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27.12.05

A search for the Thylacine or Tasmanian tiger

The tiger is believed to now be extinct but there have been many sightings; the supposedly last one died at Hobart zoo on the seventh of September 1936. It seems man as usual killed them off or did he? I prefer to think the animal lives on as do many Australians. There have been a number of searches for the animal. None of these searches have been successful in proving the continued existence of the animal. The results of a few of these searches are given below: 1937 - Sergeant Summers leads a search in the north-west of the state, recording many recent sightings by other persons in a large area between the Arthur and Pieman Rivers, although the party itself did not see any thylacines. He recommends a sanctuary in that area. 1945 - Well-known naturalist David Fleay searches the Jane River to Lake St Clair area, finding possible Thylacine footprints. 1959 - Eric Guiler leads a search in the far north-west, an area which produced many bounties and finds what appeared to be Thylacine footprints. 1963 - Eric Guiler leads a search in the Sandy Cape area but finds no evidence. 1968 - Jeremy Griffiths, James Malley and Bob Brown embark on a major search. Although they Collect reports of sightings, they find no evidence of the Thylacine. 1980 - Parks and Wildlife Officers, Steven Smith and Adrian Pyrke, search a wide area of the State using three automatic cameras. No evidence of thylacines is found. 1982-83 - Parks and Wildlife Officer, Nick Mooney, undertakes an extensive but unsuccessful search to confirm the 1982 sighting reported by Hans Naarding near the Arthur River in the State's north-west. 1984 - A search in Tasmania's highlands by Tasmanian Wildlife Park owner, Peter Wright, fails to turn up conclusive evidence. 1988-93 - Separate photographic searches by wildlife photographer, Dave Watts and Ned Terry fail to record a Thylacine If extinct it is the sole fault of the various Tasmanian governments who placed bounties on the tiger’s head. One I suppose could say well they never knew any better then and they are most likely correct but then the same can and has been said of the survivor’s of the joint British/Australian Atom bomb tests; these unfortunate non volunteers are or were having the devil’s own job trying to seek compensation. Folk tend to say ah it is just animal so what, but what it actually does is upsets the Ecology system and is a cause of concern. And a wild animal that made an appearance on our earth 4 million years ago died out a mere 69 years ago; in captivity and these unfortunate animals would not breed in captivity. The various Tasmanian governments placed bounties on these poor animal's heads and for what well I don't think we shall ever find out why. The human race certainly has a lot of bad marks against it's name and this is just one of them. what was that growl Mom? just a cat ok get back to bed.

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