Cryptozoology

The Tarpan is an extinct subspecies of wild horse. The last individual of this subspecies died in captivity in Ukraine in 1876.

Beginning in the 1930s, several attempts have been made to re-create the tarpan through selective breeding. The breeds that resulted included the Heck horse, the Hegardt or Stroebel's horse, and a derivation of the Konik breed - all of which resembled the original tarpan, particularly in having the grullo coat color of the tarpan.

An attempt was made by the Polish government to save the Tarpan type by establishing a preserve for animals descended from the Tarpan in a forested area in Bialowieza. These descendents are today sometimes referred to as the Polish primitive horse.

Photo of Tarpan at the Moscow zoo. This male tarpan was then 18 years old, dark grey with white spot on front left tibia. Mane was very long; the tail was cut by keepers. The tarpan was caught in 1866 on Zagradovsk steppe and lived until 1880 in Novovorontsovka, until it reached Moscow zoo on May 29th 1884. He was castrated from 3 years of age, and possibly not a pure specimen. His height at withers was 133 cm.



Absolutely beautiful free-roaming horses, photo by Brackenheim licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Germany License.

The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It had become extremely rare on the Australian mainland before European settlement of the continent, but it survived on the island state of Tasmania along with several other endemic species, including the Tasmanian Devil. Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributory factors may have been disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat. Despite its official classification as extinct, sightings are still reported, though none proven.

Public domain photo of a Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) photographed in cage with chicken by Henry Burrell, 1921.