Is it possible that a Tasmanian tiger
could be alive and living in the NSW Northern Rivers?
Although studies have indicated the thylacine's extinction from the mainland for
over 2000 years, sightings of the animal are regularly reported from around the
country, including the Northern Rivers where around 70 records have been
received by ABC North Coast radio Wildlife Wednesday host Gary Opit.
While scientists
keep the nation’s hopes up by conceding the difficulties of identifying a nocturnal animal
in dense bushland at night, the question remains, with so many mobile phones
and camera across the continent why have the numerous sightings not yet
included irrefutable evidence of the tiger's existence?
While photographs can be readily
questioned, there is in fact a video from Queensland on line, which must at
least raise the question - if that isn't some type of injured dog, what else
could the creature possibly be? ( http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/new-hunt-for-tasmanian-tigers-after-reported-sightings-inqueensland/news-story/675d325c9eaa86fbba6757a323a0f73e )
Together with
numerous other sighting reports from Queensland, this brief footage has raised
sufficient interest to send a team of researchers from the James Cook
University into the remote north to try to track the animal down
Meanwhile other scientists maintain
an open mind, and in Tasmania, where the last known Australian tiger died in
the Hobart Beaumaris Zoo in 1936, thylacine
researcher Colin Bailey believes the marsupial could still exist in that State,
despite the more than 400 cameras set up around the forests at any one
time.
Mr Bailey does though brush off the numerous sightings from the mainland
as wishful thinking. And Tasmanian wildlife biologist Nick Mooney agrees with
him, suggesting the many mainland sightings are proof only of Australia's
addiction to new mobile technology.
In South Australia,
SA Water is using new technology that identifies organisms that have been in
contact with the State’s water, including thylacines, to analyse DNA from
droppings thought to possibly have come from a Tasmanian tiger.
In Western
Australia the Nannup community is so familiar with the animal that they hold an
annual thylacine festival, which this year involved the launch of a manuscript Living
the Thylacine Dream, by South Australian thylacine enthusiast Neil Waters
documenting the many sightings in WA
In the
Northern Rivers the most recent report, like many of the others, mentions an
unfamiliar animal with a distinctive lumbering gait. This perfectly matches the
image of the lumbering animal in the Queensland video, which appears to be using
both hind legs together, almost as if on the way to evolving to hop.
In the
meantime, with no news yet from the James Cook research team who were due to
end their studies this month, it still must be admitted that the odds are
heavily against a genuine true-blue thylacine ever turning up again.
But it
would be very exciting to be wrong.
Patricia
Edwards
(Nov 2017)
