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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Roger Basset
and I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a

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special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

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where in the world they live.
It is nineteen thirty six. An animal

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is walking behind bars in a zoo
on the island of Tasmania. This animal

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is a strange one. It looks
a little like a dog, but it

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has dark stripes running down its back
like a tiger, and it can open

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its mouth very wide, almost eighty
degrees. Its tail is long and thin,

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with very little hair. The animal
smells the floor behind the bars,

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then it looks out at the people
watching it. It is called a thylocine.

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It is also known as a Tasmanian
tiger. It has been named Benjamin,

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and it is the last of its
kind. In several weeks, Benjamin

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will die. With his death,
the Tasmanian tiger will become extinct. It

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will no longer exist anywhere on the
earth. This would be the end of

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most animals. Once an animal goes
extinct, there is usually no hope of

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bringing it back. But the Tasmanian
tiger may be different, and today scientists

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are working on a technology that once
seemed impossible. They are hoping to bring

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the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction.
Today's spotlight is on the d extinction of

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the Tasmanian tiger. The Tasmanian tiger
is very important to the Australian island of

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Tasmania. It once lived all over
the Australian continent, but around three thousand

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years ago the tigers began to die
out there. By the eighteen hundreds,

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they were gone from most of Australia. Europeans began settling in Tasmania in eighteen

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twenty five. By that time there
were only five thousand Tasmanian tigers left.

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This animal was also special. It
was a marsupial. Marsupials give birth to

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their young very early in life.
Female marsupials have special bags of skin or

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pouches as part of their bodies.
When a tiny marsupial is born, it

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lives in this pouch. The tiny
baby is able to drink milk inside its

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mother's pouch and continue to grow.
The baby can leave and return to its

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mother's pouch for months. The Tasmanian
tiger was the largest meat eating marsupial Sadly,

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Europeans in Australia did not understand how
special the Tasmanian tiger was when they

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arrived in Tasmania. They thought the
Tasmanian tiger might be dangerous. They blamed

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it for killing their farm animals.
They thought it might even hurt children,

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so they began hunting it. The
government even paid money for Tasmanian tiger skins.

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When people understood that they had made
a mistake, it was too late.

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By nineteen thirty six, there was
only one Tasmanian tiger left. Humans

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had hunted the Tasmanian tiger to extinction, but the Tasmanian tiger's memory is still

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very strong in Australia. Since its
extinction, it has become a symbol of

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Tasmania. It is the official symbol
of the Tasmanian state. It is even

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the symbol of the island's cricket team. This may be one reason why scientists

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are trying to bring this tiger back. It is important to Tasmanian identity.

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Andrew Pask is a scientist at the
University of Melbourne. He is also the

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head of a laboratory called tiggr.
It is responsible for one attempt at bringing

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the Tasmanian tiger back. Pasque spoke
to Al Jazeera News about his reason for

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trying. I think there is nothing
that nears the amazingness of the Tasmanian tiger.

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It was an amazing, beautiful marsupial, but humans viciously hunted it to

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extinction. We owe it to the
tigers to spend the time and money to

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return them to their environment. It
is a way to repair some of the

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wrongs we have done in the past. Pasq's goals are very challenging. No

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one has ever brought an animal back
from extinction before, though other attempts have

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been made, Pask's goal is to
try a different method. His project will

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start with DNA taken from the remains
of Tasmanian tigers. DNA is a special

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chemical found in most living things.
Each individual animal has its own special DNA,

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but each kind of animal also has
DNA that it shares with other animals

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that are the same kind. This
is called the animal's genome. Using the

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Tasmanian tiger DNA, Pask hopes to
find what its genome looked like. He

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also hopes to do the same for
another animal called the fat tailed Dunnart.

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The fat tailed Dunnart is a mouse
like marsupial that eats meat like the Tasmanian

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tiger did. The Dunnart has DNA
that is a lot like the Tasmanian tigers.

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By comparing the two, Pask will
be able to see where they are

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different, and he will try to
change the DNA in the cell of a

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Dunnart. If he succeeds, the
cell will be the same as a Tasmanian

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tigers. From there, he will
place the cell inside a Dunnart egg and

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that egg could grow into a baby
Tasmanian tiger. For Pask and others like

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him, there are no negative sides
to bringing back the Tasmanian tiger, and

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his project has gained millions of dollars
from investors, but there are still many

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difficulties in the way. Other scientists
have questions. Some argue that it is

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simply not possible. They argue that
the dun Arts DNA is far too different

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from a Tasmanian tigers to change.
Some say that even if the project worked,

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it would not create a true Tasmanian
tiger. Others believe that the project

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is troubling. Other kinds of animals
in Tasmania are dying every day, but

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less money is going to help these
animals than for an already extinct animal.

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They argue it makes more sense to
help animals that are still alive, such

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as the Tasmanian devil. Others are
not sure if a new Tasmanian tiger would

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be able to live without human help. Carol Freeman is an animal studies researcher

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at the University of Tasmania. She
points out that the procedure involves animal experimentation

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and she is afraid that these experiments
will cause animal suffering. She spoke to

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Scientific American about her own concerns.
The whole conversation is about bringing this animal

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back, but concern for the individual
animals is not really talked about. Their

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suffering is not right for such an
unsure result, It would be many years,

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if ever, that these Tasmanian tigers
could have anything like the life they

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may have had in the wild.
Even with these difficulties, Pask is positive

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his ideas will win out. He
is sure that he can and should bring

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back the Tasmanian tiger. He even
believes it could happen within the next ten

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years. He spoke to the cable
news network about what he hopes. Our

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final goal with this technology is to
restore this animal to the wild. They

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had a very important part in nature, so our hope is that you would

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be seeing them in Tasmania again one
day. What do you think about Pask's

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project? Do you think it is
possible? Do you think it is a

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good idea to bring an animal back
from extinction. We want to hear your

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thoughts. You can leave a comment
on our website or email us at Spotlight

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English dot com. You can also
comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash

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Spotlight Radio. The writer and producer
of this program was Dan Chrisman. The

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voices you heard were from the United
States. All quotes were adapted for this

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program and voiced by Spotlight. You
can listen to this program again and read

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it on the internet at www dot
Spotlight English dot com. This program is

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called Hope for the Tasmanian Tiger.
You can also get our programs delivered directly

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to your Android or Apple device through
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hope you can join us again for
the next Spotlight program. Goodbye