Plans to bring extinct tiger back to life

AUSTRALIAN researchers are reviving a project to bring an extinct animal known as the Tasmanian tiger back from the dead through cloning.

Three months after the Australian Museum shelved plans to clone the tiger - also known as a thylacine - a group of universities and research institutes are planning to revive the project.

Mike Archer, dean of science at the University of New South Wales, told the Herald-Sun newspaper that researchers from New South Wales and Victoria states were likely to join the programme, which involves recovering DNA from a pup preserved in ethanol in 1866 to breed a living specimen.

“A group of institutions is involved in moving ahead with creating new ways of getting the thylacine project back on track,” he said, adding he would like his own university involved.

The museum is also likely to be involved, but Prof Archer has not publicly named the other institutions involved.

The Tasmanian tiger, a dog-like creature christened for its striped pelt, was hunted into extinction because it was seen as a threat to livestock.

The last known specimen died in Hobart zoo in 1936 but there have been thousands of unconfirmed sightings since then.

The museum abandoned its own cloning bid, as it said the quality of the DNA was too degraded to work with and it did not have adequate technology.

The museum had planned to clone the animal by using the egg of another marsupial, the Tasmanian devil.