i'm sure plenty of you have watched the mutual of omaha banded mongoose episode by now. now i realize this subject is a little off the beaten path of this forum, but they remind me so much of something that makes me so sad. its those stripes on their backs........

in australia there is an "endangered species day". it is observed on september 7th. this date was not chosen becuase it fit into the holiday scedule. it is a very tragic date in australian natual history...... the official extinction of the thylacine, often called the tasmanian tiger or tasmanian wolf. it was a truly unique marsupial. i'm not going to go into detail about it other than to say two things about it's extinction. first, humans outright slaughtered this animal to the brink of extinction mercelessly in the late 1800s and early 1900s. and secondly, every year there are unconfirmed sightings and other evidence of live thylacines reported every year in tasmania, although, at this point, in my heart i don't really think they exist now.

i love all animals, and this is the one that i most regret that i will never get to see. there is black and white film of captive animals in the early 1900s. it was declared "probably extinct" sept 7th, 1936. those stripes on the banded mongooses are so hauntingly similar. i would encourage anyone interested to google "thylacine museum" for a great website about its history. the story has a sad end, but you will discover a truly unique species that your grandmother or great grandmother may have seen at the washington or london zoo.

This is very interesting. The thylacines were called Tasmanian tigers (because they were striped), or wolves (because they looked-especially their heads-like wolves), but they were marsupials. Their name was Thylacinous Cynocephalus. The first word is from the Greek thylakos (pouch, sack), and the second literally means "dog-head" in Greek.
Humans-what a surprise-are responsible for their extinction.

This is a weird situation about these species, I remember reading an article on the internet last fall about sightings of a certain species of wild Horse that was believed to be extinct almost a half century ago. It is a tragedy what hunters/poachers, global warming and loss of habitat is doing to these animals, but I believe with sanctuaries, zoos, orphanage's, center's, conservation projects, government interaction and shows on the AP, the animals living in the wild will have a much safer living then they have had. I am volunteering to work with wildlife animals in the zoo, and after I get my teaching certification, I want to teach somewhere where I can volunteer to work with with wild animals in their habitat during my off time from teaching, eventually I want to work where I can go out in animals habitat and rescue them from poacher traps or hunters and still teach kids about the animals. The reason I changed my future path from teachin in a school to rescueing wild animals and teaching kids about them is because of all the stories I have seen on the AP where people are interfering with these animals lives and are killing them. It really made me mad to see how people are killing Tigers for certain body parts to be sold in the market economy, it made me mad to hear about people ariel killing Grizzly Bears and Wolves in North America and especially Alaska for no reason, although a new made it illegal to kill those animals by ariel pursuit, but I just got really mad to hear some ways that people are killing these great animals just to satisfy their pleasures, and am wanting to do something about it. The future of all animals looks much brighter then it did 10 years ago because people are more educated about them from the many conservation projects out there, the organizations helping these animals out, government interaction in protecting the animals, and many more people today are animal lovers because they are educated on them compared to 20-30 years ago. Most of these organizations, Conservation projects and sanctuaries that help wild animals were created within the last 15-20 years and they have not even scratched the surface of their plans to better protect wild animals.

I went online to read about the Tazmanian Tiger and there are Scientist that have DNA from the 1950's-1960's that could be from the animal which is werid because reports state that the last Tazmanian Tiger was killed in 1918. If the animal species did survive the brutal killings up to the 50's-60's, then they may have survived to live in the present day, also.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.unexplainedaustralia.com/e107_images/newspost_images/tasmanian_tiger.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.unexplainedaustralia.com/news.php%3Fmonth.200706&h=305&w=430&sz=29&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=75Av0iKWEBjzzM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtasmanian%2Btiger%2B%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Hi Philmeerkat. I have a little card that has a picture of what is supposed to be the last Tasmanian tiger in a zoo in the 1930's. I believe Ndodo's information coincides with this information. I heard about these beautiful animals when I was young, and when I found out they were extinct, I was heartbroken.

Considering that they have caught a fish (I would never be able to spell the name) that was thought long extinct, I guess anything is possible. I will look at the article, thank you so much for the info. It would be wonderful if this beautiful animal still existed.

