Back to life: Inside the ambitious project to resurrect Australia’s Tasmanian tiger | 101 East 

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At the same time, Tasmanian authorities keep logging ancient forests. 400-500 year old trees are being turned into wood chips or paper (yeah, we're letting ancient trees being turned into toilet paper).

Natural extinction is one thing. But extinction my man is quite another. Bring back the Tasmanian Tiger.

I hope they manage to bring this beautiful creature back. I love that some creatures have been brought back from the brink of extinction and are now thriving. It brings hope. I hope we can continue to save these creatures that we have endangered so.

I’m so thankful there was atleast a film of the old tasi tiger 😢

Both sides bring valid points. This topic deserves a more heated debate among the people. I wish we could spend more time debating what animals to bring back and how to restore environments and less time fighting over politics and culture.

There were some very good points that aren’t discussed often. 1. Releasing a Thylacine into the wild won’t happen anytime soon. While they’re working on resurrecting one, the Tasmanian forests are continuing to be cut down and by the time they’ve made a Thylacine there may not even be a suitable environment to release it to. 2. There are many more extinct species that are more feasible to try to bring back, the issue simply being that they aren’t well-known to the public and thus are less likely to draw in funding. I love the Thylacine just as much as the next advocate, if not more. But there seems to be a theme here where we aren’t prioritizing what we STILL have and we’re just wanting what we don’t have. Like they said, not only are habitats dwindling, but also roads serve as significant threats, and currently endangered species are very much not in need of a new predator. While I’m excited about the possibility of seeing a Thylacine(?) one day, I’d have to agree with the biologists that our priorities and funding are probably not in the right place in the current stage

It will look, run, and be as big as a Thylacine, but the first noise it will make is squeeak! 😂

I'm encouraged to see that none of the skeptics interviewed here are geneticists. Everyone who works professionally with DNA seems to think it will eventually work.

It would be funny, if after spending millions of dollars to successfully bring back the Tasmanian Tiger, a remote population of existing Thylacine were discovered alive and well.

Can they bring the forest and way of life back also ?

Fascinating. While I agree with the chief scientist of the Australian museum that Colossal should also be using the funding & technology to help bring back & conserve less charismatic species, but I do understand why they're using the Thylacine as it's a more popular species & thus would bring in the money. Either way, I hope we can bring back & breed recently extinct species, whether they be mighty as a mammoth or as small as the Koʻolau spurwing fly, as well as help struggling species still with us, such as the Sumatran rhino, Hawaiian crow, Pinta Island tortoise, Black-footed ferret, & the Tasmanian devil, just to name a few.

The extinction of the Thylacine was particularly tragic! There have been several unconfirmed sightings!

Back in 2001 my wife and I took the kids on a trip to Tasmania. While on the road between Strahan and Queenstown on the west coast, both my wife and I clearly saw a large dog like animal come out of the bush, cross the road and, with one leap, climb up the embankment (at least 2 - 2.5 metres high) on the other side. Unfortunately, it was too far away & too quick to get a detailed look but, the animal in question was too big to be a feral cat or dog. Until my dying day, I'm convinced that what we saw was a Thylacine. True story.

I agree that all extinct animals should be resurrected if it is possible. We owe that to nature. Both Tasmanian tiger and Mammoth, and other animals that are no longer here. I am a big fan of that. 👍

Its about time to do that. So many endangered species right now are rapidly dying to extinction. We have to do something! Not all governments care about these animals.

So much critic's, let's bring back that beautiful creature!

Excellent documentary on the cutting -edge science , worth watching.

Bring back the tiger, mates, and this time look after them. Give the people some inspiration. Life begets life.

I say why not . This kinda advancement can bring on so much more awesome things .

