What caused the Thylacine to die out?

The Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, died out during the first decades of the 20th century. The last known Thylacine died in the Hobart Zoo on 7 September 1936.

The reason the thylacine died out was because bounty was placed on it, as farmers feared it killed their livestock. This unusual marsupial was literally hunted to extinction.

It has been suggested that, in the early part of the Twentieth Century an extremely virulent disease began to spread first through the wild then captive populations. Exactly what this disease was remains unknown but it was described as being similar to but distinct from canine distemper. Another theory points to the fact that, by the time the Thylacine was confined to the island of Tasmania, the remaining specimens did not have sufficient genetic diversity to sustain the population. A similar problem is currently affecting the Tasmanian devil, resulting in the spread of the fatal DFTD, or Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

The Thylacine once roamed the Australian continent. Scientists are divided as to why it disappeared from the mainland, with some citing climate change as the cause, and others stating that the arrival of the dingo with the Aborigines created too much competition for food for the apex predators.