The picture I have is a different picture than the one on the site, thank you for posting it.

Flotosbea

glad some of you are interested in this topic. the DNA that scientists have has actually been taken from what they call "pickled young". there are reported to be about a dozen thylacine pups preserved in jars of alcohol held by several museums across the world. there is an on again off again project by australian scientists to produce a cloned thylacine. there are also russian scientists working towards cloning a mammoth and i think i heard something about british scientists trying to clone the dodo as well. it would be a much better story if they found surviving thylacines and tasmania is not heavily populated by humans (a little more than half a million residence i believe). it is possible that it still survives, but so many naturalists have searched for it without obtaining undisputable proof of its continued existance that i lost realistic hope long ago. the website i was referring to (i've found it to be the most in depth on the subject) is:
naturalworlds.org/thylacine/
among other great info, this site has the 7 short black and white clips of captive thylacines.

Hello Ndodo! I have always been interested in animals no matter when they existed. Knowing Tasmania is not densly populated, it is possible that there are Tasmanian Tigers hidden away somewhere, wouldn't that be wonderful? I only hope that if they do exist, man will never know...too much exploitation.

I did hear about the mammoth DNA, I believe I watched a show about them finding a long frozen mammoth and collecting hair, etc.

It is so nice to meet you and Philmeerkat seems to have some great information and his posts are a delight to read.

Thank you for posting this, I only wish that we had a place to discuss these things, I do not want to get too far "off topic" with MM:S4 and MM:TSB getting ready to be shown.

One of my favorite extinct animals is the Saber Toothed Tiger, what an amazing animal. I have been to the La Brea tar pits in LA, and they have so many skulls and they had a mastadon skeleton that I stood under, the tusks themselves would take your breath away.

Well, I've prattled on enough, I don't want to upset the balance of this board and it's objective of discussing meerkats. I feel that discussing animals that are no longer here will help meerkats to avoid being placed on this long, sad list of extinct species!

Take care to you and Philmeerkat!
Flotosbea

That would be great if they cloned a dodo and a mammoth, we are talking about a wooly mammoth, relative of the Elephant, right? It would also be great to clone a Taz Tiger, also.

Hi Philmeerkat! Good to see you in the burrow. I do believe that it is a wooly mammoth and I do believe they are the ancestors of the elephant.

Ndodo and Philmeerkat, I found something today that I think you both might find interesting. There was a clouded dwarf rat in the Phillipines that has not been seen for 112 years, here is a current picture of one! They still exist! The last documented sighting is 1896!

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/cloud-rat-rediscovered-after-112-years/20080502203809990001?icid=1616058736x1201520367x1200302453

Enjoy!
Flotosbea

The wooly mammoth was found frozen, so the scientists could extract viable DNA. Normally, the older the specimen is the less amounts of DNA are available, the more contaminated, etc. DNA disintegrates with age. For example, there is sometimes barely enough viable DNA in Egyptian mummies for tests (miniscule amounts are needed).

nightweaver67675

I guess there is hope for some extinct species. But are a few individuals of a species enough? Scientists normally re-discover one.

Philmeerkat

It is true that more people are aware of environmental issues, and they are more educated concerning conservation projects and organizations.

Wow! That is great news about that rat species. Maybe these animals don't actually go extinct, maybe they just go in hiding from people because they have seen what some humans are doing to other animals of their own species, or, maybe the earth's surface is what brings some of the animals back from extinction, like the Wild Horses I mentioned earlier, or, maybe these rats, etc.

Hi zettak! Yes, it is probably true that a few individuals are not enough. It is nice that at least one of these little clouded dwarf rats still exists.

Hello Philmeerkat! It was so cool to see the article about the little rat. I wish we knew about all of this, zettak makes very good points and so do you.

I guess this is something we could speculate about forever and never really know for sure.

