Bushwalk Australia

Ok- based on the success of the fox thread, here's the next mythical tassie critter thread.

Anyone seen a tiger, or know someone who thinks they've seen one?

I see it like this- on the mainland, everyone likes to deny there are big cats loose in the wild, but in the valley I lived in, there were MANY sitings of a big cat/s, we had tracks on our property (I worked in a zoo with big cats for 10 years, so I'd know what they look like), and you could even occassionally hear them during mating season. So, if there can be big cats in NE Victoria, can there be tigers in Tassie?

the_camera_poser wrote:Ok- based on the success of the fox thread, here's the next mythical tassie critter thread.

Anyone seen a tiger, or know someone who thinks they've seen one?

I see it like this- on the mainland, everyone likes to deny there are big cats loose in the wild, but in the valley I lived in, there were MANY sitings of a big cat/s, we had tracks on our property (I worked in a zoo with big cats for 10 years, so I'd know what they look like), and you could even occassionally hear them during mating season. So, if there can be big cats in NE Victoria, can there be tigers in Tassie?

Sure there can. They're out there. Probably hiding out with Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, Bigfoot, The Honest Politician and that dude that Russel Crowes character imagines in A Beautiful Mind.

...in a nutshell, I think a lot of people go out in to the bush to smoke weed.

You can smoke that stuff? COOL!

I'm reminded of the Carolina Panther, that was declared extinct in Georgia for years, until a viable population was discovered in a moderately populated area about 20 miles for the second biggest city in the state. All the locals knew about them, but didn't think anything of it.

But my understanding is that tigers lived mostly in the East, didn't they? Not too much to hide in there...

Speculator wrote:...in a nutshell, I think a lot of people go out in to the bush to smoke weed.

That explains the smoke haze.

Now we know why Forestry do all those burns - a smoke screen for what's really going on.
Pun intended.

I haven't seen a Thylacine. I live in hope but not much optomism on this one.
Perhaps some of those fungi we see on the side of the tracks might help.

tasadam wrote:Perhaps some of those fungi we see on the side of the tracks might help.

What sort of bushwalkers are you all! LMAO!!!!

I have a neighbour who has built a bark hut somewhere (he wont tell us exactly where....yet) in the weld valley he is quite insistant that he has seen a few tigers..... he is quite a reasonable man insists that he will never tell anyone or take photos as he doesnt want mainland ppl (no offense to those on the big hot ugly island...) or scientists flooding his "fishing hole"

He told us about a family of lyre birds up the back of our place in Glen Huon which i doubted strongly until I saw them myself

so who knows....... Was strange to see that article in the mercury (or mockery as ADAM referrs to it as) about a guy in VIC who swears him and his locals have about 20 of them living in thier backyards Says he is off with a very expensive camera to film them.... interesting if we ever hear fom him again.


Also i find it intersting that all the tiger "sightings" have been mostly by overseas visitors.... Do they think we are that silly?? surely having 2 heads would make us twice as smart with 2 brains wouldnt it?????

ILUVSWTAS wrote:Do they think we are that silly?? surely having 2 heads would make us twice as smart with 2 brains wouldnt it?????

Well, you would think.......but then people are always full of surprises......LOL

JUST KIDDING! SHEESH!

I have been recently scanning some old slides of a trip to the Weld River (see - http://www.david-noble.net/Tasmania/WeldRiver/Weld.html) and while doing this I googled "weld" and came across an account of one of Deny King's trips there. Apparently he knew the location of a tiger's lair somewhere along the river.

I have been to the river on three trips - and have never seen any tigers, but it is a very pristine, very beautiful and very special place - and the upper part of the river is still (hopefully) quite wild. The sort of place where tigers may still be? Perhaps. I certainly hope so. I'm not sure how far up the loggers have gone - but I remember camping under some of the biggest trees I have ever seen. Yes - the Weld is a very special place.

Dave

G'Day
The funny thing is that where ever you go in Tassie there is reference to the tiger, Sport teams, buses, all sorts of businesses. Rather than being ashamed that the species was hunted and killed to extinction Tasmanians have embraced the fact and now it is one of the most prominent symbols of the state
Darren

Darren- I have wondered about that....

DaveNoble wrote:I have been recently scanning some old slides of a trip to the Weld River (see - http://www.david-noble.net/Tasmania/WeldRiver/Weld.html) and while doing this I googled "weld" and came across an account of one of Deny King's trips there. Apparently he knew the location of a tiger's lair somewhere along the river.

