The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, was once widespread in Australia and its population even extended to New Guinea but it is declared extinct in 1986.
The species marked by a striped lower back and considered as the biggest carnivorous marsupial of modern times was declared extinct primarily because of extensive hunting and competition with Australia's free-ranging dog, the dingo.
Not everyone though believes that the large carnivorous dog is completely gone. A thylacine enthusiast and hunter believes that the dogs are still out there citing numerous sightings on mainland Australia.
Michael Moss believes that the animal is not yet extinct as widely believed despite that there has been no conclusive sighting of the animal for the last 70 years. He even claims that he has a dash-cam footage of the animal showing the creature roaming Victoria's countryside.
Moss likewise believes that there will be better evidence that will come out in the future to prove that the elusive creature still exists. He said that there is already one sighting claim a few years ago.
"There has already been a claimed sighting of one in Fisheries Rd, Devon Meadows, a few years ago," Moss said. "And I've got footage of what I believe is one crossing a paddock in the Strezlecki Ranges, near Wilsons Promontory."
Moss said that most of the reports involve animals near or crossing the roads. He said that he believes there will be more concrete evidence of the Tasmanian tiger still thriving that will surface now with the availability of dashboard cameras.
Moss has spent the last two decades scouring Australia looking for the yellowish-brown animal following his release of a video of a dog-like creature 15 years ago. The 49 year old from Murrumbeena said that while the tigers may indeed be extinct in Tasmania, they may still exist in Victoria.
David Chinn, from Hampton Park, also thinks that the Tasmanian tiger still exists. He related that in 1973 when he was an assistant lighthouse keeper at Cape Otway, he saw a tiger after this was killed by the lighthouse keeper for killing his pet rabbit and chickens.
"It was lying on the grass as dead as mutton. I had few doubts about what it was, but the keeper didn't want to go down that road. He was my boss, so I didn't push it," he said. "They were hunted relentlessly in Tasmania because they were a threat to sheep graziers."
Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library | Flickr
