The hunt goes on for mysterious thylacine
IF you were to take as read that the thylacine (dog-headed pouched one) or Tasmanian Tiger is extinct, you could, I believe, be missing a trick and as I commented last week, this is not your average abominable snowman-type species here, this wonderful creature actually existed.
Take this and believe at your peril from my first dive into Google. lagunta, it was first described by explorers in the 17th century as a tiger-like beast or hyena-dog creature and in later years it would be the focus of intense scientific scrutiny.
It was eventually officially described by science in 1808 as Didelphis cynocephala, or ‘zebra-wolf’, before later being categorized by its modern taxonomy in 1824 by Dutch ornithologist and zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck.
It is said that the thylacine disappeared from the mainland and New Guinea long before British colonisation began in the early 1800s.
This was possibly due to competition from humans – there was a bounty on its head from sheep farmers – and also for food from the introduced dingoes.
Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s period the thylacine’s numbers dramatically dwindled until the last-known living specimen died at the Hobart Zoo in September of 1936.
Although this was the last confirmed living specimen of the Tasmanian tiger, it has long been thought to have survived well past this date and there have been unconfirmed sightings of the creatures ever since, all the way up to the present day.
Indeed, possible surviving specimens of the thylacine have become a sort of a Holy Grail in the world of cryptozoology.
It has become almost legendary in its reputation as a highly sought after potentially surviving extinct animal, consuming numerous groups and researchers devoted to finding them, who have scoured the wilds obsessively looking for one and spent a fortune in the process.
Although there have been numerous alleged sightings of thylacines, physical or photographic evidence has been harder to come across, but not non-existent.
However, just as with more well-known cryptids such as Bigfoot, this evidence can often be controversial and debated to say the least, with physical evidence deemed circumstantial and photographic evidence often blurry or indistinct.
Some of the more intriguing pieces of evidence put forward for the potential survival of the thylacine are the occasional pieces of video footage that have been offered.
One of the earlier and most famous of these was a clip taken in 1973 by a couple named Liz and Gary Doyle while they were staying at a camp ground on the mainland in South Australia.
The footage seems to show a quadrupedal dog-like creature run through the camp ground, which appears similar to a thylacine in both appearance, such as shape, general body proportions and apparent striping, as well as its posture and unusual movements.
For my money, the Doyle’s footage does not show a dog-headed pouched one.
Check out the footage yourselves on Google and let me know what you think.
The picture of a captive animal shows the enormous gape of the creature, like nothing else.
Fingers crossed here for a definitive sighting soon.