While searching the muddy bank of a remote swamp for signs of animals, we came across tracks left by various marsupials. Luckily, we were too busy to follow it up, but this animal is definitely at home on our 40 acres. Its head was not dog-like; it had a short muzzle with pointy ears, a proud stance and kangaroo-like hips. Later, back in Canberra, I came across an illustration of the Tasmanian Tiger, and immediately recognised it as the animal I had observed on my trip. It looked to be Alsatian dog-sized and he saw the familiar dark body stripes of a Thylacine. She saw it a couple of times during the following days. But what made the creature quite distinctive was the dark body with stripes on the sides, not too dissimilar in fact to the pattern of a Thylacine. This is Opit's summarisation of the report: "1964, May, Monday, 5 a.m. Whian Whian State Forest; Clive gave me a very detailed description of the animal observed twice in 1 week. All of these species went extinct millions of years ago except for the Thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf, which persevered into modern times. While it was also out during the day, it was mostly nocturnal and usually hunted at night, in pairs or alone. He says the animal also has short feet like a Tasmanian tiger and shiny hocks, with evidence of striping on the tail. Biologist and wildlife expert Nick Mooney has for years reviewed thylacine accounts and apparent footage and images. The tigers, or thylacines, were. I could tell by its fur. Unlike other cryptids, this creature was definitively proven to exist but was declared extinct when the last known surviving member of the species died in a zoo in 1936. The difference, of course, is that Sasquatch is entirely mythical, while the Tasmanian Tiger was a real marsupial that only went extinct about a hundred years ago. Mr George Skinner, a maintenance painter who was working at Jenolan Caves back in the early 1980s, once told this author that he was driving home from work around 5pm one evening in March 1982. While the unconfirmed sightings may fuel the hopes of some, the thylacine is still widely considered to be extinct. Phil described the animal as having body fur of a burnt colour [ie blacky-brown], with a row of orangey-brown stripes extending barrel-wise from about mid-body to tail rump. . By this time the car was but a few metres from the animal, which just stood there staring at the vehicle, mesmerised by the headlights glare. In November 2017, three investigators including Adrian Richardson, who has been hunting for the Thylacine for 26 years, captured video of what they claim is a Tasmanian tiger in Hobart. Over 7000 to be exact. It occured roughly 30km from the first, some twenty years earlier. The continuing search for the thylacine on the Blue Mountains, NSW. It was making a strange guttural yapping noise as it tried to attack our cats. We came to the Pilliga. 'Tiger' now in baby mystery. The stone missed its mark and the animal, looking up, saw the people and ran at great speed up the slope with a very unusual gait. They said that about five weeks before, on 27th November 1979, while photographing birds at Mount Mondilla, they found paw prints in mud that appeared to match those of the Thylacine. . The animal retreated into bush at the top of a gully.". We also found two unusual sets of tracks. He never saw the animal again even though he drove those same roads for another 2 years. I had my large driving lights on which clearly picked out an animal in front of my car about 2 kms north past the Lennox Head turnoff. "Thylacine sighting: 21/01/21 At approximately 6.00am SA time 2 days ago, a man leaving his home for work froze in awe at what he was seeing in the front part of his property in the Adelaide Hills when he saw . The fur colour was light brown and there were dark stripes on the body that began at the neck base and extended to the tail rump. [chapter title: Thylacines, pp. While they were reported to prey on poultry and sheep, this behaviour is now believed to be largely exaggerated it was also very unlikely to attack humans. At the time, none of my friends believed me and so I took it no further, she said. It was the size of a small dingo but with an elongated, slim body and the hind quarters was more prominent. Plaster casts were made and later matched with others found in Tasmania in 1974 whose peculiar paw structure identified them as thylacine. 01 of 10 ", "2003, Upper Main Arm; bush regenerator Mark had a close observation of a thylacine-like animal at midday and observed its striped back and stiff tail as it stood near the roadside. Furthermore, diseases were introduced which had a significant impact on the Tasmanian tigers population. Weighing approximately 25kg, the Thylacine was around 60cm tall at the shoulder, with a body roughly 115cm long and a 50-65cm long tail. ", "July 2011, 9.30 pm, Falls Road, Nimbin; Ms. Tarang Bates was driving home from Lismore when she saw an animal, covered in grey-fawn fur with dark stripes, unlike anything that she had ever seen before. "We live on a sugar cane farm close to Murwillumbah in North Eastern NSW. The next day the farm owner brought up his rifle but the animal was gone and they never saw it again. "7th January 2006, Saturday, 8.30 am, Drake; Greg worked at the Tenterfield Bowling Club on Friday night and he headed home at 7.45am Saturday morning. Mr Millar said he had seen old pictures of the Tasmanian Tiger, which is believed to be extinct, but the animal he saw was smaller and did not have stripes on its body.". Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 27 March, p. 46. " ", "That month Mr Ron Perry was picnicking with his family in the valley around 3pm one day on the bank of the Cox River Picnic Ground. Two km to the south-west of the Green Frog Caf & general store he and a friend saw in the car headlights an unusual animal cross the road 6 to 12 metres in front of them. A short time after she saw the animal, while talking to her neighbours, she was surprised to find that three of them had also observed an animal of a similar description. Most data was collected from old material. It was obvious that the animal had seen/smelt/heard or sensed my presence and simply vanished. The Thylacinidae family was a diverse group of approximately ten different species of dog-like, carnivorous marsupials. There was white around the muzzle and black around the ears. while I was speechless at what I saw. ground on all fours and had a body about 30cm in depth. ", Source:https://web.archive.org/web/20070607040632/http://www.tasmanian-tiger.com/forum/Forum3/HTML/000012.html, "1992 Ewingsdale; Tony saw a creature on a bright and sunny mid-morning 50 metres away that he was at a total loss to identify. It was dog-like and about the size of a full-grown Alsatian, with fawn coloured body fur and a row of blackish body stripes extending barrel-wise from mid-back to tail-rump. There was very little traffic on the roads. Then she found that the woman that worked in the store had recently observed two of the animals chasing and killing a swamp wallaby near her home just a few kms up the valley. Nick Mooney, Honorary Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, last week said that based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos, the animals were very unlikely to be thylacines. He expected to catch up with the animal with ease because of its disability but was surprised that when it became aware of his cars approach, it raced off along the roadside with incredible speed. About the edge of the swamp I found another set of "tiger" tracks. Rex Gilroy believes so. I ran outside to find my cat facing off with a dog-like creature 4 times its size. We failed to find any other prints hereabouts, yet it is very likely that these mystery marsupial carnivores will return to the area at some stage. He accelerated up to it and observed that its back, rump & tail were covered with dark bands. Potential sightings of the Tasmanian Tiger in Northern Queensland make researchers question whether the species might still exist 80 years after its supposed extinction. It was about 18 inches tall at the shoulders, 4ft in length from head to tail, and it had short body hair of light sandy colour, with a row of dark stripes arranged along the body beginning at the shoulders to the rump of the tail. All of these sightings occurred in a small valley we were crossing during this period of the survey, and on this final occassion I happened to be some distance from the others in the party, setting up some wires, when the others accidentally spooked the creature from a spot nearby where it had apparently been hiding not realizing where I was it came tearing straight at me through the salt bush and blue bush and only veered away at the last minute when it sighted me. Earlier last year, on the road between Ballina and Eltham, just after the Alstonville turnoff, dad and my brother saw something similar. seen by Robyn Simon and Rebecca Jackson could only be a visitor to the, area, until it settles into a new habitat, perhaps with its mate if one is nearby, out on the, Does the Tasmanian tiger still exist? They noticed that another passing motorist also saw it. The Tasmanian tiger, a large striped carnivore, is believed to have gone extinct over 80 years ago - but newly released Australian government documents show sightings have been reported . Rod and I later staked out the site overnight with cameras, in the hope of capturing a tiger on film as it came to drink at the swamp, but failed to see any. Of course, this is primarily due to humans taking over the world. This is Opit's summarisation of the report (in bold): "2003, Wilfred Street, Billinudgel; Sue, owner of the Billinudgel Post Office and the general store, looked into the main street of Billinudgel one morning at 5.30 am and was surprised to see a very unusual animal standing in the middle of the road. It was dog-sized but not thin like a greyhound. Then, the next morning, 9/3/08 at approximately 6.40 a.m., as I was travelling to Murwillumbah on the Terranora road, about 1.5 km from the Bilambil turn off were the road begins to decline, I saw it again. Mr Waters latest video includes a series of interviews with experts ruling out all kinds of animals they could be, one of them the pademelon. ", Source:http://campbelltown-library.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-minto-monster.html. By the 1920s, sightings of the Tasmanian tiger in the wild became extremely rare, and in 1930, a farmer from Mawbanna named Wilfred (Wilf) Batty shot and killed the last-known wild Tasmanian tiger. We observed it for about 10 minutes from between 10 to 20 meters away. There were nine of us in all, and about to sleep when, to our utter astonishment, a creature boldly emerged from bushes and walked up to our campfire remains. The Tasmanian tiger was a carnivorous marsupial found in Australia and New Guinea until its extinction in the 1930s. Whilst travelling east along the Bruxner Highway through the lighter wooded area, coming off the range, about ten minutes west of Drake he had a close view of a strange animal that looked like a thylacine without stripes. Story. ", "That same year a Tasmanian Tiger-like animal, was seen by Mr Bill Forbes [since deceased] after it had just killed one of the goats he bred on his Mt York Road farm.". These were of a chocolaty-brown colourand not very obvious. It had very fluid movements & its body was covered in short hair of a light fawn colour.
