Tail:

    The thylacine's tail is comprised of 25 vertebrae.  Harris (1808) states with reference to the tail: "Tail much compressed and tapering to a point, covered with short smooth hair on the upper part; sides and under part bare, as if worn by friction; not prehensile".  Temminck (1824) notes: "The shape of the tail is singular; initially round at the base, becoming compressed in the middle and blunt by the end.  It is well provided with hairs to the base, naked in the medium, especially on top, and finished by a small brush of long and hard hairs".  Waterhouse (1846) notes: "The tail is about half as long as the body; thick at the base, where it is covered in somewhat woolly fur, like that on the body, but at about the commencement of the second fourth of the tail the hairs become short and harsh, and are closely applied to the skin, they are brown on the upper surface, and pale brown on the under; on the under surface of the apical portion of the tail, however, the hairs are comparatively long, as well as at the point where they are blackish: about three or four black bands are observable on the basal part of the tail above".  Sharland (1971) makes note of a comment on the tail of the pups as recollected by W. J. Cotton: "An interesting point about them was that their backbone and tail were not fused as in the adults".

    "It is by no means generally believed that there are native animals that will face a man.  Nevertheless, it is so.  On Monday, as Mr. B. Stevenson, a sheep farmer on the North Esk, was going round his run, a large native tiger rushed close up to him.  He hit at it with his walking stick, which broke with the blow.  The tiger, uninjured, turned and ran away about ten paces, then faced round, growling very fiercely, and came up a step at a time to within 6ft. or 8ft.  Then he stood growling, and with his tail wagging backward and forward after the fashion of a cat on the point of catching a bird.  Mr. Stevenson's only means of defence was his pocket-knife.  He could not even get hold of a stone.  However, after due consideration the animal evidently deemed discretion the better part of valour, and made off for an adjacent dogwood scrub.  Formerly tigers were very troublesome to the sheep farmers on the North Esk River".

    Elevation of the thylacine's tail is read as a sign of arousal and excitement (Buchman & Guiler 1977).  When adopting a kangaroo-type posture and standing on its hind legs, the thylacine's tail is held rigidly from the ground, suspended in the air in order to stabilise the animal's centre of gravity.

    Sharland, in an article entitled "TASMANIAN TIGER: Marsupial's Stand", in the Sydney Morning Herald of the 2nd February 1937 (p. 13) describes the thylacine as having a "rather clumsy-looking tail, which does not emerge from the body sharply like that of a dog or feline but is thick in the base, and, tapering to a point suggests that it was merged with the hind part of the body.  It cannot wag.  It is always stiff and carried perpetually in a slightly horizontal position".

    The Cairns Post of the 19th May 1938 (p. 11) notes: 

    "The movements of the tail somewhat approach those of a kangaroo........Some of the old residents of Tasmania informed me, several years ago, that the hard, stiff tail of this animal was probably used, at one time, in assisting as a prop on which to lean back, when it stood up to fight.  I have observed kangaroos often taking such an attitude when fighting".