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Tasmanian tiger brain was wired to kill


Still Waters

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Scientists have mapped 100-year-old brains of two extinct thylacines — better known as the Tasmanian tiger — to reveal how the carnivore was wired to be a predator.

Sophisticated imaging shows the thylacine had a larger brain than some other Australian carnivores, with more cortex allocated to decision-making and planning behaviours.

Professor Ken Ashwell, an anatomist at the University of New South Wales and co-author of the research, said no-one had ever studied the thylacine brain in such detail before and that the findings opened the door for use on other extinct and endangered animals.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-19/inside-the-brain-of-a-tasmanian-tiger/8190752

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Umm..aren't predators usually wired to be killers? Kinda hard to eat prey if it isn't dead.

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11 minutes ago, Ryu said:

Umm..aren't predators usually wired to be killers?

It came as a shock to many of us who follow this animal. 

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4 minutes ago, oldrover said:

It came as a shock to many of us who follow this animal. 

If it was a predator then that means it hunts its prey. I fail to understand how it should be shocking that a carnivore brain is wired to kill instead of ordering take-out.

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9 minutes ago, Ryu said:

If it was a predator then that means it hunts its prey. I fail to understand how it should be shocking that a carnivore brain is wired to kill instead of ordering take-out.

Well the decline in tiger population does coincide with the decline in take away outlets which were willing to do bush deliveries, so we just sort of assumed....

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Tasmanian Tiger phone order:

"I'll have a double order of moo-shi chicken and 2 dozen teriyaki beef steak strips....What do you mean you don't deliver to the remote outback?"

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And the the shadowy pair of Van Diemen's Land Company agents in a van outside their den running the wiretap;

"If he orders lamb biryrani we've got him!"

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Just been reading David Fleay's comments on the behaviour of the animal while the famous film was taken in Hobart Zoo 1933. 

He said that the animal was extremely inquisitive, very anxious to get its nose into the camera to see what was what. His description of the animal's temperament changed over the years, initially he spoke of it as if it were quite intolerant toward visitors, noting that the zoo's currator Arthur Reid had to fend it off the whole time they were filming. Later though he'd go onto describe it as more curious, and label the bite it (delivered to either backside or leg it varies in the re telling) gave him as a serupticous nip. 

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