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Thylacines (Post-1936 Sightings)

Sorry, is it a SINGing or a SIGNing dog? I haven't heard of them and would like to look them up.
 
oldrover said:
I want someone to say that they think they've seen a live Mekosuchus from New Caledonia, or one of those big armoured land turtles who's names I've given up trying to remember. Even though I have one on my screen wallpaper. I'd suspend disbelief for either of those.

I'd love to see a giant Indo-Pacific croc too. Not that fused on giant monitors though, I don't think nature could improve on a perentie. Unless it was a giant perentie.
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Meiolania platyceps
 
Just a little heads up tonight in the UK at 2300hrs on Animal Planet 'Extinct or Alive? - The Tasmanian Tiger', this l believe was the program that had the facts that were incorrect regarding the time scale regarding Tigers in the wild, so for those who did not manage to catch it last time around can do so this time, and maybe share a few thoughts.
 
I don't have Sky, so I couldn't watch the programme, I'm sorry to say. Did it prompt any further thoughts Andy?
 
No not really, just not very well researched l felt.

An altogether better informed programme on the 31/11/16 on National Geographic Wild was a programme called 'Wild X Files' and a section of the programme entitled 'Tasmanian Tiger Terror', this centred on Inverloch, Victoria and the recent sightings, a few witnesses claiming that they saw ( and they described the Tiger perfectly) and they seemed very credible witnesses ( one being an ex army soldier l believe) - like they knew what they were seeing, the next segment of the programme was devoted to Murray Mcallister ( what do forum members think of him?) and his quest for conclusive proof ,showing his videos of an alleged Tigers, also focussing on the large amount of Kangaroo beheadings in and around Inverloch.

Enjoyed this programme, did make me think why would these eye witnesses come on TV if they did not believe in what they had seen, oh well food for thought.
 
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Hello to everyone who posts here. I have been reading this forum for awhile now, you guys and gals find some interesting stuff to read. So I decided to post something I thought you might like.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...e_M5VoopOrGSuWr9A&sig2=AEAYHbMsUjJ02ERr3TvU6w

I also told the thylacine awareness group about this. They were kind enough to reply but didn't think there were any leeches in the area they were searching, an internet search shows that there are leeches in Australia and Tasmania. I hope someone tries this since I am in the USA can't do it myself.
 
Oh by the way you can watch extinct or alive on youtube for $1.99.
 
krissy97 said:
Hello to everyone who posts here. I have been reading this forum for awhile now, you guys and gals find some interesting stuff to read. So I decided to post something I thought you might like.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjV3J6s6ZLQAhUn6YMKHeZbBVcQFggdMAA&url=https://www.tasmaniangeographic.com/applied-cryptozoology-using-leeches-to-locate-the-thylacine/&usg=AFQjCNHHlu9cb6lF2e_M5VoopOrGSuWr9A&sig2=AEAYHbMsUjJ02ERr3TvU6w

I also told the thylacine awareness group about this. They were kind enough to reply but didn't think there were any leeches in the area they were searching, an internet search shows that there are leeches in Australia and Tasmania. I hope someone tries this since I am in the USA can't do it myself.
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Hi Krissy and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for posting the link. I'd never heard Tasmanian Geographic before. It seems that it's an outlet open to anyone who wants to publish their ideas. I'll have a good look through it.

There's another technique now available called 'Environmental DNA' sampling.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714004443

I've got a feeling that this may well be used in Tasmania before long, not to look for thylacines, but for foxes.

There's been a more traditional scat field study here, with worrying results.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12011/full

So who knows what might turn up. In any case, this sort of study is the sole preserve of an institution which'd have the skills, knowledge and funds to ensure it was done properly.

The Thylacine Awareness Group is, I'm sorry to say, a joke. Essentially, it's a Facebook page, with a link to a crowd funding site. There's not a single researcher in this area who takes Waters seriously. It's easy to see why too. His first video was fox like, and didn't look anything like a tiger. His second, clearer video is unambiguously a fox. It's obvious to anyone with any knowledge of the thylacine that it's not a tiger, and has been conclusively demonstrated to be a canid, beyond any doubt.

To get round this, they've claimed that it's a mainland sub species. And even that the Western Australian Museum, and a palaeontologist who'd been part of the Naracoorte Caves excavations had confirmed this to him.

I E-mailed the WA Museum to ask them if they were aware of any of this, and guess what? They weren't. Stating that neither the museum or any of its staff had publicly supported or endorsed any of his claims.

