Tasmanian Tiger survives

What if the Tasmanian Tiger had NOT gone extinct and was still around today in the wilds of Tasmania?

How would this affect Tasmania itself?

How would human society in general be affected by the continued existence of the Tasmanian Tiger? Would they become a novelty pet for rich people?

Any thoughts?
 
I think it would be the glamour animal to spearhead conservation efforts, a but like tiger conservation in India. I wonder if the tigers continued survival would have affected the Franklin dam saga in the 80s.
 
I think that by the 70's, it would become a hit, with every zoo that has the decency to call itself a zoo would want one.
 
Since it is now possible to clone dogs, could one get usable DNA from a stuffed T tiger, and produce a living one. This is not meant to be a stupid question, I just don't know much on the subject. I have wondered the same thing about the Passenger Pigeon; can they extract DNA from Martha [died 1914] to bring the species back?
 
Since it is now possible to clone dogs, could one get usable DNA from a stuffed T tiger, and produce a living one. This is not meant to be a stupid question, I just don't know much on the subject. I have wondered the same thing about the Passenger Pigeon; can they extract DNA from Martha [died 1914] to bring the species back?

Right now, the DNA is too badly damaged for it to be of much use. I think that this problem will be overcome in the not too distant future... so I would expect a handful of very recently extinct species/subspecies like the Thylacine to be cloned in perhaps 20-30 years time, with the program expanding after that to include species for which the DNA is even more fragmentary, such as the mammoth.

Regarding a surviving thylacine, I imagine such animals would indeed become totems of the conservation program; perhaps even replacing the Giant Panda. However, I doubt that the surviving population would be "out of the woods" yet, and those animals that were alive would likely be extremelly timid and limited in numbers.
 
True believers think that some do still survive. I remember during the cloning debate someone saying that if they cloned a female and released her she'd be pregnant within a year.
 
Wait, there's only males left then?
Yes, there are only males left, they have been interbreeding since 1936 to the great detriment of the gene pool.

Sorry, I couldn't resist!!!


No, the idea is that there are wild tigers left and if a clone was released one of these would impregnate her.
 
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