Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus)

In historical times, the thylacine was Australia’s largest carnivorous marsupial. However, long before European settlers arrived, it had survived only in Tasmania. There, thylacines were wrongly regarded as a threat to flocks of sheep and were aggressively hunted. Even in 1930, the government offered a bounty for each animal killed. It was not until 1936 that this animal received legal protection; that same year, the last Tasmanian tiger died at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. All attempts to clone the animal failed.