By Wolf Clifton
The Tasmanian tiger,  more properly called the thylacine, was a large carnivorous marsupial with tiger-like stripes and a dog-like build.  Thylacines dwelt in the forests of Tasmania until hunted to apparent extinction,  chiefly by sheep herders who feared predation-although the historical evidence is that thylacines were only an incidental sheep predator.  The last thylacine killed in the wild was shot in 1930.  The last known thylacine,  captured in 1933, was accidentally locked out of his night quarters at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart,  Australia,  and died of exposure on September 7, 1936.     Founded in 1895,  the Beaumaris Zoo had kept thylacines since 1909,  and was the only zoo that had them.  Without living thylacines to exhibit,  the zoo collapsed financially and was permanently closed in 1937. Read more