As for any other source for his mainland 'sub-species', all recovered Pleistocene and Holocene thylacine remains (of which there are plenty) are ascribed to Thylacinus cynocephalus. The only outlier, and it's Pliocene in any case, is a fragment from Papua New Guinea, which is described as being very similar to T cynocephalus.

There is quite a size difference noted in the thylacine throughout its former range, but nothing that shows the sort of morphological variation Waters is claiming. Another point, is that the FB page is quite heavily edited, at least one person who really does know their subject, has had their posts removed and been blocked. Although, they made no argument against Waters. Mike Archer has also appeared on the page and torn Waters to shreds.

Trouble is, Waters is playing the same game as many shysters, people believe him because they want to. He and pseudo researchers like him, offer hope where there really is none. It's no wonder people seize it.

I'd advise caution when selecting sources. Have you come across this site yet?

http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/

It's curator is a believer in the tiger's continued existence, but it's the best place on the internet to get facts about the thylacine.
 
Welcome Krissy!

That's another great post OR.

To justify his videos as being mainland sup-species was poor form, to say the least. Those were clearly 100% foxes. The other day he got excited about a foot print which was clearly a canid's.
There is one decent field searcher on the group though, i hope you will recognise him, he is pretty active.

It's a bit of a shame there isn't much discussion going in the other fb Thylacine groups.
 
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Cheers Vince. Yes, Waters is acting like a twit over there. So, he has a new video? This must be four of five. And he's actually charging people to see it?

I have seen a few good posters over there at times, but I haven't read much for a while I'll have a look out now and see.
 
Got him. Beast of Buderim was a mangy fox, yes?

I'm reading it now, and he thinks he's got a thylacoleo print.
 
The person i'm talking about posted a great pic of Eric Guiler on the 31st October, he seems always fair in his analysis, has a lots of bush experience and basically agreed the 2 videos were foxes.
 
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Thanks for welcoming me, I could tell from the posts that the people here were friendly.

Yes I watched extinct or alive Andy. I thought it was only OK. They didn't follow up on the bones found in the cave. What animal did it belong to? Seems like you should have answered that question.

Are you a researcher OR? Because boy did you give me a lot of stuff to read. eDNA I think I have read something about it before, but not as much information as that site. I think it will have great uses in the future of wildlife conservation.

I was skeptical about the thylacine awareness group anyway. The videos were terrible and Waters said he saw a thylacine in Tasmania but he searches the mainland instead, doesn't make sense.

I am curious about what everyone here thinks about 1080 poison. I understand an invasive species is bad (foxes) but isn't poison potentially dangerous to native species to? Just seems there has to be a better way, because I am still crossing my fingers that the thylacine is still out there and I don't want them to kill it.
 
krissy97 said:
Hello to everyone who posts here. I have been reading this forum for awhile now, you guys and gals find some interesting stuff to read. So I decided to post something I thought you might like.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjV3J6s6ZLQAhUn6YMKHeZbBVcQFggdMAA&url=https://www.tasmaniangeographic.com/applied-cryptozoology-using-leeches-to-locate-the-thylacine/&usg=AFQjCNHHlu9cb6lF2e_M5VoopOrGSuWr9A&sig2=AEAYHbMsUjJ02ERr3TvU6w

I also told the thylacine awareness group about this. They were kind enough to reply but didn't think there were any leeches in the area they were searching, an internet search shows that there are leeches in Australia and Tasmania. I hope someone tries this since I am in the USA can't do it myself.
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G'day Krissy - welcome.

There's tonnes of the bastards down here - just about any waterway you'll find'em, also wet schlerophyl forests are a good source.

A damn good idea about sourcing and detecting the Tassie Tiger I reckon Krissy.
 
krissy97 said:
Thanks for welcoming me, I could tell from the posts that the people here were friendly.

Yes I watched extinct or alive Andy. I thought it was only OK. They didn't follow up on the bones found in the cave. What animal did it belong to? Seems like you should have answered that question.

Are you a researcher OR? Because boy did you give me a lot of stuff to read. eDNA I think I have read something about it before, but not as much information as that site. I think it will have great uses in the future of wildlife conservation.

I was skeptical about the thylacine awareness group anyway. The videos were terrible and Waters said he saw a thylacine in Tasmania but he searches the mainland instead, doesn't make sense.

