Posted on 04/02/2005 5:47:25 PM PST by blam
'Sighting' of Tasmanian tiger sparks £1.2m bounty hunt
By Anna Gizowska in Sydney
(Filed: 03/04/2005)
Officially, the last of their kind died out more than half a century ago, their downfall brought about because white settlers believed they had a voracious appetite for sheep. Now the Tasmanian tiger is once again the subject of a manhunt - this time to prove that the species still exists.
The Tasmanian tiger was officially declared extinct in 1986
After dramatic claims by a German tourist to have seen one of the mysterious, meat-eating marsupials lurking deep in the Tasmanian wilderness, Australian magazines and travel companies are offering a combined bounty of $A3 million (£1.2 million) to anybody who can capture what was long supposed to be an extinct creature.
The two blurry digital images produced by the visitor to the island in February were offered for sale to an Australian newspaper group, but rejected because of what the Sydney Morning Herald described as the "high price" - thought to be a five-figure sum - being demanded for their publication. The paper was unable to verify that the striped animal in the pictures was genuinely a Tasmanian tiger, despite assistance from zoologists and photographic specialists.
The unidentified German and his girlfriend, who did not herself see the animal, have since returned home, but their claim - even unproven - has revived extraordinary interest in the elusive creature, said to have been shy and secretive and to move awkwardly when pursued.
A magazine has offered $A 1.25 million (£500,000) for the capture of a live animal, and an adventure travel company topped that with an offer of a further $A1.75 million (£700,000).
Stewart Malcolm, of Thylacine Expeditions, said: "We've had huge interest from overseas, particularly from the United States. It's gone crazy since the reports of the photos."
The Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacinus cynocephalus, was an elongated dog - measuring six foot from nose to tail tip - with brown-black stripes, a heavy, stiff tail and a big head, which led to it also being known as the Tasmanian wolf. It was officially declared extinct in 1986 - 50 years after the last known tiger died in captivity at Hobart Zoo, in the island's capital.
It was targeted for hunting because settlers believed it was inflicting damage on their sheep, and at one point the state government offered a bounty for each tiger killed.
There are regular claims of sightings - some 4,000 over the past seven decades - and the mystery of its existence has taken on the mythical proportions of England's Beast of Bodmin Moor and Scotland's Loch Ness Monster.
"If the tiger has somehow managed to cling to survival, proving its existence would be one of the greatest scientific stories of the century," said Garry Linnell, the editor of Bulletin magazine, which has offered the reward - and been inundated with responses from bounty hunters. "It's unlikely that it exists, but I want to believe that it does."
The strict conditions imposed by Bulletin require that the tiger be captured uninjured and in accordance with government regulations, a potentially insurmountable obstacle since the state's environment minister, Judy Jackson, is refusing to grant trapping permits to potential bounty hunters.
Nick Mooney, a wildlife biologist whose job with Tasmania's environment department requires him to investigate all reports of sightings, said he has seen families destroyed and individuals bankrupted by their obsession with finding the tiger alive. "I never try to embarrass people or make fools of them," he said. "But the fact that I don't pack the car immediately they ring, can be taken as ridicule."
Bounty hunters have only until June 30 to catch a tiger if they want to claim the magazine's reward. Mr Linnell said: "It's a pretty safe bet that if the tiger is not found by then, we'll know the truth is just a myth."
"it's a nasty creature with a foul personality"
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