The International Thylacine Specimen Database (ITSD) © 2009
- Dr. Stephen Sleightholme -
May 2006

“Certainly in my experience this is by far the most thorough compilation focused on an extinct or endangered animal ever produced and, as such, bound to be enormously useful to many generations of scientists to come.”

Prof. Mike Archer, Dean of Science
University of New South Wales

The International Thylacine Specimen Database is the culmination of a four year research project to catalogue and digitally photograph (where possible) all the known surviving specimen material held within museum, university and private collections of the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) or Tasmanian tiger.
 

Although the thylacine is now officially classified as extinct by the IUCN and WWF there is still some hope that a critically endangered remnant population of thylacines may still survive to this day in Tasmania.  Gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii) after all is a classic example of a species that was thought to have become extinct in the 1870s only to be rediscovered in 1994.  The ITSD was first published as an electronic resource on a series of 3 CDs in April 2005 and subsequently revised on DVD in May 2006 and most recently in May 2009.  The project is the end result of a major International cooperative effort between all of the contributing museums and universities.

. Dr. Stephen Sleightholme (ITSD Project Director) recording thylacine skull measurements in the collection of the Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin.

The ITSD has been designed as a free access academic tool to promote and facilitate undergraduate and postgraduate research into the species.  It is accessible to researchers through the offices of the curators and heads of department of the universities and museums that hold thylacine material.  It can also be accessed through the libraries of several of the major zoological societies with the permission of the senior librarian.  The ITSD is not in the public domain.

Specimen material within the ITSD comprises of skins, skeletons, skulls, taxidermy mounts and wet specimens.  Wet specimens are whole animals, organs or body parts that are preserved in either alcohol or formalin.  Sub fossil material and microscopy slides are also included.

Specimens of the thylacine are spread extensively around the globe so the search to locate these specimens was from the outset an International effort involving a final total of 106* museum, university and private collections in 23* countries.
 

. Dr. Stephen Sleightholme (ITSD Project Director) examining a thylacine skin at the World Museum in Liverpool.  Courtesy - World Museum, Liverpool.

Many of the major museums and universities throughout Europe together with those in the United Kingdom with its historic links to Australia held significant quantities of thylacine material.  Specimens were also located in North America and quite naturally throughout the museums and university collections within Australia and Tasmania itself.  Of the 731* known thylacine specimens, 11.9% (87) were located in collections in Tasmania, 28.32% (207) in Australia, 9.03% (66) in North America, 0.68% (5) in Asia, 22.98% (168) in Europe, and 27.09% (198) in the UK and Eire. This total represents an estimated body count of four hundred wild thylacines as in the majority of cases several specimens were normally taken from the same animal.

The only thylacine specimen listed within the ITSD that may not have been taken from wild stock is that of a pup born at the Melbourne Zoo as one of a litter in 1899.  Robert Paddle (2002) in his book “The Last Tasmanian Tiger” provides convincing evidence to suggest that the pup was conceived from captive parents at the zoo. 

Prior to the completion of the ITSD any detailed study of thylacine specimen material was restricted by both geographical and language barriers.

The ITSD:
 

* totals current as of 31 May 2009