Tracking The Tasmanian Tiger

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The Tasmanian Tiger, (Thylacinus cynocephalus) occasionally referred to as the Tasmanian Wolf, is a very unique kind of animal. Varying from 100cm to 130cm in length with a tail extending another 65cm they would weigh between 15-35kg making them the largest predatory marsupial ever known to man.

The Tasmanian Tiger has coarse brown hair, a thick based tail like a Kangaroo, stripes like a Tiger which only start half way down its back and towards the tail, a pouch in which it would rear 2-3 young at a time and it has a bark like a dog.

I first learnt about the Tasmanian Tiger from a documentary that I saw a couple of years before I even planned to come away, it stuck in my mind for a couple of reasons one is probably because my brain absorbs useless information (I can't remember what I did yesterday but I remember the vital statistics of a Thylacinus cynocephalus from a documentary I saw two years ago - go figure) the other is that it struck me as quite a fascinating creature, like a bizarre four way cross breed.

The most interesting thing about the Tasmanian Tiger however is that it is thought to be extinct. Thought to be, because in such a wide spread dense landscape it is almost impossible to know for sure. They were widespread just one hundred years ago but the last captive one died in 1936 and there has been no confirmed sightings in the wild since the early 1930's. In fact I recall the documentary stating that the last one officially recorded in the wild was actually shot by a farmer in 1933, ironically this was a male and the last remaining one they had in captivity was a female which then died three years later.

The reason for this animals decline and possible extinction was due to them being ruthlessly hunted by early European settlers who were trying to protect their sheep. Since being in Tasmania I have discovered that the Tasmanian Tiger is somewhat of a national icon, it is much more popular than I had realised which is ironic considering that they shot it to extinction and now that its gone it's popularity has soared (a little bit like Tupac Shakur). But I guess people often by nature don't appreciate things until they are gone and many people throughout history have become iconic figures through untimely death, Bruce Lee, James Dean, Rod Hull.....well maybe not Rod Hull he was probably bigger when he was alive to be fair and as for Emu his career hasn't exactly gone through the roof since the accident.....hmmm through the roof is probably a bad tern of phrase given the nature of Rod's death, I'll move on I've digressed from the point anyway.

The persecution of this animal would have left it instinctively wary of humans and driven it deep into the bush, over the years many people have reported sightings of these animals but to date no conclusive evidence has been able to confirm one of these sightings. It has been known for species to be rediscovered in these landscapes that were thought to have been long extinct, if I could track down and prove the existence of a Tasmanian Tiger it would be a Tremendous zoological breakthrough and I would be hailed a national hero for rediscovering a national icon!

So I hired a Ute and I set off around the island to spend a week in the bush to try and track it down.

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