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Occasionally, it is suggested that the thylacine is not actually extinct
on the Australian mainland. This is often met with a certain amount
of scepticism, as many members of the scientific community firmly believe
that Tasmania is the only place where the species has existed within historical
times. However, folklore regarding the "Wild dog" and "Tiger" is
to be found throughout the continent's rural areas. These stories
are likely reinforced by sightings, under unusual lighting conditions,
of feral dogs which bear aberrant patterns of colouration or mange.
"Tiger" reports have come from northern Queensland for decades. The
subject of the "Queensland Tiger" has been reviewed in detail by
Troughton (1967) and Heuvelmans (1962), with additional data provided by
Anon (1969), and Makeig (1970). These reports will not be covered
further here, since virtually all of them describe the animal as being
"cat-like", i.e. having a short face as opposed to an elongated one.
The footprint (from Cardwell) described by Scott (1872) differs from that
of any known species of Australian predator.
In January of 1973 however,
the press reported two sightings of a striped, dog-like animal in the Longland
Gap region of the Atherton Tableland (Anon. 1973a,b). Dr. J. Winter
made inquiries about the creature, bringing the number of reported sightings
up to four, all falling between December 1972, and mid-January 1973.
No more than one mile separated the furthest sightings. The descriptions
given of the animal were detailed and unvarying, and fitted the thylacine
quite well. One of the sightings occurred early in the morning, which
suggests that the stripes seen were not merely the result of dimmed lighting.
| A
selection of stills from a 6-second piece of motion film footage taken
in South Australia in 1973. Could the animal shown here running across
a road possibly be a thylacine? When examined closely, the film is
indeed intriguing. However, one must not quickly jump to conclusions
regarding rather blurry, nondescript images such as these. It is
believed by some that the animal is simply a fox which has lost much of
the fur on its tail, perhaps due to mange. Still, this may possibly
be one of the strongest pieces of physical evidence yet produced to suggest
that the thylacine exists on the Australian mainland. An MPEG file
of the complete film sequence can be downloaded here.
The file is 1.35 MB in size, and can be played in Windows Media Player
or other media player of your choice. |
In South Australia in
1973, Liz and Gary Doyle briefly captured a rather fascinating image on
motion film. It shows a yellow brown, dog-shaped animal running in
a manner which appears to be suggestive of the thylacine. Opinions
on the true identity of the animal vary. Some feel that it is merely
a European fox (a species which was introduced to Australia by settlers
during colonial times and has now become naturalized) which has lost much
of the fur on its tail either due to mange or molting. Others suggest
that it may be a dog. Despite performing a comprehensive analysis
of the film frame-by-frame, I myself remain unable to form any solid opinion
of it as of yet. The image quality is simply too poor, and the motion
too unsteady, to perceive any distinguishing physical features that would
conclusively identify the animal as a thylacine. However, the manner
in which the animal runs is indeed quite interesting, and in several frames,
stripes appear to be vaguely visible on the hindquarters.
In a personal e-mail
communication on 5 October 2005, the author of the online publication
"Magnificent
Survivor - Continued Existence of the Tasmanian Tiger", comments:
"The physical dimensions of the animal shown in the Doyles' footage
are not consistent with a fox or dog - particularly the back legs, which
look identical to those of the thylacine. The animal also appears
to be bigger than a fox, and the tail seems to be longer and certainly
straighter than that of a fox or dog. When running, most of the animal's
driving force comes from the back legs, and some of the stills show it
in a stance like that of a kangaroo. It is fairly simple to identify
a hoaxed thylacine image, but I can't see anything in this film to suggest
it is a hoax. The footage seems convincing to me - consistent with
the running juvenile thylacine I saw in 2002, and there was no uncertainty
in that case. The juvenile that I witnessed also ran primarily using
the power of the back legs, and appeared to grab and pull at the ground
with its front feet." |
