The thylacine, or Tasmanian wolf or tiger of Tasmania and Australia, was officially declared extinct in 1986. The purported last one died in captivity at the Hobart zoo. Since then, many have suggested it was not extinct.
There have been hundreds of sightings since 1936, many of which may have been clear cases of mis-identification.
The Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia (TAGA) has released a video taken by a resident of Adelaide Hills purporting to show a thylacine moving through a garden. The video, however, is grainy and unfocused, so it provides us with no solid conclusion. Take a look.
According to TAGA, five people witnessed the animal in March of 2015 but it returned in February when the video was taken. TAGA will release four more possible Thylacine videos over the coming weeks. They wish to raise funds for the filming and editing of “mini documentaries on Thylacines and other cryptid animals still believed to be roaming the Australian mainland today.”
The video is completely inconclusive and just enough to keep the dream alive. It could conceivably be just a kangaroo or other animal. Hope that the thylacine still exists runs high and exploration continues. Hoax videos and enthusiastic witnesses are very common. Wishful thinking abounds. No credible evidence exists. However, even if a few stragglers remain all these decades later, the animal is effectively extinct.
The news has been picked up by the Daily Mail and cryptozoologists. Don’t get your hopes up. There have been so many false positives, the outlook does not look good. As the interviewee in the video notes, we really need a body to be sure. Even then, sad but true, it’s a doomed species.
More on the Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus).
UPDATE: (7-Sept 2016) It’s 80 years since the last known thylacine died in capitivity. It’s hard to be “Happy” about Thylacine Day but there you go. Dr. Darren Naish posted on Twitter regarding this video: “Feeling among experts is that it’s a fox: white tail tuft, gait, suburban habitat = all red flags, alas.”