Of Tigers and Yowies
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 1st, 2012
The State Government says it’s likely big cats don’t exist – but Tasmanian Tigers may be roaming the hills.
A Monbulk group that investigates rare animals, believes Tasmanian Tigers – declared extinct last century – are alive and well and in the area.
The Australian Rare Fauna Research Association (ARFRA) is a voluntary organisation that records and investigates sightings of unusual animals.
ARFRA president Dorothy Williams said there have been sightings of Tasmanian Tigers (thylacine) in the area for many years, but with little publicity.
In modern times, the animals have been recorded as native to Tasmania, but scientists believe they were once widespread throughout mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea.
“People have reported sightings of ‘strange foxes’ to us that we believe are thylacines,” Ms Williams said.
The 81-year-old has been involved with ARFRA since 1990 and is working on a book about the group’s work, based on the research of its late founder, Peter Chapple, who died in 1992.
She said the group urged anyone who had seen something that resembled a Tasmanian Tiger to contact them confidentially.
She said the group even had reported sightings of a yowie – a mythical Australian version of the yeti.
Members are needed to continue investigations, including night-time expeditions, into the tigers.Source
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For those who may be wondering, Monbulk is located in the state of Victoria (i.e. mainland Australia), not “Tassie”, and is quite close to the capital Melbourne. I found http://www.arfra.org.
I think its pretty much a given that there are some tassy tigers in Australia, at least among the country folk.
There was a rumor a few years back that one of the major logging company’s, of the time, was discreetly employing people to hunt and kill any tigers they could find.
I don’t know how true those rumors were but i can say that if tigers had been identified and accepted by the government of the time, the logging company would have had a much harder time logging the old growth forests.
I hope the tigers have a large enough population to bring themselves back form “extinction” but sadly i think it unlikely.
I reported two sightings i had to a well known Yowie group,( I lived in Australia for 9 years and luckily was early retired so i could regularly search in the field, so to speak) i received the standard ` Thank you for your report, we will be in touch etc` over a year ago, yet i am still waiting.