Portland thylacine sightings

[Deleted]

the.standard.net.au/articles/2006/06/13/1149964506180.html

Tasmanian tiger `sightings'
SARAH SCOPELIANOS
June 13, 2006

TASMANIAN tigers are said to be roaming the outskirts of Portland.
Four sightings of one of the world's most fabled creatures have been reported to an independent researcher in the past three months.
The last sighting was in early May by a Portland resident, Anthony Ersello, who said yesterday he saw the strange dog-like animal sitting in the middle of the Princes Highway on the outskirts of town near the Shell service station.
``I'd been walking home from a party, had one beer and was walking home when I saw it on the road sitting in the middle of the intersection. It kept staring into the distance and then looked at me,'' Mr Ersello said.
The animal had a pointed face, chunky shoulders, stripes and its hind was long and lean.

``I wanted to take a photo with my phone but it had been raining and the wet road made a reflection. I got to about 15 metres then it ran into the bushes.
``I didn't know what it was. It looked like a bit of a dog but it didn't really look like one.''
Another Portland resident, who did not want to be identified, reported two separate thylacine sightings in the past year and believed the tigers regularly crossed farms and pups had been spotted.
The sightings have excited researcher Michael Moss, who is preparing to visit Portland with two infra-red cameras in an attempt to capture the creatures on film.
Mr Moss, who has researched thylacines for a decade, said it was possible the animals had originated from thylacines released into Gippsland early last century.
He said a 1912 management report for Wilsons Promontory suggested the introduction of the tigers, along with other native animals.
However no documentation confirms the animals were released despite the first sightings reported in Gippsland in 1915.
With a spate of sightings in Nelson and Portland's latest claim to fame, Mr Moss said it was possible the introduced species may have moved west.
The Portland sightings are across a two to three kilometre area and Mr Moss said records showed it was not unusual for the animals to come to a town's edge.

This story was found at: the.standard.net.au/articles/2006/06/13/1149964506180.html

[Deleted]

Hi, does anybody have any other news on the four sighting? Or any other sighting this year (2006)?

I live in the UK and am thinking of planning an expedition to search for the thylacine, either later this year or more than likely early in 2007.

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted]

Hi, does anybody have any other news on the four sighting? Or any other sighting this year (2006)?

The "researcher" has nothing to do with any form of research outside his own imagination and press releases so I wouldnt be to excited by it.
You could try romeo.pembrokesc.vic.edu.au/home/tiger/expd1.html
for recent sightings.

Mike

[Thylacoleo Gal]

Well it is true there have been a lot of sightings down there. For the benefit of non-Aussies, there are two thylacine "hot-spots" in Victoria, the southernmost state of mainland Australia. One is the Portland area - as far inland as Ozenkadnook and west as far as the Koorong, a coastal national park in South Australia, next door to Victoria. The other is the so-called Foster-Wilson's Promontory-Wonthaggi "Triangle". The animal (thylacine?) is a part of local legend, being known as the "Wonthaggi Monster". The small country town of Foster even has a billboard on its outskirts boasting of "Coming Attractions", said billboard featuring a picture of - guess what? - a thylacine. It's hard to know what to make of it all. Apparently there have been more reports of thylacines from these two areas, which of course are on mainland Australia, than from the whole of the island state of Tasmania, their former home. There are also said to be reports from around Stirling in the southwestern corner of Western Australia but I'm no great expert on those.

It's firmly held by many serious CZ researchers that Tasmanian thylacines were released circa 1905-1910 into the then newly created Wilson's Prom Nat Park, and also into the Portland Bay area. Apparently there was a band of naturalists known as the "Thylacine Preservation Society" who undertook the deed because it was obvious, by that time, that the Tasmanian thylacine's days were numbered.

The scenario is certainly feasible because the feat would have presented little practical difficulty. In those by-gone days trade between Tasmania and the mainland was conducted by coastal sailing vessels and small steamers. There were experienced thylacine handlers available too. Thylacines captured from the wild were at that time exported from Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania to mainland and foreign zoos. Their destinations were mainly Melbourne, Sydney, London, Berlin, Cologne and Washington (I think?). So basically the problem would have come down to a question of money & motivation: the animals were routinely shipped across Bass Strait and a minor "diversion" would have been technically easy to set up.

Probably Bob Paddle would be the foremost expert on the history of the Tassie Thylacine and its extinction. He has a very interesting chapter in his book that tells of thylacines in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia up until the 1830s - 1840s(?). If so, no way could they have been Tasmanian transportees. So who knows? Genuine relicts surviving on the mainland into modern times or the Thylacine Preservation Society's imports or what?
Debbie

[Deleted]

Thylacine sightings from the Portland area also extend well along the coast through the forest areas to Apollo Bay and North almost to Ballarat. I heard a claim that about twenty years ago a thylacine became road kill near Haddon south of Ballarat but as nobody knew what to do with it they just threw it into the bush. By the time I heard about it myself and another local went searching for remains but as it was about 4-5 years after the event we could not even find any bones.

This demonstrates one of the reasons no recent fossils have been found, we knew where a body was dumped but could not find a trace. Meat ants clean up the flesh very quickly and bones develop moss which causes them to disintegrate, I have picked up bone that were not very old and had them fall apart at my touch.

[Deleted]

Hi everybody, thanks for this info - some interesting pointers. I feel some more research is definitely needed before I visit Australia and Tasmania.

Thanks again, Dave