Tasmanian tigers weren't tigers. They were pouch-bearing (like kangaroos), doglike animals with tiger stripes on their backs. The last one was captured in 1933, we think, in southwestern Tasmania, south of Australia, taken to a zoo, and put in a cage. Here it is, three years before it died, in a 42-second film. As you'll see, it shows not the slightest sign of winking out: It's alert, very present, pacing about:
More at the link. The "tiger's" body was not preserved upon its death. Simply thrown away. Good thing there's a video clip, sheesh.
And check that link for the fate of two other extinct species, the auk and the passenger pigeon. Weird. I wonder how many other species have died out since then that we don't even know about. Probably countless examples, especially of organisms of unrelated phyla, like insects or worms.
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