Take care all!
Flotosbea

i want to thank you all for your interest and contributions to this thread. i understand that this is the meerkat manor forum but this is still the "offseason" so i feel a little bit of this kind of subject is ok, and i'm very happy that many of you have shown interest. i am a wildlife lover and a cryptozoology buff. cryptozoology is litterally.... the study of unknown animals. surviving animals that are thought to be extinct are my favorite. i am not so much into the yeti, bigfoot, lake monsters, elchupacabras, and such. i prefer the "happy endings" of animals that were thought to be gone but really are not. nightweaver, thank you very much for the clouded dwarf rat link.

i would like to let you all in on my unusual name on the forum. i know most people use meerkat manor type names, but i use my name on various sites across the web including poker sites, nba and atp (professional tennis) sites and everywhere. i use "bergman's bear" a good bit too, but that is another story and i want to type a little tonight but not that much the dodo was native to mauritius (a small island to the east of madagascar). there were related and similar species discovered on the islands of rodriguez and reunion (islands in the same chain). the only report of the "nazareth dodo" was taken from the journals of a russian explorer in the 1600s or 1700s. there is a very small island (about 1 square kilometer) that used to be called nazareth but is now called tromelin. it is home to a weather station now. this russian explorer claimed to have seen dodo type birds on this small island. that is where the name "nazereth dodo" came from. bergman's bear is thought to be a remnant population of the short faced bear (the beastliest bear in history) surviving in kamchatka which would truley be amazing if it were true. i am just an animal lover and i am truley sad about how many of these great animals that humans have directly or indirectly exterminated.

the story of the famous dodo of mauritius is very interesting as we did not directly cause its extinction. as the story goes, mauritius was initialy discovered (around the year 1600) by dutch sailors that landed on the island in search of food and water. they found the dodos which were easy enough to catch and kill but were not the most pleasant food to eat. the meat was described as very tough with a foul taste. the dutch got the bright idea to release pigs onto the island so that there would be a supply of more tollerable food available for any other ships that would land there (the island became a popular stop for ships going to india). the pigs multiplied rapidly (as pigs do). the trouble for the dodo is that pigs are one of the most successful scavengers we have ever seen. dodos, being flightless, and having evolved with no large carnivores on the island, layed their eggs on the ground and left them unattended as they foraged. enter stage left.... the pig, and i'm sure you can all see how the dodo went extinct.

believe me, i am excited about the new season of mm as much as anyone, but we are all animal lovers at heart. just thought i would bring some other interesting subject matter for us all to chat about until the movie and new season starts. cheers

Hello Ndodo! I know that meerkats are not an endangered species, but how many times has a species been wiped out quickly? I feel any discussion on extinction includes all living creatures and maybe what is done now will keep the planet with a healthy supply of meerkats. It seems TB is a good sized problem, and I can see it wiping out a species very quickly, so although we are not directly discussing meerkats, we are keeping ourselves aware that it may strike anywhere.

It is so cool about the clouded dwarf rat, I just happened to see the info on AOL when I signed on and was delighted to see an animal thought to be extinct had been found, you are welcome!

Like you, I am not into yeti, elchupacabras, but I must admit I have always been intrigued by the Loch Ness Monster. No, I do not think a big monster lives in the Loch, but it would be cool if there is some species that has survived in the Loch.

I did know a little about the dodo and have heard of the short faced bear, but your info was fantastic.

Pigs, HUH? I did not know that.

Well, thank you for all of the info, I guess I am like you, I am just fascinated by animals, and I am a hge cat lover. The exploitation of the big cats just breaks my heart.

Any time a species disappears, it upsets the balance of nature. Meerkats serve a purpose and protecting any species helps maintain the balance.

I have enjoyed this thread greatly, I wish we could talk meerkats and come here and talk extinction constantly!

Take care!
Flotosbea

and thankfully, as phil pointed out, humans these days are much more inclined to preserve endangered species than they were back in the day. this is very good for our beloved meerkats. TB is a problem, but i read on another thread that it is likely not a problem significant enough to put the meerkat on any "endangered species" list as most healthy meerkats that are exposed to the the disease don't develop the symptoms. it is pretty much sick and weak individuals that are most likely to be affected.

In my personal opinion (Knock on Wood) I believe animals will live in a much safer habitat due to people becoming educated in them and loving the animals because of their knowledge of the animals. Other animals are affected by the climate changes (Global Warming), similar to the other animals, all people are doing something to eliminate global warming for the well-being of humans, the earth and animals.

