Tasmanian tigers spotted in Australia are unlikely to be extinct thylacines: Wildfire experts

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Australian biologists dismissed the claim that the three animals captured on camera in Tasmania are extinct thylacines

An Australian group of enthusiasts searching for extinct thylacines believes it has discovered three Tasmanian tigers, but its evidence has been dismissed by wildlife experts, who said the photographed animals were most likely pademelons. 

The Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia (TAGOA), a non-profit organization dedicated to the research and discovering of thylacine – an extinct Tasmanian tiger, the last of which died almost 90 years ago – reported that it had photographed the three animals in north-east Tasmania.

In a YouTube video posted by TAGOA, its president Neil Waters said a camera trap spotted three thylacines, which he believed were the mother, father and a baby. Waters said this discovery proves the species are “breeding.”

“Looking at the baby, not only (do) we have a family walking through the bush but we have proof of breeding so it puts our thylacine in a much stronger position than it’s been in for the last 30 something years now,” he said in the video. 

While two of the animals’ identification Waters called “ambiguous,” the baby, he said, was not, and based on his descriptions, looks like a thylacine.

“The baby is not ambiguous: the baby has stripes, a stiff tail, the hock, the coarse hair. It’s the right colour, it’s a quadruped stocky, and it’s got the right-shaped ears.”

Waters rejoiced: “Congratulations, everyone. We’ve done it, cheers!”