The last known thylacine died in 1936. Now, a group of scientists is trying to bring the animal back
but the project was cut short because the sample DNA was too degraded. Although he is not involved in Colossal’s new effort, Archer is enthusiastic about the project.
“It’s a glove that’s missing a hand, and if the thylacine could be put back into that situation, it would slip back into that glove as if it had never been missing,” Archer says. Chris Johnson, the ecologist at the University of Tasmania, says that if there were a thylacine to reintroduce into the Tasmanian wild right now, it would indeed benefit the ecosystem by controlling the over-abundant populations of small and medium-size marsupials. However, he sees the project as “very, very, very difficult” and says that there are other, more realistic ways to promote ecosystem recovery across the entire country.
“If we want to restore the ecological function of a top predator to mainland Australia, the approach that is simplest and, on the evidence most effective, is to look after the top predator that we currently have, which is the dingo,” Johnson says.
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