Happy 81st Thylacine Day: Thylacines were lucky to last as long as they did
By Jack Ashby, on 7 September 2017
81 years ago today – the 7th September 1936 – the last known thylacine died, committing its species, indeed its entire family, to extinction.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/%22Benjamin%22.jpg)
The last known living thylacine, 1933. (Image in the public domain, photographer unknown)
It was locked out of the indoor section of its enclosure at a zoo in Hobart, and in the overnight chill of the Tasmanian winter it died of exposure. All that now remains of the then largest marsupial carnivore is in museums.
In a sense it was lucky. (more…)