Tassie Tiger

Tassie Tiger

Imagine if you could bring back to life an animal that's extinct. Like a dinosaur or some other ancient creature. Well some Aussie scientists have achieved something amazing that could see an extinct animal walk the earth again. Don't freak out, it's not a human-munching dinosaur it's a lot smaller and cuter. Catherine just had to check it out!

CATHERINE ELLIS, REPORTER: Put up your hand if you've seen one of these guys before?

No you haven't! You're being silly! They're extinct!

It's a Tasmanian Tiger and this is the only way you can see them now.

They died out more than 70 years ago - the last one in Hobart Zoo in 1936.

Some people reckon they've spotted a Tassie Tiger or two since.

Competitions have even been run offering big money to anyone who could find one.

But despite lots of big searches - there's been no real proof.

CATHERINE ELLIS, REPORTER: The proper name for a Tassie Tiger is 'Thylacine' which is actually short for whatever that says, anyway, it means pouched dog with wolf's head. Because it has a pouch for its babies and a head like a wolf.

Experts say the Thylacine became extinct because of hunting, loss of habitat and disease.

But, could the Tassie Tiger be brought back to life?!

Well this tiny creature is offering some hope.

It's an unborn mouse.

But how can it help bring a Tiger back to life?

Well to explain, we'll have to go back to this stuff - DNA.

It's in every cell of every living organism.

It's made up of thousands of genes - like a huge list of instructions making us all grow to look and behave differently.

There are genes for hair colour, skin type, genes for the shape of your nose and the list goes on.

Now because some remains of Tassie Tigers were kept from all those years ago scientists have been able to take some DNA and do something that's never been done before.

They brought the DNA back to life in another animal.

They took the gene that's responsible for making bones in the Tassie Tiger and they put it into a developing mouse.

And it worked! It helped form the mouse's skeleton.

They dyed it blue so you can actually see it in the mouse's feet, legs and tail.

DR ANDREW PASK, RESEARCHER: When we got the result of the mouse with the blue skeleton, we were just, extremely excited.

But that was only one tiny gene.

To actually bring a thylacine back to life - which would be cloning it - you'd have to get 30,000 genes to work and a lot of other tricky things.

And lots of people are against cloning.

They're really angry and say nature shouldn't be interfered with.

They also say it's very cruel to the animals involved.

But the scientists who dream of bringing the Tassie Tiger back to life say they'll continue their research.

So it is possible one day, we could have a pouched dog with a wolf head as a pet!

But this is the closest we'll get for a long time.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]