Last Thylacine Dies: A Species Lost Forever
Benjamin the thylacine died on the night of September 7, 1936, locked out of his sleeping quarters at the Hobart Zoo. The temperature dropped below freezing. He'd been the last of his species since at least the early 1930s, and the zoo knew it — they just didn't treat him like it. No special enclosure. No extra care. He died of exposure. The Tasmanian government had stopped offering a bounty on thylacines just 59 days earlier. They'd been systematically hunted to extinction, then formally protected when there was exactly one left.
September 7, 1936
90 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on September 7
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