In 1961, Charles Ruben made some plaster castings of tracks found at Mawbanna which were described by Griffith et. al. (1972) as "impressive but not indisputable".  In August of the same year, two fishermen, Bill Morrison and Laurie Thompson, were camped at Sandy Cape when they heard an animal attempting to obtain their basket of bait one night.  Thomson bludgeoned the animal with a stick, and allegedly found a young thylacine dead outside the following morning.  However, the body had disappeared by the time they returned to the camp the following evening (Grzimek 1967, Guiler 1966).

    Nevertheless, the report did encourage the Government to provide $2000 for a new expedition headed by Eric Guiler.  The expedition set 700 snares along a 16 km line at Green's Creek in the Sandy Cape area, and a further 800 snares at the northwest property of Woolworth, which had been the scene of a number of supposed sightings, tracks and scats (droppings) since 1956.  Lastly, a trapping program was begun in 1964 near Balfour.  All three of the programs were unsuccessful (Guiler 1966).

    A Mr. Blacklow found footprints at Ormley, and subsequent investigations revealed a lair, but the footprints proved to be those of a wombat (Griffith et. al. 1972).
 

. Researcher Jeremy Griffith examining an old boiler which is thought to have been the lair of a thylacine.

Another lair was found in 1966 in an abandoned boiler unit on the White River near Mawbanna.  The following year, Guiler placed a camera equipped with an electronic eye trigger, and also set up a large trap, but obtained no results.  The footprints in the vicinity, in fact, had been found by a witness who was afterward unable to make a distinction between wombat and thylacine tracks.  A sample of hair obtained from the site in 1967 was identified by Hans Brunner as "definitely not that of a thylacine" (Griffith et al.1972).

. .

Wombat tracks are frequently confused with those of the thylacine, most likely simply due to their large size.  However, upon examination of this diagram, one can easily observe the prominent differences in form, especially in regard to the shape of the large plantar pad and positioning of the toes.  Also, wombat tracks usually bear strong claw marks which are quite long, as this is an animal which is adapted to burrowing.  All of the tracks shown above are in an optimum condition of preservation, which would only occur if the animal had stepped in soft mud, and the track had not yet degraded from the effects of weather.  In most cases, tracks would certainly not be in the readily identifiable state as shown here, and it would be far harder to make a determination of their origin.  In instances of hard ground or dry sand, very little if any impression would be left at all.  Ground conditions must be quite favorable in order for a clear, easily identifiable track to be created.     (Diagram based upon an identification poster by the Griffith-Malley-Brown team.)     At right are some illustrations of various views of the right hand (manus) of the thylacine.  As can readily be observed, it is not actually very similar in design to that of a dog.  It has a well represented thumb, even though it is elevated slightly higher than the other digits, and only lightly contacts the ground in most instances.  In dogs and other canids, the thumb has become merely vestigial, is elevated much higher from the other digits, and is called a "dew claw".

. Drawings of the right hand (manus) of Thylacinus. (A) ventral view with digits spread, (B) the same with digits not spread, (C) the same from the inner side.  Note the retention of the small yet functional pollex (thumb).