Thylacine
Thylacine
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| Desperately hoping to catch a Tasmanian tiger by the tail |
Like so many of the wonderfully strange beasts in Australia, the Tasmanian tiger looked like it was cobbled together from spare parts. Its rear half resembled a tiger -- well, sort of -- with black stripes and a long tail. Its front half could be mistaken for a wolf. And it had a pouch, like a kangaroo. Or should I say "has"? Nobody is 100 percent sure whether this odd creature is still roaming the wild and remote pockets of Tasmania. The last one in captivity died in the Hobart zoo in 1936, and the tiger is officially extinct. But ranchers, hunter and hikers keep claiming to catch glimpses of them creeping wraithlike through the tall grass, and not all the sightings can be easily explained by an overindulgence in Tooheys. Wildlife biologists concede it's possible -- highly unlikely, but possible -- that a few might have managed to survive in the wild. It's fair to say most Tasmanians want their tiger back. Its image decorates the label of the island's most popular beer, sports uniforms and license plates, and one can be forgiven for thinking they're trying to resurrect the creature through wishful thinking. Some are endeavoring to do more than that: A team at the Australian Museum is even attempting to revive the species through cloning. Part of what's at work here, it seems to me, is the yearning for some mystery in the world, the need to believe there are still amazing discoveries waiting to be made. In the last few decades, as global media have saturated the world and we've gained the ability to see live pictures from even the most distant and exotic locales -- even the moons of Saturn -- we've paradoxically lost some of our capacity for wonder. That's why, I think, some of us cling so tenaciously to the hope that some sort of prehistoric monster could be lurking in the murky depths of Loch Ness and that Bigfoot might really be padding around the forests of the Siskiyou Mountains. For years I've been obsessed with the yeti -- the abominable snowman -- the half-mythological, ape-like creature that occasionally leaves mysterious lines of footprints across Himalayan snowfields. It's not hard to find a Sherpa who claims to have seen or heard a yeti; in fact, it's sometimes hard to find one who hasn't. The Tasmanian tiger, of course, is in another category altogether. It most definitely existed until 68 years ago, and on the Internet you can see an old film of the last known one padding around its cage in the Hobart zoo. (www. tased.edu.au/tot/fauna/ tiger.mov). Considering that biologists in Australia occasionally stumble upon insects, ferns and even large trees thought to have vanished from the earth over 100 million years ago, it hardly beggars the imagination to suppose that a dog-sized marsupial might have escaped detection for seven decades. The tiger -- its scientific name is thylacine, short for Thylacinus cynocephalus, which means, roughly, "pouched dog" -- was quite common in Tasmania when Europeans first arrived, mainly because its predator, the dingo, never made it across the Bass Strait from the Australian mainland. But English settlers feared the thylacine as a threat to the sheep they brought with them, and bounty hunters killed them mercilessly. Ironically, the Tasmanian government officially protected the creature just two months before the death of the last one known to be alive. For the last six years, a team of biotechnicians at the Australian Museum in Sydney has been working to clone a thylacine from a baby snatched from its mother's pouch in 1866 and pickled in a jar of alcohol. It's a scenario straight out of "Jurassic Park." They've made some progress - they say they've harvested a pretty good crop of DNA to work with - but detractors question, first, whether they have the science to pull it off, and, second, whether it's worth the effort. "What are they going to do?" said Nick Mooney, a wildlife biologist with the state of Tasmania. "Spend $80 million cloning a thylacine and then turn it loose in the wild?" For two decades it's been part of Mooney's job to hunt for the Tasmanian tiger. He's laid out wet sand in likely habitats to try to capture footprints, set photographic trip-lines, questioned ranchers and hunters, and examined more scat than he cares to think about. And he frequently crosses paths with amateur thylacine hunters who've devoted their life to the cause. "People bankrupt themselves and ruin relationships over this," he told me. "I don't know of any suicides, but I know of a number of people who've flipped. It's an obsession for some people." Mooney said he's seen "a lot of so-called evidence, but nothing convincing. It's always possible the thylacine's still out there, but I'd say it's highly unlikely." He's regularly accused of lying by these people; they believe he knows where thylacines are but is keeping the information to himself. When I pressed him on the point, he said this: "If they've managed to survive all these years without being found through some trick of nature, I think the best thing we could do is just leave them alone." Mooney reiterated that he's almost certain the Tasmanian tiger is long extinct. But I also got the sense that if he knew otherwise, he probably wouldn't tell me. |
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| Eye on the tiger | 23/03/2005 |
$1.25 MILLION: WHY IT'S ON OFFER
We know the myth is out there. But what about the truth? Over the past 70 years more than 4000 alleged sightings of the believed-to-be-extinct Tasmanian tiger have been reported. Yet not one solid shred of evidence - not a bone, a hair, much less a body - has ever been put forward to prove that the thylacine is the greatest escape artist in the animal kingdom.
