Does the footage show a thylacine … or something else?
Australian Thylakine Awareness Group, YouTube
Is the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, lurking in the Australian jungle? The scientific consensus is that the carnivorous marsupial has been extinct for a long time, with the last known thylacine dying in captivity in 1936. Last week, a man believed he had evidence to challenge the consensus … and then the internet hype machine took over the control.
Neil Waters, President of Australia’s Thylacine Awareness Group, posted a video on YouTube claiming that he had discovered a “family” of thylacines in camera traps created in the Tasmanian desert. He explained that he sent the footage to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for analysis by thylacine expert Nick Mooney. For 24 hours, the wildlife community was in turmoil.
But on February 23, TMAG and Mooney released a statement explaining that the creature photographed in the footage was probably a Tasmanian peddler, a short, sturdy marsupial similar to a wallaby.
“Nick Mooney concluded that, based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos provided by Mr. Waters, it is very unlikely that the animals are Thylakine and, most likely, Tasmanian bad guys,” TMAG told CNET at the time.
Now the footage has been released. Waters published the latest video, entitled “THYLACINE JOEY PHOTO” on Sunday, in which he reveals the three images that he believes are probably extinct marsupials and not a cat or pamelaon.
Waters said last week that the images showed “unambiguous” evidence for thylacine, but the video (which you can see below) is far from conclusive. In the video, Waters says there are several characteristics that point to it being a Tasmanian tiger and not a pademelon, as suggested by Mooney. Waters believes the images show stripes, a straight tail and shiny leather hocks – all the characteristics of the thylacine.
And Waters is not moving. He ends the video with: “Enjoy watching a baby thylacine walking through the woods of northern Tasmania”.
The footage did not convince Mooney or the dozens of commentators on Waters’ YouTube video. Mooney sent CNET a six-page review of the four photos featured in Waters’ video on Monday. Of the three color photos provided to Mooney, he spends most of his time analyzing the photo at the top of this image. Much is said about the apparent streaks – or stripes – in this creature, but Mooney believes that these are “a combination of narrow shadows (of sticks and cut grass) and natural parts on the skin”.
Why does he believe these are Tasmanian bad guys? “It all comes down to animal color, lack of bands, body shape and some details of the feet,” he says.
“My assessment strongly implies the advantages of video over photos on trail cameras, which are an excellent tool for research and ethical research,” writes Mooney. “If these were videos and not photos, there would be no doubt.”
Other experts do not think the images were really worth the wait.
“Given that thylacine has not been seen for 85 years, the likelihood of something else is by far the most logical conclusion,” said Andrew Pask, a marsupial evolutionary biologist at the University of Melbourne. “It can easily be a cat, dog or wallaby based on the images.”
Pask, whose work in thylacine genetics sees him inundated with requests for identification each year, says this is “one of the least convincing images” he has ever seen. Even if the evidence were more solid, photos and videos cannot, by themselves, prove the existence of thylacine.
“No one can look at a video properly and say that it is definitely a thylacine, without any evidence of DNA,” Pask told CNET last week. “We need a hair sample, a stool sample, something that can prove it.”
Update: Mooney rating added.