De-extinction project wants to bring the extinct Tasmanian tiger back to life

Prof Andrew Pask is part of a team of scientists who want to bring the Australian predator back to life using genetic engineering. – dpa/Tigrr Lab, University of Melbourne

A dog-like, partly striped animal paces round a cage and sniffs at a man through the mesh. The grainy film from 1935 shows Benjamin, the last known Tasmanian tiger, “forced out of its natural habitat by the march of civilisation”, the narrator says.

One year later, the carnivore died at the Beaumaris Zoo in Tasmania’s capital Hobart, rendering the black-and-white footage a rare marker in the tragic disappearance of an entire species.