Any member of a now-extinct population of Tasmania. An isolate population of Australian Aboriginals who entered Tasmania 25,000-40,000 years ago, they were cut off from the mainland when a general rise in the sea level flooded the Bass Strait about 10,000 years ago. Subsistence was based on hunting land and sea mammals and collecting shellfish and vegetable food. The first permanent white settlement was made in Tasmania in 1803, and the settlers provoked a war in 1804. Of an estimated 4,000 Tasmanians present when the Europeans first arrived, only 200 remained by the 1830s; moved to Flinders Island for their protection, they did not survive long in their new home, and the last full-blooded Tasmanian died in 1876. Tasmanian devil Tasmanian wolf Tasmanian tiger
A burrowing nocturnal carnivorous marsupial (Sarcophilus harrisii) of Tasmania, having a predominantly blackish coat and a long, almost hairless tail. Marsupial species (Sarcophilus harrisii or S. ursinus, family Dasyuridae), now extinct on the Australian mainland, that survives in remote rocky areas of Tasmania. It is 30-40 in. (75-100 cm) long, with a stocky body, large head and jaws, and long bushy tail. The coat is usually black and brown with a white-marked breast. Named for its devilish expression and husky snarl, it is mainly a scavenger of wallaby and sheep carcasses but also eats beetle larvae and occasionally poultry. Its three or four young remain in the mother's pouch about five months
A large wolflike carnivorous marsupial (Thylacinus cynocephalus) of Tasmania, having a pointed head and dark transverse stripes across its back. It is believed to be extinct. Also called Tasmanian tiger, thylacine. or Tasmanian tiger or thylacine Extinct, slender, fox-faced marsupial (Thylacinus cynocephalus,family Thylacinidae), 40-50 in. (100-130 cm) long. It was yellowish brown, with dark bars on the back and rump. It hunted at night for wallabies and birds. The female carried her young in a shallow pouch. Once found on the Australian mainland and New Guinea, it was confined to Tasmania in historical times, when competition with the dingo led to its disappearance from the mainland. Europeans in Tasmania hunted it to protect their sheep; the last known individual died in captivity in 1936