Thylacine — Striped Marsupial Hunter of Tasmania

At a Glance

The Animal in the Bush

A thylacine has a long, doglike head, rounded upright ears and a heavy tail that blends into the body rather than swinging freely behind it. Dark stripes run across the rump and back, contrasting with yellow-brown fur. A grown animal stands around two feet at the shoulder and may weigh as much as thirty kilograms. A female carries her young in a rear-opening pouch; a male also possesses a partial pouch, but does not carry young in it.

In wooded valleys and along the margin of grassland it follows wallabies, smaller mammals and birds. A thylacine is not especially swift in an extended chase. It can move with purpose through uneven ground and will look for opportunities when prey is exposed. Despite tales told by frightened stock keepers, it does not habitually seek sleeping people as prey. A hungry animal might take poultry or a young domestic animal in later farming districts, but claims of widespread livestock destruction deserve scepticism.

Thylacines are capable of a startlingly wide gape and make a range of low growls, hisses and coughing barks. Those displays warn others to give them room. A threatened animal will defend itself, yet it is more likely to disappear into the scrub than pursue an armed human across a field.

Encounter: The Den Above the Stream

A family travelling a wooded valley finds a young thylacine caught in a fallen tangle of branches above a narrow stream. Its mother remains unseen but close enough for her harsh, coughing call to carry through the trees. Anyone rushing to seize the joey may find a frightened predator snapping at their hands. The least dangerous course is to make the branches safe, leave a clear route out and withdraw from the den.

A night traveller may instead hear barking from the darkness after disturbing a resting place. A thylacine can be followed at a distance through open ground, but pursuing it into dense bush risks losing one’s route while the animal slips away. It fights when it cannot escape, not because it is waiting for an adventuring company.

Combat and Handling

Approach. A thylacine watches from cover, using the last light or thick brush to remain difficult to see. It retreats if approached openly and given an escape route.

Cornered. It opens its jaws wide, coughs or growls, then bites if threatened at close range. A mother with dependent young is more determined to hold a den.

When injured. It breaks off and seeks cover whenever possible; it does not fight to the death for treasure or territory. The game statistics below describe a small wild predator, not a hunting monster with supernatural attacks.

Handling. A skilled animal keeper can sometimes raise one in captivity, but keeping a wild thylacine is demanding and dangerous. Training in Pathfinder follows its animal companion rules; the existence of those rules does not make thylacines a commonly domesticated species.

Thylacine Statistics — Four Editions

The Pathfinder 1e entry reproduces the published game creature from Bestiary 3. The other editions are original, separate adaptations. The unusual 19–20 bite critical range is a feature of the game statistics, not a claim that real thylacines could bite harder than other animals of similar size.

Other Thylacines in Fantasy Bestiaries

Travellers also tell of a red-coated blood cougar, diminutive thylacines that move in larger groups, and an oversized, heavily built great wolf. These names have appeared in the inherited game material, but they are fantasy variants, not recognised zoological subspecies of Thylacinus cynocephalus. They are not the default animal encountered in Tasmania.

In Pathfinder games, the blood cougar uses the advanced simple template, the smaller pack thylacine uses the young simple template, and the great wolf uses Constitution 12 and gains Power Attack as a bonus feat. Their different statistics belong to Pathfinder’s rules and should not be silently imposed on the other editions. Most wild thylacines encountered on the island use the ordinary creature above.

History of the Striped Hunter

The last known captive thylacine died at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo in September 1936 after decades of persecution, bounty hunting and habitat loss. Reports of later sightings remain unconfirmed. Long before British settlement, Tasmania’s people lived alongside these striped hunters as part of the island’s wildlife.

For visits to the island, see Van Diemen’s Land — Tasmania; for other ordinary predators, see the Animal Bestiary.

Historical Film

Footage filmed in Hobart in 1933 shows the thylacine’s striped back, stiff gait and extraordinary gape.