters, and moved into their mother’s pouch. They spent 3 months there, and then the female looked for a good shelter, where she left the cubs and went hunting. She also brought prey here and also taught the kids how to deal with it.

Before the arrival of man on mainland Australia, the marsupial wolf was distributed over a large part of this continent, as well as about. Tasmania and New Guinea. But with the advent of Europeans and the dingoes they brought, the life of these marsupials turned into hell.

Initially, they lived in sparse forests and grassy plains, but were then driven by humans into rain forests and mountains, where their main shelters were holes under tree roots, caves and hollows of fallen trees.

In the 30s of the 19th century, their mass extermination began, caused by the fact that these animals were allegedly responsible for the mass death of sheep. But these were false accusations. Of course, marsupial wolves could sometimes steal poultry or other small animals from the colonists, but the harm attributed to them was exaggerated tenfold. The main cause of death of sheep was precisely wild dingoes or stray dogs brought by humans. But the farmers had no time for a showdown, and they declared the marsupial wolf enemy No. 1. Their mass extermination began.

As a result, thylacines survived only on the island. Tasmania, where people and dingoes simply couldn’t get to. But at the beginning of the 20th century, another misfortune occurred with these animals - an epidemic of canine distemper began. Thus, the Tasmanian wolf was almost completely defeated. By 1914, there were only a few of them left. In 1928, a law was passed to protect the fauna of Tasmania, but, despite the almost complete disappearance of this animal species, it was not listed as a protected species. This is how the last marsupial wolves died: one on May 13, 1930, from a hunter’s bullet, and in 1936, the last marsupial wolf in the world died in captivity.

In our time, due to the successful development of science in the field of cloning, attempts have been made to restore the function of thylacine DNA. The DNA material was a cub preserved in alcohol, which had lain in a Sydney museum for more than 100 years. The gene from an extinct animal was transplanted into a mouse embryo. As a result, this gene began to function successfully in the rodent body. But cloning the most extinct animal requires much more genetic material than is currently available.

Mariners discovered the southwestern part of Australia about 400 years ago. The first settlers began to describe the terrible beast that lived in these areas, later it was called the “marsupial wolf”, “marsupial tiger”, “Tasmanian wolf”, “thylacine” and “meshkops”. The last two names indicated that these wolves were similar to canines. And this wolf was nicknamed the tiger because the fur on its back was decorated with black stripes. There could be 13-19 of these stripes.

Appearance of a marsupial wolf

The body length of this animal did not exceed 130 centimeters, and the tail was 65 centimeters long.

The fur of marsupial tigers was soft and curly. The fur color was grayish, with black or yellow stripes. Males were slightly darker than females.

These wolves belonged to a large family of predatory marsupials. The Meshkopes was the largest representative of the species. The appearance of the Tasmanian wolf combined the features of several animals. Most of all, he resembled a domestic dog, but when attacking an enemy, he could jump high hind legs, like a kangaroo, in addition, on its belly there was a bag that opened backwards.

Lifestyle of Tasmanian wolves

These animals originally lived in grassy plains and sparse forests, but people pushed them into mountainous areas. They found refuge in caves and under tree roots. Although these wolves were nocturnal, they could be found basking in the sun. Most often they lived alone, but sometimes they gathered in small groups while hunting.

They ate large and medium-sized vertebrates: echidnas, lizards, birds. They also attacked livestock. There are different versions of hunting tactics. The marsupial wolf could lie in wait for the victim in a shelter or slowly pursue it until it loses strength. If a wolf left its prey uneaten, it would never return to it again.

While hunting, thylacines emitted a guttural, dull bark. These predators did not attack people, but, on the contrary, avoided meeting them. People tamed young animals.

Reproduction of marsupial wolves

As noted, these animals were marsupials. On the belly of the females there were folds of skin that formed bags. The mother carried her babies in such a bag. These animals did not have a specific breeding season, but cubs were mainly born in December-March. The gestation period was only 35 days.

One female gave birth to 2-4 underdeveloped babies, which continued to develop in the pouch for about 3 months. They did not leave their mother until they were 9 months old. In captivity, Tasmanian wolves did not breed and lived no more than 8 years.

Extinction of a species

There were legends about the incredible aggression of these wolves, so people caught and shot them en masse. By 1863, these animals were found only in mountainous, inaccessible areas. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a catastrophe occurred - some kind of disease broke out, most likely it was canine distemper, and by 1928 so many marsupial wolves had died that they were classified as a protected species. The last wild individual was killed in 1930, and in 1936 a wolf in a private zoo died.

People assumed that these animals were alive in the twentieth century, they were just hiding in the impenetrable forests of southwestern Australia. But upon careful study of their habitats, it became clear that marsupial wolves are an extinct species.

It is believed that the last marsupial (Tasmanian) wolf -thylacine(Thylacinus cynocephalus) died in 1936 at the private Hobart Zoo. They even managed to capture it in photos and videos, and these archival footage were still the only “living” incarnation of the now extinct animal.

Tasmanian marsupial wolves became extinct mainly due to catastrophic extermination by humans. Farmers claimed that this predator was killing their sheep. Another cause of extinction is called canine distemper, which broke out at the beginning of the twentieth century in Tasmania, where a small population of thylacines remained.