I am curious about what everyone here thinks about 1080 poison. I understand an invasive species is bad (foxes) but isn't poison potentially dangerous to native species to? Just seems there has to be a better way, because I am still crossing my fingers that the thylacine is still out there and I don't want them to kill it.
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It is a friendly atmosphere here.

No Krissy, I'm not a researcher, just an interested amateur.

Personally, I can't get behind the idea of 1080. But this isn't a subject I know much about. As far as I'm aware there's no aerial poisoning in Tasmania, but it is used. Obviously invasive species are an absolute disaster in Australia. Cats, dogs, foxes, pigs, goats, cane toads the list goes on. So something needs to be done. It's hard to see a shooting program being effective, but at the same time it's hard not be concerned about 1080 finding it's way into native species.

Even if it doesn't get into them directly, how quickly does it disperse after death of a target species, which may then be scavenged by either quolls, and in Tasmania devils too.
 
I found this interview on a radio talk show. Now it's not so much the interview the guy makes some wild claims but where did the talk show host get a sound recording of a thylacine. From everything I have read there were no sound recordings made.

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/41lazj/tassie_man_claims_thylacine_still_exists/

The host also says he played the sound the day before also but I couldn't find that show either. Maybe you guys will have better luck tracking the source of the sound. That said I guess it could be described as a cough bark.
 
Hmm, he said it was "apparently" a thylacine recording so I am guessing it was made post 1936 otherwise we would know for sure? It could be anything really as many animals make that sort of barking sound. My budgerigar did not have any ancestral memories of the sound and just carried on preening unconcernedly!
 
krissy97 said:
I found this interview on a radio talk show. Now it's not so much the interview the guy makes some wild claims but where did the talk show host get a sound recording of a thylacine. From everything I have read there were no sound recordings made.

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/41lazj/tassie_man_claims_thylacine_still_exists/

The host also says he played the sound the day before also but I couldn't find that show either. Maybe you guys will have better luck tracking the source of the sound. That said I guess it could be described as a cough bark.
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As above. There are no authenticated recordings of thylacine vocalisations anywhere. I can't remember if I've heard this one or not, (I can't get the clip to play) but whatever it is, no one call legitimately attribute it to a thylacine.

The guy in it 'Andrew' I have come across before. His calls have been discussed here. In my opinion he's either a fantasist, or more likely a practical joker. Although, apparently, Waters has visit him and seen photographs of his, which he (Waters) pronounced 'definitely' thylacine. One of his photos appeared on the TAGA FB page, it was the rear shot of the macropod.

The claims of this Andrew that I've heard are easy enough to dismiss with a little prior knowledge. He's claiming for example that there are a 100 breeding pairs of tiger in the north east, but that the 'government' have threatened him to keep quiet. As I say, in a couple of people's opinion. he sounds more like a prankster than a loon.
 
I would love to know your opinion on what to do in the hypothetical case of Thylacines in Tasmania OR? Would you keep quiet or tell it to the general public?
 
Good question. My initial reaction would be tell the public. I don't think I'd change that with more reflection. But, I'm going to think about it. And give a proper reply.

What do you think?
 
I would keep quiet. I have been thinking about it for a while and was undecided until reading some of the comments on facebook, which settled it for me. People obviously aren't ready to receive such news and probably never will. That's only a small proportion of the population who would do wrong things but that would still be too many. Basically, only the right people should know it.
 
G'day Oldrover. The thought in my head says, 'why would the Government want to keep this quieter than a dawn service?'...and you know, I don't have an answer for it at all - there's nothing to be gained at all for them by keeping it quiet - and after all's been said and done, they've never had an altruistic bone in their collective bodies yet, so why would they start now?

But while saying the above, you do hear anecdotally that there's some weird stuff out there in the bush, and I've experienced and seen oddities that still leave me scratching my head, and I realise that there's no way I'll get the good oil on what I've seen, ever - all I can say is that if ever confirmation is released about the Thylacine being still there in Tassie, it won't surprise me - even confirmation that they're on the mainland for that matter.

Harking back to Krissies idea about leeches, and doing pathology testing on 'em in those specific areas where the Thylacine is reported, and has been reported, seems like a fair idea to me, but knowing some of the jokers and weekend warriors out there who wouldn't think twice about going out there with their .243's and their .308's just to knock over a Thylacine, I don't reckon that it would be a good idea to release any reports done on testing.

Anyway, if they are still out their - good luck to 'em.
 
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