The skin of the last known Tasmanian tigerImage source, ABC News
Image caption, The specimen was kept in a Hobart museum all along, an author says

A cupboard in an Australian museum has the remains of the last known tiger.

In 1936, the body of the thylacine was given to a museum.

The remains were lost and thought to have been thrown out.

They were kept at the museum but not catalogued.

Robert Paddle, who published a book in 2000 on the extinction of the species, said that for years, many museum curators and researchers searched for its remains without success.

The body was assumed to have been thrown away.

The taxidermist's report was found by the curators and prompted a review of the museum's collection.

The female specimen was found in a cupboard.

The exhibit was taken around Australia as a traveling exhibit but staff were not aware it was the last one.

She said that it was the best skin in the collection.

They thought there were animals in the bush.

There is a display of the skin and skeleton at the museum.

Due to impacts from humans and dingoes, the tiger population in the state declined.

The animal was only found on the island of Tasmania.