The alternative position in the source debate and until recently the generally accepted view, was that the Beaumaris Zoo (QD) acquired Benjamin in May 1934 from timber cutter and trapper Elias Churchill; the animal having been snared, like the Mullins family group, in the Florentine Valley.

    The well-known journalist and naturalist Michael Sharland credited Churchill as the captor of the last thylacine at the zoo.  Bob Paddle (2000), in his book "The Last Tasmanian Tiger", concurs and cites two eyewitness accounts to support Churchill as the captor: 

    "In an unpublished letter to the Director of the Tasmanian Museum, Algie Chaplin (31/8/1954) suggested that 'twenty years ago one was captured in the fields by Churchill'.  In another unpublished letter the 80-year-old V. Stanfield recalled: 'The last Tiger to be caught in Tasmania was away up behind Fitzgerald Tyenna way by a Mr. Churchill (31/8/1981)'.

    Michael Sharland, in an interview with Churchill published in the People of the 3rd April 1957 (pp. 25-26), states:

   "Of the eight tigers Churchill has trapped - he has seen many more - only two were taken alive.  The others were either strangled or injured badly enough to necessitate destroying them on the spot.  Churchill believes that the eight he caught blundered into his snares, as they normally kept away from human camps and one of those taken alive was a doe with three young in her pouch.  Before ending up in the zoo this animal with two pups - the third died - brought in a bit of cash by being exhibited at country shows and carnivals in Tasmania between 1925 and 1926.  People flocked to see it, for even then the tiger was something of a novelty outside its true environment.  All the tigers taken by Churchill were caught in the vicinity of the Gordon River or within sight of the great valleys cut through the western ranges by the stream on its course to the Macquarie Harbour.  Four were taken in the Florentine Valley, separated from the Gordon by a high range, and one each in the Rasselas Valley, on Mt. Bowes, the Needles, and at the top end of the South Gordon track.  He believes there are still tigers in that area".

   It is believed that Benjamin was caught about 3 miles from Churchill's hut in the Florentine Valley.  To follow is Sharland's interview with Churchill describing his account of the capture (People, 3rd April 1957, pp. 25-26):

    (Churchill): 'He was caught by the foot, and I could see it was a nice specimen, so decided to get him for the zoo.  As the animal didn't show much fight, I set about taking it out the snare.  First, I got it close to the stringer - the green springy stick to which the snare is attached - then, as its mouth was open, I dropped a loose snare between its teeth.  As it bit on this I swung the snare around its snout, pulling tight and knotting it, making it impossible for the animal to open its jaws.  While it was thus strung up, I managed to tie its legs together with another snarer, and in a few minutes had it nicely trussed up, so it couldn't bite me.  Strangely enough, it was docile most of the time.  It didn't seem to have any spirit at all.  I slung it around my neck and carried it back to camp.  It weighed the best part of 40lb'.

    Sharland continues:

    "Before building a kind of pigsty from the trunks of trees about his camp, Churchill put the tiger on a dog chain in his hut, untying the cords that bound it.  At once it sprang the length of the chain, struggling and scattering everything within reach.

    (Churchill): 'It was sulky.  When tied up it didn't move.  I thought often something was wrong with it and went over to it and remarked to myself, 'You so-and-so, you're dead'.  But it wasn't; it just glared at me sullenly.  When released in the pigsty enclosure outside the hut it made little effort to escape, merely encircling the enclosure, looking for an aperture in the logs.  For hours on end it kept pacing around the fence, a habit also noted later when it was in the zoo'.

. Elias Churchill, circa 1965.  Photo courtesy: Col Bailey.

When Churchill had it confined it refused to eat and, believing it might fret and die, Churchill had to work out some way of getting it to take food.  It ignored dead or living wallaby, but ultimately it was persuaded to eat by having the smell of blood from a freshly killed wallaby put beneath its nose.         (Churchill): 'And when it did begin, it didn't stop till everything, including bones, was gone.  I knew it was alright then'.     The tiger, after being trussed up again, was taken to Tyenna on the back of a pack horse, and arrived in good condition at the Hobart Zoo".     Author and thylacine researcher Col Bailey conducted the last known interview with Churchill in 1969.  When questioned about his recollections of the last tiger he caught, Churchill confirmed that the capture was made in the Florentine Valley:

    "I reckon the last one I caught was out in the Florentine alongside the Tiger Range in the early 1930s.  I sent that one through on the train to Hobart Zoo as well".