I knew about the dodo (and its extinction), and I guessed that your name had to do with it. I did not know about the Nazareth dodo specifically. Unfortunately humans are directly, or indirectly responsible for the extinction of a lot of species. I agree with nightweaver67675 that any time a species disappears, it upsets the balance of nature.
You said you use this name in other internet sites about the NBA (which I follow too), and tennis. I love tennis, the last ATP tournament I watched in person (like every year, except once, for about eight years) was the Sony-Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Miami in late March. I always go a week before the finals, because there are a lot more matches to watch. I used to go to the Bausch&Lomb Championships (Women's), in Amelia Island, east of Jacksonville, in Northeast Florida until two years ago, but I moved, and it's a little too far now.
I have to stop, I'm getting way off subject (meerkats, and any other kind of animal, extinct, or not)

Oh I agree with all this, its wonderful that they are trying to bring back extinct species......but I just saw something on TV where they are trying to clone DINASOURS (oh, sp?) Yuk! Do these brainless wonders realize that dinasours are not compatable with most of the other creatures on this earth - especially due to their size???? I like the rest of it though - just not dinasours.

This has all been an interesting discussion; thanks for all the information. I did get to see MutualOmaha's program on the Banded Mongooses and it was very interesting. They're not as cute as the Meerkats, but they have a lot in common. One of the distinctions is that all the adult mailes mate with all the fertile females at one time, and all the 'gooses raise all the babies and build the strength of their group. Also, the DMs will go out of their way to get the attention of a predator who is after their group, and thus give up their lives for the group. It was stated that only the Mongooses and Elephants and Humans care for their ill/disabled members; e.g., the Mongooses had a baby who appeared to be born blind, as his eyes were never opened, and the others (esp. one who would remind you of Mitch) always seemed to look out for him; and at the end of the program they showed that his eyes did open and he became an able 'goose. It was very touching; I'd like to see more on this group.
... counting down to the May25th/June6th - mj

any1 who wants to clone a dinosaur is really, really, REALLY stupid. Hasn't any1 seen Dino movies? it does end well!

[quote]any1 who wants to clone a dinosaur is really, really, REALLY stupid.[/quote]

Cloning a Dinosaur would be great, we can study these animals visually without just their bones.

i'm really not 100% sold on the cloning thing, as far as if we should do it or not. phil planted the seed though earlier with talking about dna, and i (somewhat regretably) watered it i would be absolutely shocked if a species of dinosaur is the first extinct amimal we clone. the thylacine specimens i spoke of earlier provide the best preserved dna of all those animals mentioned so far. alcohol preserves dna very well. freezing temperatures can also preserve dna fairly well. but time is also the key. i really think if scientists go through with this, the thylacine will be the first one we see, and the mammoth will certainly be cloned before a dinosaur. the wooly mammath went extinct aprox. 10,000 years ago. how long ago, for dinosaurs? i'm not even sure where usable dinosaur dna could (or has been) found. cloning of mammoths is only thought to be possible because of the freezing temperatures that preserve their remains. now granted, there are probably dinosaur remains that could be uncovered in these frigid areas today. but the thing is.... were these areas always cold enough throughout all this time to preserve the full dna strain? from what i've read, they have that with the thylacine, but it is very time consuming to decode it or whatever they do.

i really look forward to the next clouded dwarf rat story. it would really be great if it were to be a famous species, no matter what kind of animal it is. i recall, a few years ago there was a rediscovery of the ivory billed woodpecker in the southern US. but if it would be something really famous, like say the passenger pigeon.......... i think it would make conservation a little more exciting to people that might not feel so stongly about it now. steve irwin had this part right, try to make conservation exciting.

I am not saying we should clone a reptile dinosaur like the Tyranasaurus, but rather the mammal ones like the Mammoth, Sabertooth Tiger, etc. It is really weird that we can use technology to make devastating devces like Atomic Bombs but we are second guessing using that technology to bring back animals that are extinct to be more educated about, some of those animals are extinct because of mankind.

There is viable DNA extracted from a frozen mammoth. It would be almost impossible to get any from a dinosaur (even if frozen). It would be millions of years old. DNA disintegrates (fast) with age.

NazarethDodo

Was the ivory billed woodpecker rediscovered in Georgia?