Despite the common name ‘tiger’, the thylacine had a shy, nervous temperament. They emerged to hunt during the evening, night and early morning and tended to retreat to the hills and forest for shelter during the day. During long-distance chases, thylacines were likely to have relied more on scent than any other sense. The thylacine was not a fast runner and probably caught its prey by exhausting it during a long pursuit. In terms of feeding, it was exclusively carnivorous, and its stomach was muscular with an ability to distend so that it could eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce. The thylacine appeared to occupy most types of terrain except dense rainforest, with open eucalyptus forest thought to be its prime habitat. The thylacine’s average nose-to-tail length for adult males was 162.6 cm, compared to 153.7 cm for females. Its most distinguishing feature was the 13-19 dark brown stripes over its back, beginning at the rear of the body and extending onto the tail. The extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was a marsupial* that bore a superficial resemblance to a dog. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
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