Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger…Zoology. Vol. V

1882

Expedition Reports Q115 C4 1872

London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office

Specimens of the already rare, Thylacinus cynocephalus, or Tasmanian tiger were sent to the Challenger expedition team in Sydney by the then Governor of Tasmania, Sir Charles du Cane. The specimens, from which these drawings were taken, were then sent on to Daniel John Cunningham, doctor and Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Thylacine were carnivorous marsupials and would carry their young, called joeys, in their pouches for up to three months. The creatures became extinct in the 1930s with the last captive animal dying on the 7th September, 1936