Lets bring back the Dodol bird !! Britannica: The dodo bird is one of the most famous examples of human-induced extinction. A large, flightless bird once native to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean... ... the dodo was bigger than a turkey and weighed about 23 kilograms. It had blue-gray feathers, a large head and beak, and small, useless wings. Although the birds were terrestrial, their bone structure was hollow like that of birds that fly. Dodos likely nested on the ground, and it is thought that they laid a single egg. Unfortunately, the species was wiped out less than 200 years after its discovery. The birds were discovered by Portuguese sailors around 1507. The birds had no natural predators, so they were unafraid of humans. These sailors, and others to come, quickly decimated the dodo population as an easy source of fresh meat for their voyages. As humans settled on the island, loss of habitat further threatened the birds. Humans also brought animals, such as pigs and monkeys, which ate the vulnerable eggs and competed with the dodos for food. Over-harvesting of the birds, combined with habitat loss and a losing competition with the newly introduced animals, was too much for the dodos to survive. The last dodo was killed in 1681, and the species was lost forever to extinction.

As a very young teen I visited Tassie with my school and we came across a lil out of the way museum off the beaten track and inside was a stuffed Tassie tiger, we all got to touch and talk about it not realizing how important it was, and apparently there was only 2 in existance and both were thought to be lost. I believe this to be the tiger scientists had been searching for as it still had soft tissue and loads of usable of DNA attached. We had no idea at the time how important that stuffed tiger would become to science and the world!!

this is so sad, what a beautiful animal/

Love your work Nic an absolute gentleman and a man who thinks before he talks.Would love to meet you sometime✌️Someone said you live in Richmond which has become one of my favourite weekend drives.Hope to see you one day and say G’day 👍

That jaw opens up bigger than anything I could expect to encounter in the wild. Imagine if the baby turns out to be a dog sized animal that gnaws holes into your house for winter.

Spent a lot of time in the Meander valley and Mole creek; never seen a thylacine. The pub does a great parma though and if your lucky you might see the platypus in the stream behind the pub.

I find it frustrating that the tumour free devils are released near roads. My neighbour had them released on his property about 250m from a busy road and of course the devils are drawn to the dead wallaby’s carcasses hit by car’s.

the money to fund this project versus say a restoration initiative comes from different sources. and as was said in this video, learning how to dextinct something whether we follow through or not will provide us with a whole range of incredible tools we can use in conservation today

This is super cool work!

This is extremely fascinating, but I also have mixed feelings about it.

As an Australian...we should never have hunted this species into extinction. This may correct a human error more ignorant humans may have enforced upon this world... they deserve saving. X

Bringing the Tasmanian Tiger back won't solve the environmental problems when the people are still there creating the issues. The problem is and always has been humanity.

Why bother wasting time and money reviving something that is still alive and well on the Australian main land.

A very good book by Robert Paddle may still be available. 'The last Tasmanian tiger. Not a u tube clip. A real book by an unbiased person. I met him 50 years ago. He was my science teacher then. Was already researching for his future book.

The Tasmanian tiger was not the only victim. It was exterminated by the British in much the same way that the original Aboriginal owners and inhabitants were eradicated. Then it was humans with bounties on their heads being hunted down, poisoned and trapped. In Tasmania, the British conducted their most successful and blatant genocide project that occurred in their Empire. There's no undoing that evil.

Hope they succeed in bringing back the Thylacine.🤞

I have given $$$ to this project. And also to bring back the Great Auk.

I get 2 nerve block shots to the back of my head. It works really well but I also rely on chiropractor and massage therapy.

"But it was raining so couldn't find foot prints? What? That is the perfect opportunity to have found foot prints.

I truly hope these guys succed in their quest BUT PROPERLY! Also, I hope these creatures will be kept 'wild' and NOT IN CAGES. The may have to be initially to be fair, for their own protection and until there is a number of them. May be a bit much to ask (of man) but fingers crossed

As an Aussie, this is really exciting to me. I hope it happens in my life-time. I get emotional about how we lost this animal.

Honestly, I don't see any dychotomy between preserving currently endangered animals (which has to be a State task) with these private/University attempts to resurrect these animals once killed by human. It's all about conservation, isn't it?