If the tiger has somehow managed to cling to survival, proving its existence would be one of the greatest scientific stories of the century. A live thylacine would have many profound implications, including forcing a rethinking of our understanding about how endangered species can survive. So in this, our 125th year of publication, The Bulletin is prepared to help solve one of Australia?s most enduring mysteries.
We?re offering a total reward of $1.25m for conclusive proof of the tiger?s existence in the Tasmanian wild. And there's only one way to settle it. Our terms and conditions are strict and unbending (see page 20). A live, uninjured animal must be produced. All government regulations and provisions must be adhered to. A panel of eminent experts chosen by us will have the final say - along with conclusive DNA testing.
The reward is open until June 30. It?s a pretty safe bet that if a tiger is not found by then, we?ll know the truth is just a myth.
Garry Linnell
Editor-in-Chief
The Bulletin
By Anthony Hoy
Naarding, whose study of animals had taken him around the world, was conducting a survey of Latham?s snipe, a species of endangered migratory bird. What he saw that night is now regarded as the most credible sighting recorded of a species many believe has been extinct for more than 70 years ? the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger.
Naarding takes up the story. ?In order to study the snipe, I had to work at night. I was in a sleeping-bag in my Landcruiser, and was woken by rain at 2am. I was in the habit of intermittently shining a spotlight around. The beam fell on an animal in front of the vehicle, less than 10m away. Instead of risking movement by grabbing for a camera, I decided to register very carefully what I was seeing. The animal was about the size of a small alsatian, a very healthy male in prime condition. What set it apart from a dog, though, was a slightly sloping hindquarter, with a fairly thick tail being a straight continuation of the backline of the animal.
?It had 12 distinct stripes on its back, continuing onto its butt. At one point, it dropped its jaw, letting its tongue hang out. I could see its teeth, and its eyes were clearly visible. I knew perfectly well what I was seeing. As soon as I reached for the camera, it disappeared into the tea-tree undergrowth and scrub. I shot out of my sleeping-bag and went after it, looking for hair and footprints. I couldn?t find a trace. But I could recognise a very strong smell, reminding me very much of a hyena in Africa.?
The director of Tasmania?s National Parks at the time, Peter Morrow, ?decided in his wisdom to keep my sighting of the thylacine secret for two years?. When the news finally broke, it was accompanied by pandemonium. ?I was besieged by television crews, including four to five from Japan, and others from the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand and South America.?
Government and private search parties combed the region, some using helicopters and others operating from snow camps in the highlands. But no further sightings were made. The tiger, as always, had escaped to its lair, a place many insist exists only in our imagination. Others beg to differ.
THE HUNTERS RETURN
They were all back there last month ? the true believers, the crazies, the obsessives and the just plain curious ? traipsing through the bush and making enough noise to wake the dead. Reports that a German tourist had digitally photographed a tiger ? the pictures are said to be dark, out of focus but showing some sort of striped animal ? had once again ignited world-wide interest. The New York Times had headed into the bush, and a BBC camera crew was about to arrive.
Not bad for an animal whose last surviving member was thought to have died in captivity in Hobart Zoo in September 1936. By then, a succession of bounties offered by the Tasmanian government had effectively wiped out the species. But since then, the thylacine has staged something of a comeback, becoming part of Australian mythology. There have been more than 4000 claimed sightings of the beast since it supposedly died out, and the average claims each year reported to authorities now number 150.
Is it out there? First, the experts.
Associate professor of zoology at the University of Tasmania, Randolph Rose, has said he dreams of seeing a thylacine, ?wrestling it to the ground and bringing it back to captivity?. But Rose, who in his 35 years in Tasmanian academia has fielded countless reports of thylacine sightings, is now convinced that his dream will go unfulfilled.
