- Australia -
According to Australian officials, Tasmanian tigers who were officially extinct 80 years ago, have been spotted in the country a total of eight times.
The Daily Mail reports that: “The animal officially became extinct in Australia when the last known member of the species - named Benjamin - died at Hobart Zoo in 1936.”
The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, had a long cat-like tail, features like a fox or a wolf, and was a marsupial, meaning that the young is kept in the mother’s pouch like kangaroos.
A document released by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE), reports that between September 2016 and September 2019, farmers, locals, tourists, and bushwalkers claim that they have caught a glimpse of the striped carnivorous animal.
As reported by USA Today, according to the DPIPWE’s report, in November at Hartz Mountains, south of Tasmania, a woman claimed she saw a Tasmanian tiger and two cubs.
According to another report, in July 2019, a man says he found a footprint on a hike up to Sleeping Beauty Mountain that he believes was a Tasmanian tiger’s.
When he returned home, he searched photos of the tiger's footprint and believed it matched up with what he found.
Despite the reports, experts remain cautious.
If they are really back and you get lucky enough to spot one, alert the authorities. Do not hunt them, do not harm them, do not scare them. PLEASE, leave them alone!!!