As a Irish person I have always been very interested in the Tasmanian Tiger to be honest every single time I think about Australia I can't get out of my head of the horrible treatment people did to the Tasmanian Tiger although it would be awesome to see the Tasmanian Tiger given a second chance of life to rewrite the wrong that was committed in the past if the Tasmanian Tiger does come back to life it may want revenge on Humanity for the heartless and evil treatment of it's race although we have done our best to stop the hunting of animals The Tasmanian Tiger may not be convinced as we are so it's important that we must be extremely careful with the Tasmanian Tiger if it is brought back to life

I really hope that we can bring the Tasmanian Tiger back. Just like the Southern White Rhino.🙏

All the best with your project ⁉️‼️👏👍

Fascinating Documentary ❤️

Guy even says they'd be so valuable they couldn't even live in the wild. What kind of existence is that?

It needs to be brought back. Make it a start.

An interesting thought I had when I saw this was, IF and if the sightings in the wild of the Tasmanian Tiger hold any truth at all, and it was possible to bring back a pair, tag them/geo-location and put them in a location where sightings have been and see what happens. But do it in secret, if it was announced to the world that would do more harm than good. But put protections in order, Non disclosures in place and when there is a bounce in population if any and where it can be controlled then show it off. Do it once and do it properly the world can enjoy it then.

This topic can turn into the ultimate rabbit hole.

saddest tragic story that we all watched such a majestic beautiful animal left unappreciated by man kind. we owe it to them for letting them all down . all animals deserve protection.

I think it's still very well our there . I think from what I've noticed they love the rain. Maybe do a expedition when the weather is wet just a thought

I do believe a shorter cut would be to send an expedition of world wide scientists into these lands to actually find a living Tasmanian Tiger alive. I do believe it is virtually impossible that all of them were killed, I've heard many stories of people who claimed to have seen the animal, so before spending millions of dollars (which I do love the project and hope it will work), I'd go for a full research to find it.

A sad story that's become all too common. We are not taking care of the world. Good reporting as usual, Al Jazeera. Cheers from sunny Vienna, Scott

If they could produce a viable in-between, they could work on further upgrading it.

I won't stop believing the tasmanian tiger is extinct until it's announced with a picture that's it's back

Humans killed it we should bring it back

they don't want them back because they will have protected habitat that the industry want to use for logging.

Some will be out in very remote areas. They have learned to avoid humans no doubt

It was discoed that in New Zealand there was a species of Wallaby here that was apparently extinct in Australia and has been restored the Australia.

Im excited to c one.

Those people in the pub must have seen Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster too.

I've been hearing this for decades. Tasmanian Tiger and Wooly mamoth should be here already.

Bringing these animals back I believe would spark more interest in animals and the environment overall. Since it's a species wiped out in recent history there is no ethical reason not to. The concerns about the expense are sort of a drop in the bucket, compared to the amount of money wasted on various less effective attempts to get people to care about the environment. This is interesting, it's a hook.

they will succeed in bringing it back sooner than you think

Wow how fascinating!!!!!

That would be absolutely fantastically amazing accomplishment

I’d love to see it happen !

I hope it works. By the way, plz remember the "Heckrind" . It is not the same. But it is very closed to the aurochs.

We’ve all seen Jurassic Park right? It’s biosyn all over again.

It's hard watching the parts where they're captive and slowly starving to death. How can humans be so cruel 😢

I have a problem with bringing back extinct animals. Does their niche and environment still exist? Would one only create a single animal without caring for its natural propensity to breed? How would one protect the animal in its natural environment?

Really mysterious animal

The best way to conserve nature and its creatures is no reporting it’s sighting and pray humanity learns to live with nature as fellow beings assuming the risks of living with nature and integrating urbanization with nature so we humans see native nature since birth for our entire lives as usual and normal part of our surroundings .

While bringing back the Thylacine seems like a good idea in some ways, it would be really great to develop a way for creatures to have immunity to Cane Toad poison.

