1936 TO PRESENT
(continued)
.
| Thousands
of kilometres were surveyed by a group of highly proficient amateurs through
the years of 1968-1972 in one of the most comprehensive searches to date.
Since only a short description of this effort has been provided by Griffith
(1972), here will be cited further details from an unpublished report (Griffith,
et.
al. 1972). Jeremy Griffith arrived in Tasmania, unsponsored,
in 1967. He explored areas of the island's northwest and southwest
regions. He was joined by James Malley in March 1968, who had been
researching reports of thylacines over the past ten years. They conducted
an examination of the White
River "lair" site, crossed over the Arthur River to the Balfour
Plains that December, and searched the northwest coast to the Pieman River
in February of the following year.
Additional trips were
made from December 1970 to February 1971. During the first nineteen
days, they averaged around five hours of tracking per day, driving 3,360
km. The area that had been searched by the Fleay expedition was checked,
but yielded nothing. The land was thoroughly snared, and an even
more potent poison, 1080
(sodium monofluoroacetate), was now in use. The only sizable,
unspoiled area of land was to the southwest from Macquarie Harbour to Point
Davey. Subsequently, in December 1970, Griffith and Malley flew into
this region with Peter Simms' expedition searching for Aboriginal carvings.
They explored down to Moore's Valley and Birch's Inlet, scoured the beaches
thoroughly, and eventually were transported back to civilization on a passing
fishing boat. Upon hearing of the tracks found at Beulah in May 1971,
Griffith quickly flew back to Tasmania, but found the prints too indistinct
to make a positive identification. He and Malley explored the Fingal
area and accumulated a record of 40 sightings from the previous ten years.
The thylacine research of Griffith and Malley was frequently impeded by
requirements of their regular occupations as well as by the need to secure
funding. They were joined in 1972 by a medical doctor, Robert Brown,
and a centre was established for the purpose of gathering sightings from
the public. From northwestern Tasmania alone came a total of 82 reports. |
.
| A
thylacine at London's Regent's Park Zoo, circa 1903. Thylacines often
use this upright stance to gain a better view of their surroundings. |
|
A previous system of
trail monitoring which used a caged fowl decoy and an automatic camera
had proved impractical. The two investigators were now assisted by
Trevor Briggs, who built six tracking pads which, when triggered by a trap
line set too high to be within reach of a Tasmanian devil, would relay
a radio signal through a television station to the group's receiver.
.
| These
thylacines (a mother and her three young) lived at the Hobart Zoo (Beaumaris
site). The adult is standing at centre. This photograph was
taken in 1910, and was included in a Beaumaris Zoo brochure which was issued
that year. This is the same group of individuals that are shown here
when slightly younger (in 1909). The above photo appeared again in
a publication produced by the zoo in 1915. |
|
Griffith traveled an average of 800 km per week through the months of July-December
1972, but despite thoroughly investigating all areas where reasonable sightings
had been reported, he obtained no results. The King William Range,
The Florentine Valley, and the Hartz Mountains were the only potential
areas of possible thylacine habitation not explored by the end of the five
year search. |
| Griffith
and Brown became completely disillusioned about the possibility of the
species' continued existence.
However, Malley took
a more optimistic view. He claimed:
"The Tiger...is
not extinct...The only evidence I can produce to back this claim is 20
photographs of indistinct footprints found after the sighting of a Tiger
at Beulah in May 1971. These tracks were definitely those of a Tiger.
However they were not distinct enough for anyone who was not thoroughly
familiar with animal pads to recognize as such. A plaster cast taken
at Mawbanna in August 1961 is definitely that of a Tiger. In recent
years many clear sightings have been made by people whom I know personally.
I have no doubts of any sort in their sincerity and honesty. The majority
of recent sightings have been in three areas of the State - the central
East Coast, the Northern part of the Arthur River Basin, and the northern
edge of the Central Plateau" (Griffith el. al. 1972). |
.
| A
bronze sculpture of a group of thylacines at the city library of Launceston,
Tasmania. |
|
The files produced by
the team are now kept in the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, under
the management of the curator of vertebrates. Smith (1982) mentions
that in a personal, written communication received from James Malley (2
February 1973), he speaks of a sighting 16 km north of Sandy Cape.
In this instance, there were some indistinct photographs, but included
was a sketch of some tracks which were "spot on in every detail".
Malley also stated: "In figures of sightings I have received virtually
hundreds, 70 to 80% you can't discredit in any way". |
