New Thylacine Sightings

I know where we can hire a portable ground penetrating radar, who is interested in a trip to Cape Otway?

- D.P.

"Mr Chinn said they buried the animal. He said he told several people about the animal over the years but no one ever believed him."

The logical thing would be to go to the spot and dig it up. If something was there in the first place, it will be there now.

What was the area like in 1973 when the incident was reported?

PS - I forgot to say, in the Tas NE, all the old growth forest has been cleared and replaced with plantations - during that period from 1980s through to now.

I believe that the majority of the area around Cranbourne was cleared for farming from the late 1800s, with just the odd area of untouched scrub (nothing big enough to conceal a population of thylacines).

Here's an aerial photo of the town in the 1960s (from a quick Google):

1.bp.blogspot.com/_r5F9IiUYv3Y/TTellOBLXPI/AAAAAAAAAek/PZlI9vlLNAQ/s1600/1963%2Baerial.jpg

The area surrounding the town (open farmland) can be seen in a few spots in the photo and hasn't changed much to this day.

Mike.

How about Sydney? Or outskirts of Bris? I've had both those.

I would discount any reports from built up areas, even in Tas when these things were common they were very elusive, as are many of our native animals. We only ever see possums at night and koalas are rarely sighted but we know they are there and we have even had a few wombat sightings. I had not heard of a wombat in this area for many years but found scats in the forest one day and was surprised but shortly after I heard of two sightings.

We cannot dismiss these areas out entirely, just because
they ain't thought to be the natural habitat of the thylacine. With
many areas being "raped" due to forestry, farming and housing,
any remnant populations of an animal thought to be extinct will
find itself being pushed into more isolated areas, and in doing this
will undoubtedly encroach into populated areas, not being any fault of the animal. After all the kangaroo has been able to adapt
and to an extent "live" in an urbanised enviroment. I know the kangaroo's situation is different to the thylacine ,but after all ain't
they marsupial. We also have the Koala, wombat( to a certain
extent) that have encroached into populated areas.
Three sightings in the melbourne metro area this year which
hav'nt as yet been proved to be of a genuine case, leaves me at
a 40- 60 chance, 60 being a more likely chance. I will remain
optimistic. ;D

I have just finished speaking to Mr David Chinn about the animal that the news article says was buried in 1973. Full account here: bit.ly/otway-tiger

Good stuff chris. Interesting conversation and article chris.
I gather mr chinn, being new to australia at the time, that he would not have had much knowledge on australian native animals
let alone a thylacine. Although going by his description of the animal (tan-beige with dark striping) would not suggest a "tall tale". What impression, just talking to the man, did you get.
I would have guessed that mr jones would'nt have known what he was shooting at, until it was too late. A bit of conjecture of what actually happened to the animals body, and again we have
a situation where we probably will not ever know, being that mr jones has passed away. Interesting in the fact that a lot of reports, are mainly coming from the lower south coastal areas from afar as southern gippsland, the metro area and right along
the coastal fringes ,portland and up into the south coastal areas of South Australia. Maybe the otways could sustain a remnant
population of thylacines, whether that be in the form of 'individual'
groups, or lone individuals. ;D

We know next to nothing about the biology and ecology of the Thylacine, and the small tidbits we have are often contradictory, ex: some say they were unafraid of people ( coming right up to camps, when they smelled food), others stating they were very elusive.
Let´s assume, for arguments sake, they were nomadic. Then the sightings in suburban environments could be the result of an animal passing through, finding something of interest and investigating the surroundings before moving on. It doesn´t have to be a case of habituation like say the foxes living in urban environments like they do all over the world.

When i lived at Parachilna in the Flinders Ranges, a gentleman called in, after he heard of my cat interest at the local.

He had with him a cast of a thylacine rear foot.
He was an amateur biologist from SE SA and had led fossil digs per some university in Adelaide.
His story was that he and others made a trip up The Border Track N from Bordertown. It was raining lightly when they saw a roo cross the track. It seemed distressed so they stopped to observe.
They saw a thylacine cross the track on the scent of the roo.
He followed using a torch for light and saw the roo bail up near a tree. The thyla dived in and took hold of the roo across the thorax and crushed it. It then turned on the man who retreated. Tracks made by yhe thyla were covered over to save them for casting.
Next day they went to the site and made casts of the thyla tracks.
As i still resided at Para it would have had to be around 2000
In 2001 I made my last visit to farmer friend in the Strathbogie area. He took me to a known thylacine den, in a hollow tree, and
I know it was occupied.
The fellow with the foot cast, thought he found thyla track going under a fence, He madeup an autocam using a pressure can to operate the camera. It was a fox down on its hocks to get under the fence.
Cheers BC

Fascinating story. I'm usually a bit more skeptical about thylacine sightings from Australia, since its hard to imagine an apex predator survive for thousands of years without being noticed. But this does sound intriguing.

We know a fair bit about Thylacine ecology from the fossil record. They are present, but not common, in almost all Pleistocene sites across Australia. They lived on the Nullarbor, for example, when it was no different (climate or habitat -wise) from its current ecology (treeless desert). They lived in SW WA in the same conditions that are there now (mixed temperate forests) and probably in the Kimberlys (Tropical woodland). It was found in Wellington (open woodland) and Far-Western (Mallee scrub) NSW, the Darling Downs (open grassland and flood plains) and Chinchilla and Pilton (probably subtropical forest) QLD, they were also found in the volcanic plains in SW Victoria as well as Lancefield swamp, Buchan and Portland.

In short, they are not generally restricted to any particular climate, vegetation pattern or habitat. This is pretty much standard for generalised carnivores.

As for foxes, I used to work night shift in North Melbourne and drive home at 3-4 AM most nights. I saw suburban foxes almost every night, especially around North Melbourne, Brunswick and Coburg. Not so many in the outskirts of Melbourne (ie Campbellfield, Cragieburn etc) but they were common again from about Donnybrook/Kalkallo and North up the Hume. Never saw a Thylacine, though...

I don't see why Thylacines would not scavenge around urban areas. They are obviously adaptable, generalised carnivores - very similar to a fox or dog. I often wonder whether the first indigenous Australians would have managed to domesticate them somewhat if they had known the value of dogs, as they did more recently. There are plenty of stories of Thylacines approaching camps and following people pre 1930, whether there is much truth in this I don't know, but it does fit with known generalised carnivore behaviour. Devils are known to live close to people - they will raid chook pens (as do quolls) I wonder if they also get into bins?

Edit:
Maybe I should try Googling instead of wondering? Apparently they do and it is fairly common.