?The consensus among conservationists is that, usually, any animal with a population base of less than 1000 is headed for extinction within 60 years,? says Rose, whose collection includes a thylacine skull handed down to him by his predecessor, Professor T.T. Flynn, the father of swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn. ?Sixty years ago, there was only one thylacine that we know of, and that was in Hobart Zoo,? he says. ?This latest report of tiger photographs taken by a German tourist gets dodgier and dodgier by the moment. Take it from me, the tiger is gone. Otherwise, there would be conclusive evidence somewhere. Where?s the skull, fur, bones, hair ? or the dead body??
Dr David Pemberton, curator of zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, whose PhD thesis was on the thylacine, says that despite scientific thinking that 500 animals are required to sustain a population, ?the Florida panther is down to a dozen or so animals and, while it does have some inbreeding problems, is still ticking along. I?ll take a punt and say that, if we manage to find a thylacine in the scrub, it means that there are 50-plus animals out there.?
After all, animals can be notoriously elusive. The strange fish known as the coelacanth, with its ?proto-legs?, was thought to have died out along with the dinosaurs 700 million years ago until a specimen was dragged to the surface in a shark net off the south-east coast of South Africa in 1938. One of the most incredible tales of 20th-century zoology was the discovery of a new species of large mammal, the saola or Vu Quang ox, in the mountainous region of the Vietnamese-Laotian border in 1994.
THE VERIFICATION PROCESS
In addition to helping keep Tasmania fox-free and overseeing the management of the facial tumour disease affecting Tasmanian devils, wildlife biologist Nick Mooney has the unenviable task of investigating all ?sightings? of the tiger ? totalling 4000 since the mid-1930s, and averaging about 150 a year. It was Mooney who was first consulted late last month about the authenticity of digital photographic images purportedly taken by a German tourist while on a recent bushwalk in the state. On face value, Mooney says, the account of the sighting, and the two photographs submitted as proof, amount to one of the most convincing cases for the species? survival he has seen.
And Mooney has seen it all ? the mistakes, the hoaxes, the illusions and the plausible accounts of sightings. Take the televised thylacine expedition mounted by a French team, without notifying anyone, which carted live sheep into the south-west Tasmanian wilderness as a lure for tigers. Or the time Mooney struggled to keep a straight face as he traipsed behind a tiger hunter who had strapped wallaby pelts to his feet, so as not to leave a human scent ? only to stop periodically to have a smoke. He has had to contend with hordes of amateur photographers, all convinced their meaningless offerings somehow provided vital clues to the animal?s survival.
Mooney, a wildlife biologist with the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, also deals with the con artists, such as the opportunist who painted stripes on a household pet?s back, or the smart alec who offered a zebra pelt on eBay as a tiger skin.
But occasionally ? just occasionally ? there are high-quality sightings that make it impossible for Mooney and his peers to absolutely rule out the possibility of the thylacine?s survival. However, having reconstructed all plausible tiger sightings reported to him, Mooney?s measurements have determined average errors of 200% in terms of distance, and 500% in time. ?Time slows in moments of excitement,? he says. ?This is where most accounts unravel, big time.?
Hoaxers aside, most people who report sightings end up believing they have seen a thylacine, and are themselves believable to the point they could pass a lie-detector test, according to Mooney. Others, having tabled a creditable report, then become utterly obsessed ? like the Tasmanian who has registered 99 thylacine sightings to date. Mooney has seen individuals bankrupted by the obsession, and families destroyed. He has coined his own term ? ?Lasseter?s Syndrome? ? for those who regard a tiger sighting as their ?main chance?. ?It is a blind optimism that something is, rather than a cynicism that something isn?t,? Mooney says. ?If something crosses the road, it?s not a case of ?I wonder what that was?? Rather, it is a case of ?that?s a thylacine!? It is a bit like a gold prospector?s blind faith, ?it has got to be there?.?
The psychological profiles of those who generally report sightings of the thylacine, according to Mooney?s studies, show that most have at some stage of their lives held prospecting licences and, politically, ?tend to vote along right-wing lines?. Says Mooney: ?The only way I can interpret that is a reluctance to admit there might be a bit of a problem, that is, ?things aren?t as bad as you greenies think?.?
Another predictable behavioural pattern among people reporting thylacine sightings comes towards the end of their debriefing, he says. ?At the point of conclusion, where we thank them for coming in, almost certainly they will say, ?It?s not the first one I?ve seen!? They are holding the floor, being treated as important, and they don?t want it to end.?
