WILDLIFE | ANIMAL EXISTENCE
Sightings of Tasmanian Tigers
They might not be extinct after all
I was excited to hear that there have been several reported sightings of Tasmanian tigers in the recent years. Over 7000 to be exact. This species, also called Thylacine, was declared extinct after the last known specimen died in captivity, in an Australian zoo in 1936.
There are still no DNA samples available to prove the sightings, and the Australian government has been reluctant to investigate it any further. One man, who has spotted the animals himself a couple of times, is working hard to document their existence. Neil Waters started the Thylacine Awareness Group of South Australia (TAGSA) in 2014, and he believes that there are currently at least 1000 Tasmanian tigers on the mainland.
The latest sighting
In an Australian radio interview, Waters recently gave an update on his work in Adelaide. He has been placing over 60 trail-cameras out in the South Australian bush, to try and capture the Tasmanian tigers on film. He thinks there are more sightings of them in that particular area because there’s less bush to hide in, and more open farmland.
He went on to say that the latest reported sighting from South Australia was January 21st, 2021. Three years earlier, a woman told her husband that she had seen one, and he had just giggled over it. But now her husband had to admit she was right. On his way to work, he spotted a female Tasmanian tiger with two cubs (or joeys, as they’re often called) playing by her side. It was in the very same spot where his wife had seen one three years earlier.
Other sightings
In the 1980s, a busload of tourists in Western Australia all saw the animal at close range in broad daylight, whilst on a wildflower tour.
Waters has published many testimonials of sightings on the TAGSA website. One witness report from June 2020, was by a couple living on a sugar cane farm in Northern New South Wales. They claim to have seen Tasmanian tigers several times during recent years:
“Over the last few years, my husband and I have both seen what we believe to be a thylacine…The most recent time, about 12 or 18 months ago…my husband saw it quite clearly, only a few metres away. He described it to me as not being quite the same shape as a dog or dingo, fairly light brown, with stripes on its back. I showed him a photo online, and he said “That’s it. It looked just like that”…After telling our family one day, our daughter and son-in-law said they also believed they had seen the same animal crossing the road, in the same area one evening… Also, on some evenings we hear an unusual sound from the same general area…when I looked up the sound a thylacine makes, it was identical to one we found on YouTube.”
The hope of getting DNA
There’s good hope of getting DNA proof that Tasmanian tigers still exist in their original form if that’s what it takes for people to believe it. A cob of the specimen was preserved in alcohol in 1866. Alcohol does not destroy DNA, so all that needs to be done is to catch one in the wild for comparison.
Thousands of years ago, there used to be a land bridge from Tasmania to the Australian mainland. The Tasmanian tiger didn’t originate in mainland Australia. It must have walked over the land bridge on its own at one point in history.
Sometimes “extinct” animals show up again — live and well. I hope the Tasmanian tiger is one of them. They are not dogs or dingos. They have pouches, like kangaroos, and can even bounce like them. Once upon a time, they were causing trouble for settlers. Tasmanian Tigers were killing sheep and chickens, and farmers were hunting them without scruples. Suddenly there was no one left. Not even in zoos. I, for one, will be waiting in excitement for any upcoming high-resolution pictures of the Tasmanian Tigers.
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