When the European colonists of the remote territory of Tasmania encountered the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), they named it the ?Tasmanian tiger? on account of its boldly striped pelt, or the ?Tasmanian wolf? after its strikingly dog-like appearance. This resemblance of this dog-sized creature to European dogs was indeed remarkable, given that the thylacine was a marsupial, a pouched mammal more closely related to kangaroos than dogs.
The close resemblance between thylacines and dogs has been hailed as a dramatic instance of ?convergence?, in which unrelated animals come to resemble one other through the adoption of a similar lifestyle. But did thylacines behave as well as look like dogs? This is a hard question to answer, as there have been no universally accepted sightings of the animal since 1930, and the last zoo specimen died in 1933. The thylacine is usually considered extinct, so all reports on thylacine behaviour come from old and perhaps unreliable memoirs. Was it solitary, like a fox, or did it hunt in packs, like a wolf? Did it ambush its prey, like a cat, or pursue it over long distances, like a dog? According to a report cited in the standard reference work on mammals - Walker?s Mammals of the World - the thylacine was a pursuit-and-pounce predator, trotting relentlessly after its prey until the quarry was exhausted, closing in for the kill ?with a final rush.?
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