Tassie tiger hunter in for the long haul
A TASMANIAN tiger hunter says he is prepared to camp out in the bush for a couple of years to capture proof that the thylacine still roams Australia’s island state.
It is now 83 years since the Tasmanian tiger was reported to have become extinct with the death of the last animal in captivity in a Hobart zoo. But Neil Waters says there is “unofficial word” there could be up to 100 breeding pairs out there — and he is determined to capture at least one on the hitech equipment he has set up in a remote part of Tasmania’s North-East.
“That would make them critically endangered, not functionally extinct as they are described,” the amateur researcher said from the South Mt Cameron area this week. This is a long-term project and I am prepared to give it a couple of years — or until my finances fun out. My dream is to prove the thylacine is alive and well and have a management plan put in place to ensure their continued survival.”
The worst case scenario, he said, would be for another sad animal to be captured and put in a cage for tourists to snap photos with.
Mr Waters has been investing time and money into his research for five years.
He has received hundreds of reports of a striped animal that fits the description of a thylacine, from people both here and on the mainland.
“There were rumours the Tasmanian tiger was taken to the mainland, but there is nothing to support those rumours. But the hundreds of people who have reported sightings cannot all be wrong.”
Mr Waters is not the first to try to capture photographic evidence of the Tasmanian tiger’s survival.
One man, Greg Booth, released photos of what he said was a thylacine in 2017, and said he had a face-to-face encounter with one.
Mr Waters bought a property in Tasmania’s NorthEast nine years ago. He claims to have seen a Tasmanian tiger there in 2010 and another in 2014.
“That inspired me to investigate further. I am confident I am onto something and have the technology to prove it,” he said.
But how can he convince people that the images he captures are not be doctored?
“All images will be stored on SD cards that came out of cameras and coded to those cameras,” he said.
“I have nothing to gain from faking anything. I don’t want to prove a fallacy.”
Mr Waters has formed the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia — a registered incorporated body with 7300 members — for people to share their sighting experiences. He also is on a membership drive and is looking for sponsors for the 30 trail cameras he has purchased to back up his quest.
TAGOA has produced a documentary, Living The Thylacine Dream, which is available on Vimeo.