170 Tassie Devil road kills in 18 months in one stretch of road! That's terrible, although that's the only time I got to see one, just hours after it was hit. Perhaps they should consider speed bumps, like the Douglas Shire has done in North Queensland to protect cassowaries. But road departments hate speed bumps.

5% genetic difference is pretty massive (of course there are many variables, like which 5%) - where will they get the missing 5%

They could get it done in less than 10 years. But they won't get it done because the funding is part of their income. They are getting paid well for 10 years. It's like road construction. They can get the job done quicker, but they stretch it out so they get paid more.

I just really hope we find one in the wild before they release any of the new ones.

I've lost count of the number of times I've heard this. Still haven't seen one.

Hilarious all the people in the bar are old enough to actually seen a Tasmanian tiger in person from the 1800s

Incrível parabens. Grande abraço Brasil

In March 2005, Australian news magazine The Bulletin, as part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, offered a $1.25 million reward for the safe capture of a live thylacine. When the offer closed at the end of June 2005, no one had produced any evidence of the animal's existence. An offer of $1.75 million has subsequently been offered by a Tasmanian tour operator, Stewart Malcolm. Trapping is illegal under the terms of the thylacine's protection, so any reward made for its capture is invalid, since a trapping license would not be issued.

They need very large wildlife reserves like in Africa. When Tigers are seen killing sheep then they can be trapped and moved to the reserves. Not shot and killed

As an Australian "I think its human arrogance to think we didn't kill the last one". These animals were the last survivors of a species that once roamed the mainland & had already become extinct. They had to survive the coming of the Aborigines, then the English & then the introduction of foxes & other feral animals. Having been targeted to the point of extinction most likely had a terminal effect on any hidden populations over the course of time. I once saw a DNA experiment where Thylacine DNA was died with blue marker & placed in a mouse embryo. The baby was born with the DNA marker in its back leg.

They should also bring back the giant Australian lizard and lad crocodile lol

It breaks my heart to think there sre no more thylacines

thylacine meanwhile in the heavens: not all humans are bad afterall

private companies should never EVER be allowed to mess with the natural order of things. There should be a 99.9% of scientific consensus world wide if there is to be a change as big as BRINGING AN EXCTING SPECIES BACK through CLONING

LETS GO THEY BRINGING BACK THE MOA BIRD AND THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH, AND OTHER GIANT DEER

If you see a thylacine as you wake up, that's called having a hypnopompic hallucination possibly. Not a black and white question of being right or lying.

If you replaced every time they say Thylacine with Dinosaur, isn't it exactly the plot of Jurassic Park?

Despite the romance of restoring extinct species such as thylacines or mammoths, to me the major question is. When you have them where are you going to put them? The thylacine seems to have a slightly better chance of fitting into a matching ecosystem than cold-adapted mammoths. I feel the problem needs plenty of careful thought in order to be successful, but it's fun to think about.

The thylacine is more appropriately nicknamed the "tasmanian wolf" than "tasmanian tiger" because it looks more like a dog than a cat.

Its said that the true cause of the loss of the Tasmanian tiger is because of drop bears moving into Tasmania after losing forest on the mainland, my dad witnessed the vicious drop bear attacks on the tasmanian tiger....it was a massacre.

Of course they will claim "we can bring dinosaurs along with it as well". Australina reported having several encounter, and I think there are a few of them out there.

This is what science is for, please bring back the extinct animals who were killed by humans. Dodo should be next in line 😊

This animal was an integral component of Australian ecosystems, as Lions and Leopards are in Africa, so it is a myth that they only belong in Tasmania. Aboriginal people bear as much responsibility as Europeans for Thylacine extinction, because they are known to have hunted it on the mainland, and they also favoured the Dingo at the expense of the Thylacine, which further hastened its disappearance from the Mainland. If they can be restored, then they should be widely re-introduced on the mainland, and by doing so they might also help to combat foxes and feral cats on the Australian mainlande.

“Welcome to Thylacine Park“

Are you kidding me didn’t you guys watch the movie The Hunter ? Get real ! They have to say it’s extinct otherwise they can’t destroy the forest 🌳 😢