l found the 'Tasmanian Talks' whilst on a beach holiday this year ( there is another programme with 'Andrew' ) on Tasmanian Talks and found the interview entertaining and interesting to say the least!
Spent most of the holiday educating myself on the Tiger, there are folk out there that there is a Government cover up..... discuss.
The conspiracy angle has been around for years. It's the classic cryptozoological whinge, when people don't say what you want them to. It doesn't stand up to scrutiny though.
Firstly, the position of the Tasmanian Government has always appeared a bit ambiguous. Phrases like 'presumed extinct' were the norm in government sources which mentioned the tiger. And the level of legal protection has never, as far as I know right up till now, been relaxed. There's been a discussion of this here a few years ago when they started to consider relaxing them.
Secondly, until fairly recently tiger reports were officially investigated, and by a man whose reputation is pretty much as beyond reproach as you could want, Nick Mooney. Mooney is a man who's working life has been spent conserving Tasmanian wildlife. An exceptionally straight man, not afraid of controversy (see the Tasmanian Fox Task Force) and a man who makes probably one of the worst candidates as a stooge as you could imagine.
He headed the field research into the Naarding sighting. Which was an extensive, but the last major, government funded search. Why would they do that if they already knew it was there? Plus, Mooney officially investigated reports far later than that, at least into the late 90's. And, while remaining sceptical, was willing to make public any potentially significant report. The poachers account for example.
Thirdly, Mr Thylacine himself Eric Guiler, the man who once headed the Tasmanin Animals and Birds Protection Board, was a lecturer at the Tasmanian University, and awarded membership of the Order of Australia. In fact, the single most high profile thylacine researcher of all time, and one who was clearly given official recognition. Spent his working life
publicly stating that he believed the tiger was still extant.
It's impossible to imagine that Guiler wouldn't have been aware of the tiger's existence were it known. He would either have to have been part of the conspiracy, or at the very least aware of it. Yet, he spent years searching. Until in 2002 he suffered a stroke
actually out in the field looking for the tiger at the age of 79 (or 80). Again, why would he do that if he already knew it existed?
Lastly, there's Maria Island. This is the island off the east coast of Tasmania, that's now a national park, and is currently used as a sanctuary for a reserve population of devils uninfected by DFTD. Initially though it was earmarked for thylacines. Sources vary, but some, including Guiler himself I think, stated that the island was available to house any captured tigers. Fleay was the first to propose the idea, but, again I'm going just on memory, it
was made available to Guiler. So again, this doesn't tally with the idea that the government was keeping quiet about anything, as it was openly offering a refuge for potential surviving thylacines.
So, in summary. If there had been a conspiracy, it'd mean that at least two of the most important thylacine researchers would have to have conducted their entire careers either unaware of it, which is impossible. Or, acing as fronts for it, which is implausible. Especially given the time they spent investigating the issue.
The government itself, would have to have both sanctioned at least one widespread search into a secret they were keeping. While maintaining a position, which at the very least, might encourage a belief among the public that the very thing they were concealing was a possibility. How likely does that sound?