However, it is believed that the marsupial wolf has not completely died out. Over the following years, isolated cases of encounters with the animal were recorded, but none of them received reliable confirmation.

And this year in Australia, a mysterious thylacine was probably filmed; in any case, the recorded animal is very similar to a marsupial wolf.

According to the British tabloid Daily Mail, the video was presented by a group of enthusiastic thylacine researchers Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia and was taken in February 2016 in the vicinity of Adelaide (South Australia). Within a few seconds, an unidentified animal flashes among the thickets near the building.

Unique entry at 0.18 seconds

Researcher Neil Waters believes that in the video you can also see characteristic stripes on the sides of the animal, like a thylacine. He says that its long, elongated tail, wide at the junction with the body, and large head are clearly visible - iconic signs of the thylacine.

Waters says that at least five people have reported seeing the animal at close range and their descriptions are similar to the appearance of the thylacine.

Means “entrance to the lakes” - in this place an extensive network of rivers and lakes flows into the ocean, creating ideal conditions for fishing.

Indeed, at the pier in Lakes Entrance there were many fishing trawlers, which immediately sold fresh fish and shrimp. Almost all vacationers in this place in Victoria could see a boat; many hotels have corners with tables for cutting fish.

Well, where there are fish, there are pelicans.

And the fishermen, accordingly...

In general, apart from fish and a couple of beaches, there is nothing special to see in Lakes Entrance, except for the private maritime museum Griffiths Sea Shell Museum, where you could find just tons of different types of shells, preserved and dried fish and other sea creatures.

Not far from Lakes Entrance are the Buchan Caves.

Well, after visiting the caves, it was nice to have a glass of local beer at the Bullant Brewery.

We were already in Canberra in 2008, stopping for a couple of days on our way to Sydney. Then we saw that there are many places in the city that can be visited in a few days.

Before leaving Canberra we visited the Australian Parliament building. There were several policemen at the entrance who let visitors through a frame, like at airports. After walking through the halls and offices, visiting the green roof, we moved on...

Consulting group the Economist Intelligence Unit has published its list of the world's best cities, with Melbourne topping it for the second year in a row.

The top ten cities look like this:

Great Ocean Road

We took a trip to the Great Ocean Road last December and just added everything from that trip yesterday.

You can drive the entire road in one day if you leave early in the morning, don’t stop everywhere, and return directly along the highway. To take our time with sightseeing, we stayed for a couple of nights right in the center of the road, in the town of Port Campbell (Summer's Rest Units).

On the first day it was cloudy, so we had to wear jackets, but on the second day the sun came out and it became much more fun.

A few attractions we visited:

Despite s18(1) of the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), I agree and acknowledge that any message Vodafone sends me will not contain an unsubscribe facility. I understand that I can, at any time, opt out of receiving marketing material by contacting Vodafone Customer Care.

In general, Australian laws do not have to be followed, the main thing is to communicate this in small print.

She received the surname Macpherson from her stepfather Neil Macpherson.

Thanks to her ideal body proportions (90-61-89), at the age of 18, Elle signed her first contract with the famous modeling agency Click Model Management.

In 1985, Elle decided to marry photographer and creative director of Elle magazine Gilles Bensimon, who was 20 years older than Macpherson. Thanks to her marriage, Elle appeared in every issue of Elle magazine for six years.

In 1986, Elle made the cover of Time magazine. By that time, she had already been on the covers of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and Playboy. Elle also appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated six times during her career.

In 1989, MacPherson and Bensimon divorced, and along with her husband, Elle lost her largest employer, Elle magazine. This period in the girl’s career and life is difficult, but Elle pulls herself together and decides to move on.

Elle Macpherson in the movie "On the Edge"

In 1990, the first film starring the famous model, Alice, directed by Woody Allen, was released. Then she plays in several films: “Sirens” (with Hugh Grant), “Batman and Robin” (with George Clooney), “On the Edge” (with Anthony Hopkins) and others.

Also in 1990, Macpherson launched her lingerie line, Elle Macpherson Intimates, which is sold exclusively in Australia.

In 1995, together with her supermodel friends, Elle opened the Fashion Café restaurant chain, which did not become profitable and was closed in 1998.

In 1999, Elle Macpherson starred in five episodes of the popular TV series Friends.

In 2003, Elle was engaged to French financier Arpad Busson, with whom she had two sons, Flynn in 1998 and Cy in 2003.

In 2005, the couple broke up, and today Elle and her children live in London.

Smile!

I read in the local newspaper today about what to do when traveling, and I saw this advice:

Smile. Always smile.

It"ll get you places you wouldn"t believe. From persuading Parisian waiters to speak English to figuring out where the hell you"re supposed to be sitting on that train, a little smile and a good attitude will get you help in no time. NB: There"s an exception to this rule – it "s called Russia. (They"ll think you"re mad.)

In translation:

Smile! Always smile.

This will open up so many new opportunities for you that you never dreamed of. For example, a waiter from Paris suddenly speaks English, or you finally find that fucking seat on the train - just smile a little and act accordingly.

One exception to this rule is Russia. They'll think you're crazy.