Tassie tiger no match for dingo(tions that simulate the influence of str...)

If the thylacine had been better able to hunt large prey, such as adult kangaroos and emus, as well as smaller species, then it would have faced less competition from the smaller dingo, says Dr Wroe.

As well, the dingo may have enjoyed a competitive edge by having a social structure that enabled it to hunt in packs, whereas the thylacine was a lone hunter.

The findings add to a complex picture of how and why the thylacine became extinct after millions of years of successful survival in Australia. Its extinction on the continent's mainland has also been linked to climate change and a shift in Aboriginal land-use patterns about the same time as the introduction of the dingo.

The unique carnivore then persisted only on the island of Tasmania which was free of dingoes until the arrival of European settlers, who persecuted it believing it to be a wolf-like creature that killed sheep.

Kept as pets, exported to zoos, killed by farmers and hunters, the pre-European thylacine population of around 5,000 was also pressured by government bounties: records reveal that 2,000 bounties were paid in the period the period 1888-1912.

Like the dingo, the settlers competed with the thylacines food base by hunting small animals and reducing their numbers through ecological and environmental impacts. The last known individual died in a Tasmanian zoo in 1936.

As a large dedicated flesh eater reliant on relatively small prey, the thylacine may have been particularly vulnerable, not only to food competition with the dingo but also to the destructive influence of the first Europeans in Australia", Dr Wroe says.

'/>"/>