Thylacine - Tasmanian Wolf-Tiger
Cryptozoologists Have Studied This Carnivorous Marsupial
Apr 23, 2007
Jerome Clark, Unexplained! (Visible Ink Press, 1999) and Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark, Cryptozoology* A to Z (Fireside, 1999) wrote about this animal that really existed, but it is believed that the last one, Benjamin, died on September 7, 1936 at the Hobart Domain Zoo in Tasmania. It is not to be confused with the Queensland Tiger.
It looked like a crossbred wolf, tiger, hyena and fox. The male was about the size of a large dog, with a canine head and stripes on the body beginning about in the middle of the back and reaching the tail. Females were a bit smaller and had a pouch that faced its rump.
The thylacine was considered a threat to livestock and a bounty was paid for each one that was killed. By the time the animal was put on an endangered list, it was too late.
Search for Tasmanian Cryptid, the Thylacine and Sightings
About a year after Benjamin’s death, two investigators were sent into the mountains of Tasmania to find out if any survived. They had reports of sightings of the animal but no physical evidence it existed. In 1938, members of another expedition found a thylacine’s footprints.
In 1957, zoologist Eric R. Guiler went to Broadmarsh where a mysterious animal killed some sheep. He found thylacine tracks. Future expeditions of his produced evidence that the animal was not extinct, but no physical evidence.
In 1964, Rille Martin, a woman from Melbourne, took a picture of what appeared to be a thylacine near Goroke in Victoria. It was during the day and the striped large animal has the features of the thylacine. There was no evidence that the picture was fake.
In 1968, a Tiger Center was founded to record reports of sightings. In the late 1970s, the World Wildlife Fund, WWF, of Australia had a project that set up cameras where thylacines were sighted to try to capture the animal on film. There were pictures of nine species of animals, mostly the Tasmanian Devil, but none of a thylacine.
In 1981, aborigine tracker Kevin Cameron was hired to investigate thylacine sightings. In 1985, he showed people colored pictures of a thylacine and casts of the animal’s footprints. There was a debate over the authenticity of the pictures.
In 1982, a NPWS ranger saw a thylacine about 20 feet from his car. He described it as an adult male who appeared to be in excellent health.
Reports of sightings continue to be made from the sparsely inhabited areas of Tasmania, New Guinea, Iran Jaya and Australia.
The debate as to whether or not the thylacine exists continues.
One of the strangest reports of a sighting happened at 3:08 AM on April 7, 1974. Joan Gilbert saw a striped animal that looked like a crossbred can and dog in the light of her car’s headlamps. It appeared to be grey, had a stiff tail, ears like a cat’s and was the size of a medium dog. She knew it was not a fox. She went to the library to do research on the strange animal and learned about the thylacine. This sighting happened in Bournemouth, England.