However, Mooney treats all reports on face value. ?I never try to embarrass people, or make fools of them. But the fact that I don?t pack the car immediately they ring can often be taken as ridicule. Obsessive characters get irate that someone in my position is not out there when they think the thylacine is there.?
Many reports have been made exempt from freedom-of-information guidelines, in order to protect the identity and privacy of informants. And Tasmanian government convention has it that any credible sightings of the thyalcine should be kept secret until the laborious scientific authentication process can take its course, and to prevent the legions of modern-day bounty hunters from mobilising for the next tiger shooting, trapping and poisoning campaign. Not to mention the risk of collateral damage to other native species. What, then, is the likelihood of the thylacine still being out there? ?Devils have become abundant in the last few years, which is evidence that the top predator ? the tiger ? is functionally extinct,? says Mooney.
During the Depression, when millions of snare knots were set for wallaby and possum pelts for the fur industry, not one thylacine was found, he says. ?When bounty payments for thylacines became rare ? when they were not worth hunting ? we could vaguely accept they had been killed beyond sustainable, that is, more than 25% of surviving animals were being killed each year. Surviving animals would have to have extraordinary resistance to the problems of inbreeding ... I?m open-minded. I certainly don?t believe they are all over the place. But if I had to make a call, I?d put money on them not being out there.?
?Out there? is country like the Devil?s Gullet in the Tasmania Wilderness World Heritage Area, a time-capsule sent from a past where primeval terrain remained untouched by human hands. The term ?moonscape? best describes the Central Plateau that stretches away beyond the Gullet?s bluffs, to what is now the world-renowned Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. If it?s true that the Tasmanian tiger survives to this day, the chances are that the last remnant of its protectorate lies within the reaches of this stunning vista.
The Mole Creek Hotel Tiger?s Lair Bar is where tourists come in search of the tiger. The favourite bar trick, publican Bob Hilton says, is to count every visible tiger image from your bar stool. ?The last census was 162-plus.? Stuffed Tiger toys glare down from every shelf. There are leadlight tigers in the windows, Tiger murals on the walls, and a merchandise display of tiger T-shirts, stubby-holders and trinkets. Bob?s partner, Denise, has a tiger tattooed below her right shoulder blade. The pub is also where Tasmania?s only known female tiger hunter, Trudy Richards ? with her trusty tiger-dog Bess ? holds court over a few beers every evening. She has seen the tiger, of course ? her last sighting in June 2002.
Retired landscape gardener Col Bailey, 67, is one of the True Believers, a self-confessed thylacine obsessive who carves out a living from perpetuating the myth. He has logged more than 300,000km, heading the search and ministering to the faithful. ?As we speak, there are 100 people out there looking,? says the operator of what he calls ?the Tasmanian Tiger Research Data Centre?. HarperCollins published his first book, Tiger Tales. A second book is near completion. And he is booked for a string of speaking engagements.
But Hans Naarding, whose sighting of a striped animal two decades ago was the highlight of ?a life of animal spotting?, remains bemused by the time and money people waste on tiger searches. He only recently returned home to Tasmania after sailing the south seas in his trimaran, in part to escape the never-ending speculation and queries over his claim. He says resources would be better applied to saving the Tasmanian devil, and helping migratory bird populations that are declining as a result of shrinking wetlands across Australia.
Could the thylacine still be out there? ?Sure,? Naarding says. ?I know the vast south-west wilderness of Tasmania so well. They could survive. By the same token, if this is the case, it will not be long before they do disappear completely.?
He says any discovery of surviving thylacines would be ?rather pointless?. ?How do you save a species from extinction? What could you do with it? If there are thylacines out there, they are better off right where they are.?
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OF THYLACINE SIGHTINGS
A new chapter opens in the Tassie tiger tale - by Rohan Wade
The State Government's secret Tasmanian tiger files have been prised open, revealing a sighting considered as credible as one 20 years ago that sparked a massive search. Details of 17 claimed thylacine sightings reported to authorities since June 1997 has been released to a self-proclaimed big cat and thylacine hunter under the Freedom Of Information Act.
The release came after an initial request by Victorian-based tiger hunter Michael Moss was rejected last month. After the rejection, Mr Moss alleged that the Government was trying to cover up thylacine and big cat sightings, and he hailed the decision to release the information as a victory. "These are the files the Government didn't want the public to see," he said.
