The Tasmanian tiger could be reintroduced into the wild within a decade after a US biotechnology company backed by the Winklevoss twins pledged to recreate the animal almost 90 years after it was declared extinct.
The last thylacine, the official name of the Tasmanian tiger that was the Australian island’s apex predator, died in a zoo in Hobart in 1936. The wild population of the large carnivorous marsupial was wiped out by farmers and the local government, which put a bounty on the animal during the 19th century to protect sheep.
Unconfirmed sightings of the striped, doglike creature wandering the Tasmanian wilderness have added to its mythical status and spawned hopes that the animal had somehow survived.