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How did the pocket wolf go extinct?

Kangaroo wolves were once the largest marsupial predators to survive into modern times

By Richard ShurwoodPublished about a year ago 6 min read
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How did the pocket wolf go extinct?
Photo by Duncan McNab on Unsplash

The pocket wolf used to be the largest marsupial carnivore that survived into modern times. Although its skeletal structure and physical appearance are similar to those of the gray wolf, and the pattern of its back fur resembles that of the tiger, taxonomically speaking, the pocket wolf belongs to neither the canine nor the feline family, and it is different from any of the extant carnivores in the northern hemisphere. Kangaroo wolves belong to the marsupial order, Kangarooidae. As we know, the wombat (koala), wombat, and various kangaroos living in Oceania are its "close relatives". The reason why the appearance of wolves and tigers is similar to that of wolves and tigers is that they reproduce in a similar natural environment, resulting in the phenomenon of "convergent evolution".

A stripped specimen of a wolf, is now in the Swedish Natural History Museum

As marsupials, wolves did not evolve a placenta to prevent the mother's immune system from attacking the fetus, and females have a rearward-opening abdominal pouch. Pups are born early when they are not fully developed and continue to grow by crawling into the pouch with their upper limb strength to suckle milk. It takes about 3 months for the young pouches to take their first steps into the big world. It takes another 9 months or so for the pups to be completely weaned. Male wolves also have a "pseudo-nursery pouch" formed by wrinkled skin on their abdomen. Some studies suggest that this pseudopouch protects the male's external genitalia while traveling through the bush.

Female pangolins with cubs in the nursery pouch

Humans make wolves disappear from the Australian continent?

Over two hundred years ago, in the early 1800s, when western settlers flooded into Australia and its surrounding areas, the wolves had disappeared from their historical range in mainland Australia, New Guinea, and elsewhere. Only on Tasmania, a heart-shaped island covering about 65,000 square kilometers in the southeastern part of the Australian continent, did wolves still breed into modern times.

There are many different opinions about the reasons for the disappearance of the population of wolves on the Australian continent. It was once thought that the arrival of primitive humans about 60,000 years ago, and the ensuing canines (which later escaped and bred to become Australian wild dogs), was the main cause of the disappearance of the pocket wolves. With recent advances in DNA testing technology, scientists have been able to sample and study specimens of pocket wolves in museums and have found that the genetic diversity of the wolf began to decline as early as 70,000 years ago before humans arrived on the Australian continent. Environmental factors may be the main reason for the disappearance of wolves in the Australian continent 2000-3000 years ago.

After talking about the disappearance of the wolf population on the Australian mainland, let's cast our eyes on the last "Eden" of the wolf - Tasmania, which is across the sea from the Australian mainland.

Until the Europeans introduced hounds to the island in 1803, the pocket wolf was the top predator here. With a head and tail length of up to 1.6 meters and a shoulder height of about 60 centimeters, the pocket wolf was the largest marsupial predator on earth at the time. In various environments such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands, wolves can adopt different strategies for hunting.

During the day, they lurk in dens and other places to rest, and at night they hunt alone or move collectively as a family unit. Studies have shown that wolves rely primarily on endurance to drag their prey to exhaustion, and their powerful jaws can quickly kill them through suffocation, blood loss, or spinal rupture. After the 19th century, with the increasing number of European settlers on the island and the rapid development of livestock farming, reports of wolves killing domestic animals became widespread.

Kangaroo wolves feeding

The soil in many areas of Tasmania is poor "red soil", which is resistant to agricultural development, but fortunately better suited to the cultivation of livestock feed crops. After the influx of European settlers, large areas of eucalyptus jungle, scrub, grassland, and rainforest were cleared for pasture, and numerous fences, hedges, and earth and stone walls were built. At the same time, the population and livestock numbers swelled. before 1803, the indigenous population in Tasmania was estimated to be less than 10,000. By around 1824, however, the island's population had grown to nearly 13,000, and the island's sheep had reached as many as 200,000 heads.

For the pocket wolves, the reduction and destruction of habitat led directly to a decline in small animals and a lack of food sources. The gradual increase of domestic dogs on the island as well as escaped wild dogs has also become a strong competitor for the pocket wolves. In the eyes of those wolves who have lost their habitat and are starving, sheep, which are fat and easy to catch in human pastures, seem to be the "relief food" at their fingertips. Soon, news of wolves attacking livestock spread. They were characterized by governments and ranchers as a pest to the livestock industry.

Who dealt the fatal blow to the pocket wolf?

Although research years later concluded that the pocket wolf was better suited to hunting small animals when the main culprits of sheep hunting were feral dogs, from the 1830s onwards, the Dimen Land Company (the local livestock company) and the Tasmanian government issued bounties for the hunting of pocket wolves. Between 1888 and 1908 alone, more than 2,000 pocket wolves were killed.

In addition, pangolins were hunted and captured by the hundreds to meet the demands of the fur trade, wildlife trade, and museum specimen trade. With the rapid decline in the number of wild wolves, zoos around the world have risen to display this rare animal. late 19th century to early 20th century, London, Paris, Berlin, Washington, and other places zoos have introduced the wolf. The number of wolves in the zoos of various countries once reached hundreds. Regrettably, the survival and reproduction of wolves in enclosures did not go well. Parasites and diseases brought by humans and domestic animals have made them face a greater crisis.

A commentary once appeared in the Advocate in 1937, "If the species [the pocket wolf] is extinct, it is due to disease. The last small percentage (of pocket wolves) captured a few years ago have been suffering from some kind of bestial mange. This disease has also decimated many other species in the area."

Numerous documented records from back in the day indicate that some kind of disease similar to canine distemper and veterinary mange had been spreading rapidly among the pocket wolves. As mentioned earlier, the genetic diversity of the pocket wolves was declining tens of thousands of years ago, and had relatively little resistance to exotic diseases. And the spread of infectious diseases caused a further decline in their populations.

The last wild pocket wolf killed

In 1930, the last wild pocket wolf known to man was shot by a farmer, and in 1936, a captured male died in the Beaumaris Zoo. For the next fifty years, no definitive evidence of wolves surviving on Earth was found, although many people claimed to have observed wolves. To this day, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the wolf as an extinct species.

In the surviving black-and-white films, we can still see the appearance of this peculiar animal. Their gait is slightly stiff and their mouths, which can open at an angle of more than 80 degrees, are unforgettable. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, the cries of the wolves were not recorded in these silent films, and their voices have become an unsolvable mystery.

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About the Creator

Richard Shurwood

If you wish to succeed, you should use persistence as your good friend, experience as your reference, prudence as your brother and hope as your sentry.

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