source: artbarbarians.com
Just like the fabled ivory billed woodpecker, which was extinguished by man through extensive logging of a single vital habitat, the Singer tract, another less known animal, the Tasmanian tiger, was wiped out by the insensitivity to the loss of a single species in prior decades.
The Tasmanian tiger, which was not a tiger but got his name due to its stripes, was wiped out in 1930, when the last known specimen in the wild was killed by an eager farmer who wanted to protect his livestock. Soon after a couple of captive held tigers died in 1936, officially ending their existance on earth.
The real name of the Tasmanian tiger is thylacine, and it was a very odd animal indeed. It was a marsupial, but also a carnivore.
Our inability to control of protect species that are endangered or on the brink of extinction has prompted some to initiate a nostalgic tour of what we have recently lost. Enter the thylacine, which is seen as a good candidate for 'recreation'.
Already there has been talk to bring back the woolly mammoth, after perfectly preserved species have been extracted from their icy tomb.
Likewise, the extinction of the thylacine is recent enough that we hold DNA and genetic material sufficient to try and resurrect the species.
But can such nostalgia and our knowledge of genetics enable us to turn back the clock? More importantly, what habitat can we reintroduce these animals in, when most of it is not there anymore, or it is a far cry, at least in the mammoth's case, from what it was when the pachiderm roamed the earth.
At this juncture, the most important decision might be which species to revive, and how to reintroduce it to the wild.
However many criticize the attempt as simply curiosity and a willingness to what man can truly do with its knowledge and resources. But the same critics also say that such efforts, and money, should be spent in protecting those species that are going to be extinct if we do not act more aggressively.
Source: NatGeo 3.5.13
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