Did It Survive until the 1960's?

[Zoo_Boy]

Extinct thylacine may have lived until 1960s | COSMOS magazine

scats found in the 1960's, are beinge xamined to find out whether they are that of the tylancine, adding eveidence that it survived longer that it's 1930's extinction.

 

[Pertinax]

I've read the article and have a couple of comments.

1. They're wrong in the date of the last wild Thylacine-it wsn't 1918 but widely accepted as 1930- the one that was shot by Wilf Batty at Mawbanna in Northern Tasmania when it was raiding his henhuse. (Look on any 'Tiger' website or book for this) Unusually, this animal was actually photographed during the thirty minutes it was still alive after being shot, and then again in the more usual 'trophy' pose after its death.

2. Its almost certain some Thylacines lingered on several more years after this event, the question is how long? Reports from experienced tassie bushmen indicate sightings continued occassionally into the 1940's at least, possibly beyond. That's before the real searches and all the 'is it isn't it still alive' controversey began

3. Eric Guiler showed me his 'thylacine scats' when I met him in Tasmania years ago. They were big, very long and thick and chalky white with hair in- resembled a dog's more than anything. I don't know what might have left them....

 

[Ian]

On thylacines, over the years, I've personally heard a couple of reports that were interesting. My late father-in-law claimed to have seen footprints on the buttongrass plains of the now flooded Lake Pedder, back in the late 1950s.

Most interestingly, someone I worked with back in the early '80s claimed that she and her husband had a long sighting of a thylacine near a waterhole in bush south of the Nullabor Plain (where they were camping overnight). At the time, I didn't believe it, but she was quite adamant and described the odd walking gait among other things, and I don't know if that was so widely known then.

Ian