24 Jun 2000 AUSTRALIA:
DEAD or ALIVE?
By SARAH HUDSON
SARAH HUDSON scours the undergrowth of supposition for a peek at an elusive quarry MORE mysterious than an X-Files alien, more ferocious than the average koala, and more spotted than the bunyip, it may be lurking in a bush near you.
A Tasmanian tiger, that is. Although thought to have been extinct since 1936, judging from recent news of cloning attempts, upcoming book launches, exhibitions and ever-present tiger spotting, interest in the marsupial is more intense than ever. The enigmatic creature has, over the past few years, taken on mythical proportions with die-hards determined to prove the thylacine is not extinct. When confessed die-hard Mike Cleeland, database manager for the Australian Rare Fauna Research Association (ARFRA), heard scientists were planning to clone the tiger, he - only half-jokingly - remarked "Why bother?" Why indeed? At last count ARFRA, which is dedicated to investigating mystery animals, had reported 3800 Australia-wide sightings of Tasmanian tigers since 1984.
The most recent sighting was on June 3 in central Gippsland. Cynics could say sightings became more tempting since American billionaire Ted Turner offered $100,000 for a living specimen in 1984. "Its existence is becoming more readily accepted in many rural communities," Cleeland says. Cleeland, a science teacher, experienced his only sighting in 1992 in Gippsland, one of the favorite tiger-spotting areas in Victoria, together with the area around Warrnambool. "I had stopped to have lunch and I had a clear and obvious view about 60 metres away of a Tasmanian tiger," says Cleeland, who taught animal identification for four years. "You don't need to be Einstein to identify a Tasmanian tiger. It's obviously the distinctive markings, but particularly the distinctive tail that thickens where it joins." The moment he opened his car to reach for his camera, the tiger ran away. And this, says ARFRA president Dr Bob Paddle, is the problem with tiger hunting.
Paddle, the author of The Last Tasmanian Tiger, due for release in November, says there are too many sightings and not enough evidence. The psychology lecturer, who has also helped create an exhibition of the creature at the National Wool Museum in Geelong, is certain the last tiger died in a Hobart zoo in September 1936. "Until you give me a body, not blurred photos, not footprints, not a video of a dingo or a fox so starved its ribs look like stripes, nothing is going to change my judgment," Paddle says. Paddle says he became the president of ARFRA after speaking to the founding member about his sightings. "I became interested about three years ago after talking to the then president, Peter Chapple. "I had been studying the animal for years from extensive historical records in London, Washington and New York about the vocalisation of the thylacine - its hisses, snorts and screams. "But Peter knew this knowledge from what he'd heard and seen. He knew a coughing bark was directed to the family group, that a scream or squeal meant frustration and anger."
While these facts tempted his curiosity, Paddle remains sceptical and is constantly amazed at the amount of sightings. "The problem is either people are so over-enthusiastic that they see tigers walking down Swanston St, or there's another group who deliberately reproduce hoax photos." Cleeland agrees not all sightings are authentic - but believes most are. "I'm sure people make genuine mistakes and there are some hoaxes, but there are scores of good, honest and reputable people out there who have nothing to gain from bringing forth spurious evidence."
TIGER FACTS
* The Tasmanian tiger, a marsupial, was mainly nocturnal and a predator which lived off other marsupials such as wallabies, possums and birds.
* Its scientific name is Thylacinus cynocephalus.
* Both sexes had a pouch. The female could carry up to four young.
* The female was distinct from the male in that she had a wider head and snout and was smaller and lighter in color. They stood about 60cm high at the shoulder.
* A mummified specimen exists in a cave on the Nullarbor Plain. Carbon dating estimated it died 3300 years ago. By the 1800s sightings were isolated to Tasmania.
* It is helpful to refer to it as the Tasmanian wolf because many of its features were more dog than cat-like.
* It resembled a kangaroo when it used its two large rear feet and tail, for balance, to stand up.
* Unlike dogs, they had five toes on the forefoot and four on the hind.
* At the end of the 1800s, too many sheep were being killed by the thylacine and so the government introduced a bounty. It was so successful their numbers were critically low by 1910. A disease is believed to have contributed to their deaths as well as loss of habitat.
* A law was passed protecting them in 1936, but what is believed to have been the last one died in a Hobart zoo that year.
* The thylacine was declared extinct under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act, 1995.