The preferred habitat of the thylacine has never been properly determined.  It seems to have once ranged across the whole of Tasmania, but Le Souef and Burrell (1926) stated that it was most often found in hilly country, resting by day in timber and scrub, and hunting along the borders of thickets in the late afternoon and evening.  A similar statement was made by Lord (1927), but in both cases no proof was given, and by that point in time, thylacines had been eliminated from the cleared areas, and were suffering persecution in their last remaining refuges.

. This young male thylacine arrived at the Hobart Zoo (Domain site) in 1928.  The narrowness of the face indicates that this is a young individual.  The animal was gravely ill upon arrival, and unfortunately died the day after Sheppard took this photograph.  This image is often wrongly portrayed as being that of "Benjamin", the last thylacine to be kept in captivity.

   Data on the feeding habits of the thylacine is scarce as well.  Some of the earliest accounts make mention of the eating of echidnas (Troughton 1967), despite the obvious difficulties of dealing with such spiny prey.  The discovery of a den half-full of bones, which included those of a half-grown calf, was once reported by a bushman.  Quite possibly, the calf had merely been scavenged, but the fact that the remains of an animal of such size were present does suggest that the thylacine possesses considerable physical strength (Wart 1919).  Gunn (1863) maintained that thylacines will only eat prey that they themselves have captured, and do not return to the site of a kill.  As a result, farmers found the baiting of sheep kills with poison to be ineffective.  However, this may have merely reflected the vulnerability of the domestic stock combined with harassment by humans.  Apparently, the thylacines that Gunn shipped to England readily ate the meat that he provided.
 

. Two thylacines at the Hobart Zoo (Beaumaris site), circa 1910-1920.

Because thylacines only ate certain, selected parts of sheep that they killed, a myth arose that they have a preference for drinking blood.  This has been accepted by such authorities as Lord (1927) and Guiler (1958) who does at least admit that they may also consume the liver and kidney fat, nasal tissue, and on occasion, some of the meat.  The latter theory arose due to the discovery of some unusual sheep kills on a farm in Derwent (Guiler and Meldrum 1958), but it was not proven that a thylacine had actually been responsible, nor do three killings of this sort comprise solid evidence for this as a normal practice.

    The macropodids of Tasmania, especially smaller species such as the Rufous wallaby (Thylogale billardierii), Long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) and Tasmanian bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) are undoubtedly among the thylacine's typical prey, but there is no known account of an individual hunt.  Instead, we have only generalizations which originate from statements made by farmers, bushmen, and other non-scientific sources.  Nonetheless, some such comments seem plausible.  It was claimed by Sharland (1939), that the thylacine hunts primarily by olfaction (scent) and exhausts its prey by pursuing it for hours.
 

This hunting technique would only be appropriate in open country, and was possibly suggested through analogy to the placental wolf.  Le Souef and Burrell maintained that the thylacine trots until the prey shows signs of fatigue, and then captures it with a sudden rush.  Lastly, Lord (1927) believed that they cover wide areas during their hunts, returning to their sleeping places by day.  He writes: "During the breeding season, a male thylacine has been known to follow the same route across many miles of country, and one particular animal used to regularly leave a trail of slaughtered sheep along the same line every year, but he was trapped eventually."  Lord also mentions that "packs" of four or five thylacines had been recorded, although the species is normally solitary.  Undoubtedly, such accounts refer to a female and her nearly grown young.     One of the best known thylacine photographs is of the last captive at the Hobart Zoo, shown in profile with its jaws opened so wide apart that they nearly stand in a single vertical line.  David Fleay remarked that immediately after he took the photo, the subject turned and bit him in the thigh.  Although this would seem to indicate that the thylacine uses a yawn-threat display similar to that of Sarcophilus (Smith 1982), it is not possible to determine anything further from its biting of Dr. Fleay.

. A thylacine at the Hobart Zoo (Beaumaris site) circa 1910-1920, possibly reaching through the wire fencing of its enclosure to obtain some food from the keeper visible in the background.