This book is the most complete and up-to-date examination of the behaviour, social history and extinction of one of Australia's most enduring folkloric beasts - the thylacine, otherwise known as the Tasmanian tiger. On the basis of extensive archival research, Bob Paddle constructs a new integrated record of the life-span development of the thylacine. He challenges many conventional ideas about the species and the causes of its extinction, demonstrating how powerful economic interests used the Tasmanian tiger as a scapegoat to protect domestic agricultural enterprise from the consequences of local mismanagement and international economics.

Underneath this story, Bob Paddle uncovers a deeper intellectual snobbery that set the scene for the thylacine's eventual extinction. His insightful analysis shows that nineteenth-century European sensibilities regarding "more developed" cultures were paralleled by similar prejudices about animals. The thylacine, as a marsupial, come to be considered an inferior species, one that would be of no loss to the developing world. The Last Tasmanian Tiger offers new perspectives for both scholarly and general readers on the subjective nature of scientific investigation and the politics of preservation.