The reported sightings contain animal descriptions as varied as a creature walking like a crippled dog and a dog-like animal with chocolate-coloured stripes that left a smell similar to that of a hyena. But one reported sighting in 1997 in the State's North-West was given more credibility than most by authorities. A written report by thylacine expert and Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Nick Mooney said the sighting was "as good if not better than" the famous sighting by wildlife officer Hans Naarding in 1982 that sparked a year-long search by the Government to prove that the thylacine had escaped extinction. The 1997 sighting centred on a night-time encounter by a man patrolling an area of land. The man, who had been travelling alone, reported seeing a thylacine just 3m from his car. He immediately thought to be a wild dog and prepared to shoot it, but realised that its appearance was markedly different from that of a dog, as was its gait - both which he described in detail, along with its striped markings.
Mr Mooney reported after interviewing the man: "Considering his job, (the man) is familiar with local wildlife. He seems alert, intelligent and on associated topics not prone to exaggeration. "I have little doubt that (the man) believes he saw a thylacine. If he did it, was an adult - i.e., probably resident and likely a male. At this time of year, I would expect an adult female to be suckling denned young and therefore to have a loose pouch area. "In all respects, this sighting is as good if not better than that of Hans Naarding's in 1982. The geographical area has produced most of Tasmania's best reports in the past decade."
Last week Mr Mooney agreed that his statement added validity to the sighting. "We class the thylacine as being extinct because we haven't had a confirmed sighting in the wild for 50 years, but there is always some chance that there were some that survived. I have always said it is unlikely but still possible." Mr Mooney said the department had not actively searched for thylacines for several years, relying on the efforts of determined private searchers. "There is always someone searching for Tasmanian tigers. We've even got an American team wanting to come out to search with powered hang gliders," he said.
Reports were merely logged officially for record-keeping purposes, although he believed there was room for a full-time thylacine officer to take a more pro-active approach. "Tasmania gets an amazing amount of exposure because of thylacines, all around the world. There is always some television crew or magazine wanting to come and do a documentary or get information, and that exposure would more than pay for someone," he said. Mr Mooney said that as long as thylacine searchers remained responsible, he saw no problem with allowing them to continue searching. "They may just come up with something, they may not," he said. "Provided, I guess, they don't turn it into an obsession to the extent where it bankrupts them or wrecks their family relationships, then there's no harm."
Mr Mooney, who is working on the Fox Task Force, said the fact that small numbers of foxes in Tasmania had evaded being caught or shot could point to the possibility of thylacines doing likewise. "But the conditions for thylacines now are arguably better than they have ever been, and realistically, if they were alive, we'd be up to our armpits in thylacines," he said. He found reported sightings interesting and was reluctant to dismiss any as mere fantasy. "Undoubtedly everyone who reports seeing a thylacine thinks that is exactly what they saw. They are convinced," he said. "The ones that I find almost tantalising, though, are the stories which are secondhand, where someone knows someone else who once saw one close up but never reported it, but gave a detailed description. "
Mr Mooney said the only reason why the tiger files were kept secret was to protect the identity of people reporting sightings. "If we came out and publicised every reported sighting, there'd be a constant media frenzy going on, and people just wouldn't come forward. As it is, most people don't report a sighting until well after it occurred," he said. The released reports do not divulge people's identities. He said the Parks and Wildlife Service would only conduct a thylacine search if an "exceptional" sighting came to light. "I searched for a year after the 1982 sighting, and that was the last time we notified the public about a sighting," he said.
The following are thylacine sightings as reported to the Parks and Wildlife Service. Not all sightings are reported to authorities.
- June 1996 - Two fishermen who were anchored off Davidsons Bay on the North-West Coast report seeing an animal with prominent ears and head and straight-out tail, about three-quarters the size of a german shepherd, and resembling a brown hyena, walking along a beach like a crippled dog. It was observed through binoculars for 10 minutes as it walked 330m. At least one of the fishermen admitted having seen a thylacine before in the same place and at Studland Bay the year before.
- 1997 - A forester reported seeing a thylacine walk out of bushland and along a paddock edge at Mt Hobbs, near Woodsdale in the South. The man said the animal, which he saw from about 150m away, had a funny walk, straight tail and indistinct stripes, and moved differently from a dog. Two "old farmers" had also seen a thylacine walk out of the bush. The person taking the report noted that the sighting, which was not reported until 1998, was similar to another made by a farmer, but could not find out who it was.
