Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Roger Bassi and I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses
a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
matter where in the world they live. It is nineteen thirty six. An
animal is walking behind bars in a zoo on the island of Tasmania. This
animal is a strange one. It looks a little like a dog, but
it has dark stripes running down its back like a tiger, and it can
open its mouth very wide, almost eighty degrees. Its tail is long and
thin, with very little hair. The animal smells the floor behind the bars,
then it looks out at the people watching it. It is called a
thylosine. It is also known as a Tasmanian tiger. It has been named
Benjamin, and it is the last of its kind. In several weeks,
Benjamin will die. With his death, the Tasmanian tiger will become extinct.
It will no longer exist anywhere on the earth. This would be the end
of most animals. Once an animal goes extinct, there's usually no hope of
bringing it back. But the Tasmanian tiger may be different, and today scientists
are working on a technology that once seemed impossible. They are hoping to bring
the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction. Today's Spotlight Advanced is on the de extinction
of the Tasmanian tiger. The Tasmanian tiger is very important to the Australian island
of Tasmania. It once lived all over the Australian continent, but around three
thousand years ago the tigers began to die out there. By the eighteen hundreds,
they were gone from most of Australia. Europeans began settling in Tasmania in
eighteen twenty five. By that time there were only five thousand Tasmanian tigers left.
This animal was also special. It was a marsupial. Marsupials give birth
to their young very early in life. Female marsupials have special bags of skin
or pouches as part of their bodies. When a tiny marsupial is born,
it lives in this pouch. The tiny baby is able to drink milk inside
its mother's pouch and continue to grow. The baby can leave and return to
its mother's pouch for months. The Tasmanian tiger was the largest meat eating Marsupial.
Sadly, Europeans in Australia did not understand how special the Tasmanian tiger was
when they arrived in Tasmania. They thought the Tasmanian tiger might be dangerous.
They blamed it for killing their farm animals. They thought it might even hurt
children, so they began hunting it. The government even paid money for Tasmanian
tiger's skins. When people understood that they had made a mistake, it was
too late. By nineteen thirty six, there was only one Tasmanian tiger left.
Humans had hunted the Tasmanian tiger to extinction, but the Tasmanian tiger's memory
is still very strong in Australia. Since its extinction, it has become a
symbol of Tasmania. It is the official symbol of the Tasmanian state. It
is even the symbol of the island's cricket team. This may be one reason
why scientists are trying to bring this tiger back. It is important to Tasmanian
identity. Andrew pask Is, a scientist at the University of Melbourne. Is
also the head of a laboratory called tiggr It is responsible for one attempt at
bringing the Tasmanian tiger back. Pask spoke to Al Jazeera News about his reason
for trying. I think there is nothing that nears the amazingness of the Tasmanian
tiger. It was an amazing, beautiful marsupial, but humans viciously hunted it
to extinction. We owe it to the tigers to spend the time and money
to return them to their environment. It is a way to repair some of
the wrong we have done in the past. Pask's goals are very challenging.
No one has ever brought an animal back from extinction before, though other attempts
have been made. Pask's goal is to try a different method. His project
will start with DNA taken from the remains of Tasmanian tigers. DNA is a
special chemical found in most living things. Each individual animal has its own special
DNA, but each kind of animal also has DNA that it shares with other
animals that are the same kind. This is called the animal's genome. Using
the Tasmanian tiger DNA, Pask hopes to find what its genome looked like.
He also hopes to do the same for another animal called the fat tailed Dunnart.
The fat tailed Dunnart is a mouse like marsupial that eats meat like the
Tasmanian tiger did. The Dunnart has DNA that is a lot like the Tasmanian
tigers. By comparing the two, Pask will be able to see where they're
different, and he will try to change the DNA in the cell of a
Dunnart. If he succeeds, the cell will be the same as a Tasmanian
tigers. From there, he will place the cell inside a Dunnert egg and
that egg could grow into a baby Tasmanian tiger. For Pask and others like
him, there are no negative signs to bringing back the Tasmanian tiger, and
his project has gained millions of dollars from investors, but there are still many
difficulties in the way. Other scientists have questions. Some argue that it is
simply not possible. They argue that the Dunnart's DNA is far too different from
a Tasmanian tigers to change. Some say that even if the project worked,
it would not create a true Tasmanian tiger. Others believe that the project is
troubling. Other kinds of animals in Tasmania are dying every day, but less
money is going to help these animals than for an already extinct animal. They
argue it makes more sense to help animals that are still alive, such as
the Tasmanian devil. Others are not sure if a new Tasmanian tiger would be
able to live without human help. Carol Freeman is an animal studies researcher at
the University of Tasmania. She points out that the procedure involves animal experimentation,
and she is afraid that these experiments will cause animal suffering. She spoke to
Scientific American about her own concerns. The whole conversation is about bringing this animal
back. What's concern for the individual animals is not really talked about. Their
suffering is not right for such an unsure result, it would be many years,
if ever, that these Tasmanian tigers could have anything like the life they
may have had in the wild. Even with these difficulties, Pask is positive
his ideas will win out. He is sure that he can and should bring
back the Tasmanian tiger. He even believes it could happen within the next ten
years. He spoke to the Cable news network about what he hopes. Our
final goal with this technology is to restore this animal to the wild. They
had a very important part in nature, so our final hope is that you
would be seeing them in Tasmania again one day. What do you think about
PASKS project? Do you think it is possible? Do you think it is
a good idea to bring an animal back from extinction. We want to hear
your thoughts. You can leave a comment on our website or email us at
Spotlight English dot com. You can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com
slash Spotlight Radio. The writer and producer of this program was Dan Chrisman.
The voices you heard were from the United States. All quotes were adapted for
this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again and
read it on the internet at www dot Spotlight English dot com. This program
is called Hope for the Tasmanian Tiger. You can also get our programs delivered
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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye