For those of you that follow Thylacines, four new pouchyoung specimens were recently discovered in a zoological collection in the Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic. This increases the number of known specimens of pouchyoung to 14. Details of the specimens have been published in the latest edition of the Australian Zoologist (Vol.36, No. 2). Unfortunately, you need to subscribe to get a copy. However, it will probably be online on their website in a few years. Hix
Going through storage and boxes in all natural history museums will be able to give you sufficient papers to write for the rest of your life time . In the one in Bussels there is a psephotus pulcherrimus lost. When they closed their bird gallery they have no clue where they put it.
I can't seem to find a webpage containing any reference to this article, or even a link to get an abstract/PDF. Is it online?
how about this one: Description of four newly discovered Thylacine pouch young and a comparison with Boardman (1945) - Australian Zoologist - Volume 36, Number 2 / 2012 - Royal Zoological Society of NSW ....it took me thirty seconds to find it.....I think you need to update your computer skills. Or maybe stop using a phone to look on the internet.
in case you were wondering, my search words were "Prague thylacine pouch young". It is the fourth link down.
Oh very cool. I was searching for the journal name and trying to find a search box on their site. Anyway, I have requested a copy, so I just might be able to quote a few paragraphs by next week.
A friend of mine who works at a university moved into a new office, but had to tidy up because a lot of things had been left there. Under a pile of books and pappers on a table she found a dried plant in a plastic bag. There was some paperwork indicating it belonged to the botanic gardens in Sydney. Turns out it was the holotype for this plant, had been originally collected by Banks back in 1770-something, and the Botanic Gardens knew it was missing but didn't know where it was! They were very glad to get it back. Hix
Makes you wonder just what other treasures there are which are forgotten in various museums. The loss of the thylacine was one of the greatest tragedies of Australian history, the result of neglect, misplaced blame for predation of livestock and culpable stupidity. That there was actually a bounty paid for the destruction of these unique animals almost up to the time of their extinction is unbelievable! Wasn't there a push to try to clone the thylacine, using genetic material from pups preserved in alcohol at museums?
I think the last Bounty payments were made in 1914 after the population had evidently crashed, and the Government Bounty scheme ended then. In the 1920's conservation bodies expressed concern that the species was rapidly disappearing or already on the verge of extinction, and tried to establish its current status across Tasmania by asking for records of sightings- it was done through regional police divisions, presumably for reliabilities' sake. Ominously, virtually all of them submitted the same report- that there had been no reliable sightings in their areas for many years past. By then it was already a very rare animal indeed. I read in Robert Paddle's book (an excellent read btw) how when one was trapped alive, the news quickly spread by word of mouth around the district and the roads became jammed with horse-drawn carriages etc as people ventured out to see this unique creature. Politics seemed to repeatedly get in the way of positive or effective protection- despite warnings that its extinction was imminent, still nothing was done until it was too late. The last one which died in the Hobart Zoo in September 1936, was fully protected for the last 59 days of its life! The attempts at cloning came to a halt some years ago I believe.
