It looks exactly like what it is - a creature long dead - but the animal lying on its side at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra is facing a new kind of threat.

Conservators, wearing masks, gloves and laboratory coats for protection against the chemicals they are using, have just pulled the crudely skinned thylacine carcass from a display case filled with liquid the colour of strong tea.

Tiger, tiger: British expert Simon Moore and National Museum conservator Natalie Ison examine a skinned thylacine. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Among them is Simon Moore, a British freelance conservator who is an expert in the conservation of natural science specimens.

The museum has asked him to assess the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, which has become so fragile it has been removed from public display. Even vibrations created by people walking by the plate-glass container were damaging it.