Page 60 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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38 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
THYLACINE OR TASMANIAN WOLF
N ow Being Exterminated by the Sheep Owners of Tasmania
remote nook of the Transvaal, or Zululand, or Portuguese East Africa, the chances are as 100 to 1 that they will not be suffered to bring back the species; and so, to Burchell's zebra, the world is to-day saying "Farewell!"
Species of Large Mammals Almost Extinct
The Thylacine or Tasmanian Wolf, (Thylacinus cynocephalus).— Four years ago, when Mr. W. H. D. Le Souef, Director of the Melbourne Zoological Garden (Australia) , stood before the cage of the living thylacine in the New York Zoological Park, he first expressed surprise at the sight of the animal, then said
"I advise you to take excellent care of that specimen; for when it isgone,youneverwillgetanother. Thespeciessoonwillbeextinct."
This opinion has been supported, quite independently, by a lady who is the highest authority on the present status of that species, Mrs. Mary G. Roberts, of Hobart, Tasmania. For nearly ten years Mrs. Roberts has been proctiring all the living specimens of the thylacine that money couldbuy,andattemptingtobreedthematherprivatezoo. Shestates
that the mountain home of this animal is now occupied by flocks of sheep, ''
and because of the fact that the ' Tasmanian wolves ' raid the flocks and kill lambs, the sheep-owners and herders are systematically poisoning the thylacines as fast as possible. Inasmuch as the species is limited to