I have been to the river on three trips - and have never seen any tigers, but it is a very pristine, very beautiful and very special place - and the upper part of the river is still (hopefully) quite wild. The sort of place where tigers may still be? Perhaps. I certainly hope so. I'm not sure how far up the loggers have gone - but I remember camping under some of the biggest trees I have ever seen. Yes - the Weld is a very special place.

Dave

Awesome photos in that- Horizontal definitely looks like fun.

Does any one have a recorded "Tiger" noise .
c

David, great shots.

corvus wrote:Does any one have a recorded "Tiger" noise .
c

According to the book "Carnivorous Nights" (which I recently read), the noise was never recorded. However, several people who were familiar with the 'tigers' report that it made a "yip yip" sound.

..

Back when I was in scouts our leader told us she was certain she had seen a Thylacine while out on an old 4WD track down south somewhere long years back. She never reported it or told anyone since she thought people would dismiss her as a lunatic.

I hope they're still hiding out there somewhere.

Anyone go to that Thylacine expedition at the Hobart Museum 10 or so years ago? All the information there was pretty interesting and they had a display of skeletons and the famous preserved pup in the jar. There was an audio exhibit with the recorded accounts of half a dozen supposed witnesses. The reported sitings shrank every decade and accounts from the early 90s is the last I heard.

Nuts wrote:And of course at certain times of the year, early spring most likely, it would be a 'yip-yip' followed by a prolonged 'Yahooooo'

ROFL

Well, I know the P&W researcher who made the sighting back in '82 (or thereabouts). Does that count?

Then there was a wander through some rainforest out west about 8 years ago, when I noticed something substantial moving around amongst the treeferns, and realised what perfect camouflage they would provide for a Thylacine . . .

I hope they are still out there. It would be better than winning Lotto to actually see one . . .

So much better to know that if they are out there no one sees them.
c

But if no-one ever sees one, we don't know whether they're there or not.

Finding one would make a bit of a dent on anyone's plans to develop the West/Southwest. Imagine what Bob Brown could do with a thylacine or two and our obligations under the Convention for Conservation of Biodiversity. Messier for the Government than a whole passle of dams and a couple of mills tossed in the mix. Rediscovering a peak land-based mammal carnivore would definitely be news.

the_camera_poser wrote: Imagine what Bob Brown could do with a thylacine or two ....

Errrrrr . . . I'd rather not, thanks.

the_camera_poser wrote:Finding one would make a bit of a dent on anyone's plans to develop the West/Southwest. Imagine what Bob Brown could do with a thylacine or two and our obligations under the Convention for Conservation of Biodiversity. Messier for the Government than a whole passle of dams and a couple of mills tossed in the mix. Rediscovering a peak land-based mammal carnivore would definitely be news.

I actually seriously wonder if it would make much difference. Leaving a small stand of trees around a known Wedge Tail nest seems to be enough for them (stuff the ones we don't know about because we're trying really hard not to look). I wonder if a proven sighting of a thylacine would result in more than a small stand of trees left untouched at the location of the sighting (from which the thylacine would have probably moved on anyhow).

Son of a Beach wrote:

corvus wrote:Does any one have a recorded "Tiger" noise .
c

According to the book "Carnivorous Nights" (which I recently read), the noise was never recorded. However, several people who were familiar with the 'tigers' report that it made a "yip yip" sound.

I read that, fun read, but they were smoking weed if I remember correctly

Steve wrote:Anyone go to that Thylacine expedition at the Hobart Museum 10 or so years ago? All the information there was pretty interesting and they had a display of skeletons and the famous preserved pup in the jar. There was an audio exhibit with the recorded accounts of half a dozen supposed witnesses. The reported sitings shrank every decade and accounts from the early 90s is the last I heard.

Have been into 'the vault' at TMAG where several pups, skins, skulls and skeletons are kept, now that tiny room had every hair on my body up, sooooooo sad.
Would love to think they are in a forest somewhere, but apparently they liked open plain country.
I have interviewed Buck Emberg who claims a very good sighting and have accounts of others on their website http://www.tasmanian-tiger.com/thylafiles.html
We live in hope.....

For a fictional hypothesis on what might happen if tigers were found read Thylacine Conspiracy by Bill Cromer.
Interesting read. And I'm hoping to visit the Blue Tier next month. Will keep my eyes open .

Wouldn't this be awesome:

Tasmanian tiger could be de-extinct through major scientific breakthrough

https://www.9news.com.au/national/tasma ... 21bd8dabfe