- August 1997 - A man patrolling an area of the North-West Coast saw what he first thought was a wild dog, but on looking again he realised it was not a dog. He described the animal as the same build and size as a german shepherd, with a large head and medium-length tail held horizontally. It was brown with distinct chocolate-coloured stripes. It stood for about one minute before turning awkwardly as though it had no spine articulation, dropped its haunches and "rocked away". The man noted a distinct smell. This sighting was rated by authorities as one of the best and most reliable reports in 20 years.
- January 1998 - A bus driver was 100 per cent sure that he saw a thylacine standing still on a roadside between Zeehan and Queenstown about 4pm. It had stripes and a long pointed tail, and was bone-coloured with a pointy head. It was about the size of a medium dog.
- March 1998 - A bushwalker at the Walls of Jerusalem saw a creature described as dingo-size and pale brown, with distinct dark brown stripes down its rump that were smaller toward its front. It was seen for about five seconds from 25m away walking smoothly across an open area. The bushwalker knew that there were no dingoes in Tasmania and that thylacines were extinct, and therefore thought it was a prop for brochure pictures. The bushwalker wrote a letter to authorities a month later with a photograph of where the thylacine was seen, stating: "(This) is where I saw with about 100 per cent certainty a thylacine... I certainly do hope that this picture may be of some help to you in the search for thylacines. I know they still exist and hope they will in the future."
- July 1998 - Two adults driving in a hire car on the LyeIl Highway between Queenstown and Strahan at night reported almost running over a thylacine when it ran across the road in front of them. It was described as having distinct dark stripes on a lighter-coloured body, with a tail that appeared straight although it was not well seen. The animal also had a fox-like snout, but they said it was definitely not a fox. It was about 35cm taIl, and between 60 and 70cm long, not including the tail, and moved with a pacing gait. It was just 2m from the car when it was seen for two or three seconds. The people making the report had seen a holographic thylacine image at the Lake St Clair National Park Visitors Centre earlier the same day.
- October 1998 - A man and a woman saw a mysterious animal lope in front of their car at 10am in an unrecorded location. It had a dark brown body with yellow stripes, a small head and a long body and tail, and was definitely not a dog. The animal was seen about 6m from the car for about four seconds. One of the pair thought it was a thylacine, even though the colours appeared to be opposite that of a thylacine. The other did not believe it was a thylacine but had no idea what it was.
- December 1998 - Two Victorian men were driving 60km east of the Great Lake Hotel at 6pm when a four-legged animal crossed the road 70m ahead of their car, stopped and looked in their direction. It was golden, about knee-high and very long, with a long, straight tail that was thick at the base. Its head was large compared with its body, with small ears and oriental eyes. It left the road and went through a fence into scrub or a clearing, where it was seen jumping a stump. They returned to the location the next day and collected fur from the fence and a fresh dropping, and saw a footprint that one of the men accidentally trod on. A drawing was done of the footprint from memory. Despite acknowledging that the men sounded genuine, authorities said the story sounded too good to be true and there were some inconsistencies in the men's stories. The ranger handling the report wrote: "I will try and find out if (either men) had been to the thylacine display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (because) it might have given them a good idea."
- December 1998 - A group reported seeing an animal about the size of a labrador with obvious stripes and a straight tail as they rounded a bend in the road between Pyengana and Weldborough on the Tasman Highway. It was stated that the animal appeared to be preparing to jump up a small embankment on the side of the road, and even though they saw it for just a few seconds, they passed within 2m of it. They did not stop or mark the spot, but drove on in shock.
- March 2000 - A person reported seeing an animal that crossed the Lyell Highway near the Wild Rivers National Park that did not look like any type of dog they had seen. It was chocolate brown all over, with a long body, a long tail and a squashed-in type of face. It walked "majestically" across the road 70m away.
- March 2000 - A thylacine was reported to have run across a track ahead of a four-wheel-drive at the southern end of Bronte Lagoon. It was seen for just a second or two. A subsequent check by authorities found no footprints.
- May 2000 - An animal that looked like a hyena was reported to have run across the Cradle Mountain Link Rd at night, but did not move like a dog. It was seen by one person, who stated it had a large head and rounded ears and was light brown around the neck. It was observed in headlights for about 10 seconds.
