Nine thylacines in total were exhibited in two zoos in North America; the National Zoo in Washington, DC and the Bronx Zoo in New York.

National Zoo [Washington, DC]:

    The history of the five thylacines that were displayed at the National Zoo is well documented.  On the 3rd July 1902, a cablegram from the Smithsonian was sent to the American consul Dr. Frederic Webster Goding in Newcastle, NSW with the words:

    On the 3rd September 1902, a female thylacine together with her three pouch young arrived at the zoo.  They were obtained from the City Park Zoo in Launceston.  The artist and naturalist Joseph Gleeson painted the family group from life and produced the only known (historical) painting of a thylacine with young in the pouch.  Gleeson's painting (or the preparatory drawings for the painting) must have been undertaken virtually as soon as the family group arrived as one of the pups died on the 12th September 1902, after only nine days at the zoo.

    The thylacines were housed in the Lion House, and their arrival at the zoo was noted in an article in the New York Herald dated 5th July 1903, under the heading "Only Marsupial Wolf in America":

    "Here is a queer animal.  One might take it for a dog offhand, but it is really a wolf.  It is not like ordinary wolves, however, being a marsupial, from Australia.  In that country are found marsupial rats, marsupial cats and various other creatures of the same order, which carry their young in pouches, like kangaroos, which, of course, are marsupials.  This is the first marsupial wolf that was ever brought to this country, and it is now in a cage at the Washington Zoo, where it was photographed.  It is quite fierce and has two pups".

    "The Washington Zoo possesses three (thylacines), a mother and two babies, which arrived some weeks ago in very poor condition as the result of a month's voyage from Australia in the confined limits of a box too small for the adult even to turn round in.  Consequently her sides were badly rubbed and her legs were cramped.

    She lay listless the greater part of the time, and, when she did move, appeared to do so with difficulty.  The little ones recuperated more quickly than their mother, and tried to engage her in their sport by jumping upon her back and rolling down her sides.  She is now beginning to take a livelier interest in things, and will occasionally run with the cubs, and leap in the air much as a kangaroo would do.  At first the little ones travelled around in their mother's pouch, sometimes with their heads stuck out, as if they were curiously investigating the country as they went along.  They entered it also frequently when feeding, and at such times there was always a scramble for first place.

    Though these animals are said to be very vicious, this particular one is perfectly harmless and wholly indifferent to the presence of man.  The keeper enters the cage to treat her wounds when she is feeding, and the only notice she takes of him is, when stung by the application, to walk quietly to the other side of the cage and then return immediately to her food.  Her face never assumes the ugly snarl of the wolf, but always bears a blank, stupid expression, from which one might judge the intelligence is of a much lower order than that of the wolf. 

    The call is a peculiar coughing sound, which, until recognised as a note of affection, gave the keepers grave concern regarding the condition of her lungs.  The sound was easily understood when it was observed that the mother in giving vent to it, was immediately answered by her cubs.  Often when sleeping she will rouse for a moment, and after making this peculiar cry, listen expectantly until she hears the diminutive counterpart, whereupon she will let fall her head and rest content.  When lying in this way, with her face toward you, nursing her little ones, she gives the impression of a wolf suckling tiger cubs, as the black stripes on her back in this position are entirely hidden, while shown conspicuously upon the young ones".

    The mother survived at the zoo until her death on 4th November 1904.  Her admission record noted that she was in good health until the summer of 1904, then began to fail and refused food.