Does the footage show a thylacine … or something else?
Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia YouTube
Is the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, lurking in the nature of Australia? The scientific consensus is that the carnivorous marsupial has long since become extinct, with the last known thylacine dying in captivity in 1936. Last week, one man believed he had evidence to challenge the consensus … and then the internet hype machine took over.
Neil Waters, President of the Thylacine Awareness Group in Australia, posted a video on YouTube claiming to have discovered a ‘family’ of thylasines on camera traps set up in the Tasmanian wilderness. He explained that he had sent the footage to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for analysis by thylacine expert Nick Mooney. The nature community buzzed for 24 hours.
But on February 23, TMAG and Mooney issued a statement stating that the creature captured in the footage was probably a Tasmanian pademelon, a short, sturdy marsupial similar to a wallaby.
“Nick Mooney concluded that the animals were probably highly unlikely based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos provided by Mr. Waters, and that they were probably Tasmanian trademarks,” TMAG told CNET at the time.
Now the footage has been released. Waters uploaded the latest video on Sunday, titled “THYLACINE JOEY PHOTO”, in which he reveals the three images that he says are probably the extinct marsupials and not a cat or pademelon.
Waters claims last week that the footage has ‘not ambiguous’ evidence of the thylacine, but the video (which you can see below) is far from conclusive. Waters says in the video, there are several features that indicate it is a Tasmanian tiger and not a pademelon, as Mooney suggests. Waters believes the images show stripes, a straight tail and shiny, leathery heels – all features of the thylacine.
And Waters does not indulge. He captions the video with: “Enjoy watching a baby thylacine running through the forest of Northern Tasmania.”
The footage did not convince Mooney or the dozens of commentators on Waters’ YouTube video. Mooney sent a six-page evaluation to CNET about the four photos featured in Waters’ video on Monday. Of the three color photographs provided to Mooney, he spends most of his time analyzing the image at the top of this image. Much is made of the apparent streak – or streaks – on this creature, but Mooney believes it is a “combination of narrow shadows (of sticks and grass) and natural parts in the fur.”
Why does he believe these are Tasmanian brands? “It comes down to animal color, lack of tires, body shape and a bit of foot detail,” he says.
“My review strongly implies the advantages of videos over photos in such track cameras, which is an excellent tool for ethical searches and recordings,” Mooney writes. “If it weren’t for videos, there would have been no doubt.”
Other experts do not think the images were really worth the wait.
“Since tylazine has not been seen for 85 years, the likelihood that it is something else is the most logical conclusion,” said Andrew Pask, a marsupial evolutionary biologist at the University of Melbourne. “It could easily be a cat, dog or wallaby based on the images.”
Pask, whose work on thylacine genetics annually overwhelms him with requests for identification, says it is ‘one of the least convincing’ images he has seen. Even if the evidence was more solid, photos and videos alone could not prove the existence of the thylasin.
“No one can adequately watch a video and say it’s definitely a thylacine without DNA evidence,” Pask told CNET last week. “We need to have a hair sample, a bald sample, something that can back it up.”
Update: Mooney’s rating added.