- January 2001 - A person e-mailed a Parks and Wildlife Service officer to say that an acquaintance insisted on having seen a thylacine less than a year before in the tiers near Liffey and also knew of a Midlands farmer who supposedly shot a thylacine that he had mistaken for a dog chasing sheep in 1998. The farmer was said to have buried the carcass immediately, fearing prosecution. The e-mail also detailed how the sender had snared a 1m-long thylacine at Nabowla in 1953. "I laid him out with a dropper off a fence and was putting him into a bag when he came to and got away. I had him by the tail, and I lost my grip when he tried to bite me... I was 14 years old." The e-mail also revealed a sighting on the Bridgenorth Rd in 1960.
- August 2001 - A mustard-coloured animal about the size of a big spaniel dog was seen walking along a track near the Murchison Highway.
- September 2001 - A man heading home one night saw an animal that he believed was a thylacine on the Sideling between Launceston and Scottsdale. Making the report, the man said the striped animal was about the size of a large cat, and he expected that a thylacine would have been larger. It is understood that authorities believed the animal was a native cat.
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Lark in the Park for Tassie Tigers
- "Courier Mail 19/08/03 page 7"
"Tasmanian tigers are running wild in parkland 25km from Melbourne's CBD, according to at least 20 sightings reported to the Victorian Government. Freedom of information (FOI) requests revealed 63 possible sightings of Tasmanian Tigers and Big Cats in Victoria, including a Parks Victoria report into multiple tiger sightings in the Warrandyte State Park, in Melbourne's Northeast.
Other repeat sightings of Tasmanian Tigers, Panthers and Pumas since early 1990's centred on Wilsons Promontory National Park, in the Southeast, and the Grampians range, in the West.
Melbourne researcher Michael MOSS, who made the FOI request, said the Government was ignoring strong ancedotal evidence that the tiger was alive and breeding in Victoria. The last known Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacine died in captivity in Hobart in 1936. It is believed to have been extinct on the Australian mainland for 2000 years.
But, Mr. MOSS said several recent sightings were made by credible witnesses, who gave detailed descriptions of the striped marsupial.
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18 May 1999 AUSTRALIA:
Legend which is stronger than reality.
By Michael Moore.
The tiger is dead! The tiger is dead! Or so declares world-renown thylacine expert Dr Eric Guiler, retired zoology professor of the University of Tasmania. It is true that in the 60-plus years since the last Tasmanian tiger died in captivity at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart in 1936, there has been no verifiable scientific proof of any other tigers existing in the wild. It's upon this mountain of non-evidence that Dr Guiler stakes his claim in the tiger's non-existence. There is no person more qualified to make such a declaration than Dr Guiler. It is his more than 40 years of dedicated research of the Tasmanian tiger that has helped turn the tiger into our state's most cherished symbol. The Tasmanian tiger can now be seen everywhere. It is plastered on billboards and beer bottles.
It is a centrepiece of our state's marketing brochures. It's growling, menacing image graces our state's cricket uniforms. It's peeking through the grass on our official government logo. It stands at attention as part of our state seal. Thus, Dr Guiler's assertion that the Tasmanian tiger is no more, no matter how scientifically sound, is meaningless. The legend has outgrown the reality. The mythology has outgrown the biology. Mystery, Just because it is logistically impossible for the fat guy in the red suito fly around the world in a deer-drawn sled and deposit presents under indoor firetraps does not mean there is no Santa Claus. Just because a rabbitdoesn't even lay chocolate eggs, let alone freely distribute them does not mean there is no Easter Bunny (or Easter Bilby for that matter).The Tasmanian tiger is here to stay. The mere lack of scientific evidence will not make it go away. In fact, it is this lack of evidence that makes the Tasmanian tiger. The essence of the tiger lies in its mystery. The tiger is grand and wonderful and iconic because it exists in the vague netherworld of maybe. Nothing can erase a maybe, not even Dr Guiler's learned opinion. There is no verifiable proof that there is a God either, but billions of people grasp to the hope that there is. The Tasmanian tiger lives! He will always live.
It will take nothing more than another overzealous tourist in the hinterlands of the North-West misidentifying an undernourished stray dog to completely douse the flickering notion that there is no tiger. People will ceaselessly believe in the mystique of the Tasmanian tiger. It is far too ingrained in our consciousness now. Dr Guiler understands the tiger's mystique better than anyone does. He has helped to create it. But he hopes that by officially closing his book on the subject he can make people realise that by overly-roanticising the Tasmanian tiger we don't lose sight of the fact that ultimately we are responsible for exterminating it.