Sighting claims of the extinct Tasmanian tigers stir efforts from the James Cook University in Queensland, Australia to confirm these reports. Every wild Tasmanian tiger has been killed by 1920. The ones left are held in captive but also perished in 1936. There was no report of the marsupial Thylacinus cynocephalus since then, prompting the Tasmanian government declared them extinct in 1986.
Tasmanian tigers are not really tigers. Their name was derived from the stripes on their lower back, like those of tigers. Thylacinus are the largest carnivorous marsupials that once roamed in Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania.
Several factors contributed to the demise of these animals including disease, the introduction of dogs, and human settlements. In the 1900s, people fear for their livestock and hunted the Tasmanian tiger down. Within the span of the next 40 years, bounties were put up against them, subsequently leading to extinction. Or are they really extinct?
Recently, two highly-reliable reports of Tasmanian tiger sightings led to a study if there is indeed a surviving population in the wild. Queensland National Parks' employee Brian Hobbs report said that he spotted four unknown animals under the spotlight at a relatively short distance of 20 feet away. Hobbs' description matched to those of Thylacinus, The Guardian reported.
There are other reports but witnesses are nervous that they will be branded as a fraud. In fact, the Value Walk cited Professor Sandra Abell due to numerous leads that her office received after they publicized their plan to trace the Thylacinus. Abell and her team are going to install 50 cameras in areas where sightings have been reported. They hope to capture evidence of Tasmanian tiger at night since these animals are nocturnal.
Meanwhile, Abell said that the expensive cameras are going to be very useful in other ways. Even if they don't find any Tasmanian tigers, other critically endangered species can be studied. After all, the Cape York is suffering from the decline of animal populations in recent years.
