Resurfaced footage from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, shows the last known clip of the extinct thylacine, that is most commonly referred to as the Tasmanian Tiger.
The video was part of a travelogue titled Tasmania the Wonderland, that was filmed in 1935, more than 12 months after the second most recent clip of the tiger was produced, in December 1933.
The archive reported that there are less than a dozen clips of the thylacine in existence, and added that they were all filmed at either the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania, or at the London Zoo in England.
They only amount to about three minutes of black and white footage altogether, and the resurfaced clip adds another 21 seconds to the archive of the tiger.
The last Tasmanian Tiger died in captivity on 7 September 1936, only a year after the resurfaced footage was filmed.
Filmmaker and exhibitor Sidney Cook is believed to have filmed the travelogue at the Beaumaris Zoo, but never completed it, according to the organisation.
In the clip, uploaded by the archive earlier this week, the tiger walked around its cage and interacted with zookeeper Arthur Reid, who was seen attempting to get its attention from the outside.
The unidentified narrator said that the tiger “is also a dangerous opponent, though like the devil, is now very rare,” in the clip.
He added that the thylacine has been forced “out of its natural habitat by the march of civilisation,” and claimed that the tiger in the video “is the only one in captivity in the world.”
The archive said in their press release that the thylacine was exhibited in New York, Berlin and other places around the world, after the invention of film.
They hope to find footage of one of the tigers in colour, or one where any sound from the animal was captured.
