tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80952939763572524102024-03-14T09:09:06.310+11:00Centre for Fortean Zoology AustraliaMonster hunters of the Southern Hemisphere cfzaustralia@gmail.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger910125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-33932424592589828082020-05-16T20:37:00.000+10:002020-05-16T20:41:59.589+10:00Rare Thylacine Footage Discovered by ResearchersThree Thylacine researchers have been hitting the archives hard and turning up rare, lost and undiscovered footage of the Tasmanian Tiger.<br />
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Australians Michael Williams and Branden Holmes, and Welshman , Gareth Linnard, have been credited with turning up the cinematic gems in the Australian National Archives after tenaciously trawling through old files and following up obscure leads.<br />
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Here for your viewing pleasure are the clips, which give valuable insights into the Thylacine's movement and behaviour.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-30784448671902476182019-03-04T20:16:00.001+11:002020-05-13T08:13:27.147+10:00<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="eoib7-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="eoib7-0-0"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>BOOK REVIEW</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yahoo Creek by Tohby Riddle. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW, 2019.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="e7op4-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="e7op4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having resided in two areas - the Kororo Basin and the Blue Mountains - long noted for reports of strange, highly elusive ape-men, the prolific writer and award-winning artist Tohby Riddle has been interested in the yowie/yahoo mystery for many years.</span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="fpv9b-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iXZB6JxPoSY/XHzsuwZ94EI/AAAAAAAADTQ/OEEmqyjGJF02v4y7QU8CYqF8rIUhOiR2gCLcBGAs/s1600/9781760631451.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="345" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iXZB6JxPoSY/XHzsuwZ94EI/AAAAAAAADTQ/OEEmqyjGJF02v4y7QU8CYqF8rIUhOiR2gCLcBGAs/s320/9781760631451.jpg" width="285" /></span></a><span data-offset-key="fpv9b-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He has researched the baffling phenomenon in considerable depth, and now, in Yahoo Creek, has put the fruits of his research to very good use.</span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="jjag-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="jjag-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although the lavishly illustrated book is intended, primarily, to interest children in the age-old, but on-going, mystery, it is so beautifully produced, and so rich in authentic detail that it is sure to intrigue many older readers.</span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="cerc6-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="cerc6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Almost every double page contains details of a dramatic yowie event taken from a nineteenth or early-twentieth century newspaper, and each item is perfectly complemented by Tohby’s very atmospheric artwork. Many more colonial-era and early modern-era articles are presented, in their original form, in the front and back inside-covers. </span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="c0aks-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="c0aks-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one can begin to understand the yowie/yahoo phenomenon without taking into account the views of Australia’s Indigenous people, who, after all, have been encountering the strange creatures for centuries, if not millennia. So it is very appropriate that Yahoo Creek contains, in addition to the many sighting reports, several enlightening items of Aboriginal Hairy Man lore. Those were shared with Tohby by his friend, Ngiyampaa Elder Peter Williams.</span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="10kgq-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="10kgq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yahoo Creek will, I’m sure, super-charge the imagination of legions of kids, and any previously sceptical adult who peruses it will have to admit that the yowie/yahoo phenomenon, far from being a series of modern-era hoaxes, has a very long, well documented history. </span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="68iu1-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="68iu1-0-0" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="eq571-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="eq571-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tony Healy</span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="j9mo" data-offset-key="aq754-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-offset-key="aq754-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Co-author, with Paul Cropper, of Out of the Shadows, Mystery Animals of Australia (1994) and The Yowie (2006)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/picture-books/Yahoo-Creek-Tohby-Riddle-9781760631451"><span data-offset-key="61a14-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;">https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/picture-books/Yahoo-Creek-Tohby-Riddle-9781760631451</span></span></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-10692680682842737762017-04-08T12:27:00.002+10:002017-04-08T12:27:26.400+10:00Victorian Bigcats Research Group <div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">Victorian Bigcats Research Group </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Myself and co founder Sarah Alsop created the group out of our mutual interest in the Bigcat phenomenon. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">We have both had sightings in the Otway ranges and actively conduct our research in the Otways and other parts of Victoria. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">We will be expanding our research in the coming months and would like to hear about your sightings or any other experiences relating to the subject you may have had throughout Australia.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You can keep up to date with our research by joining our group "Victorian Bigcats Research Group or via our YouTube channel " Victorian Bigcats Research Group .</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Kevin Braunton</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/Victorianbigcatsresearchgroup/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/Victorianbigcatsresearchgroup/</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-4987598521095617262017-03-31T22:11:00.001+11:002018-06-20T15:59:05.581+10:00A New Thylacine group is taking off big time...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fvjTKGa7VJY/WynsKRkLtWI/AAAAAAAADOo/mlf3xknWENw2iTBPD0ITzxPIBrVUz0E7QCLcBGAs/s1600/tasmanian%2Btiger%2Barchives.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="1600" height="149" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fvjTKGa7VJY/WynsKRkLtWI/AAAAAAAADOo/mlf3xknWENw2iTBPD0ITzxPIBrVUz0E7QCLcBGAs/s400/tasmanian%2Btiger%2Barchives.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fl82-0-0"><span data-text="true">Another fantastic Facebook Tasmanian Tiger group has been created by a few of us to catalog all Tasmanian sightings and the folklore and history of this amazing animal.</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="fl82-0-0"><span data-text="true">This will also have the latest Tasmanian art as well !!</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="fl82-0-0"><span data-text="true">The difference between this group and others will be it will have NO mainland mangy dog and mangy fox reports or crap video of the same.</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="fl82-0-0"><span data-text="true">We welcome all new members</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/TasmanianTigerArchives/"><b><span data-offset-key="fl82-0-0"><span data-text="true">https://www.facebook.com/groups/TasmanianTigerArchives/</span></span></b></a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-36090282173628032452016-07-26T18:49:00.002+10:002016-07-26T18:50:00.111+10:00'Hypercarnivore' relative of Tasmanian devil found in remote Queensland fossil field<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QOmQmorKfN4/V5cjwez5BBI/AAAAAAAADLY/kNR3LI48zsIcAGc7_MBo7GVa4xafwveeQCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-07-26%2Bat%2B6.43.18%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QOmQmorKfN4/V5cjwez5BBI/AAAAAAAADLY/kNR3LI48zsIcAGc7_MBo7GVa4xafwveeQCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-07-26%2Bat%2B6.43.18%2Bpm.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PHOTO: Whollydooleya's tooth was discovered in 2013, but only recently formally identified. (Supplied: UNSW)</td></tr>
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The fossilised tooth of a previously unknown 'hypercarnivore' marsupial has been uncovered in remote Queensland after scientists used satellite data to locate a new hotbed of archaeological records.<br />
The discovery was made possible after a satellite discovery of a an archaeologically rich area of late Miocene rock about four hours' drive north of Mt Isa in outback Queensland.<br />
The area was active from around 12 to 5 million years ago.<br />
Named Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum — or Whollydooleya for short — the animal was a much larger, distant cousin of the Tasmanian devil.<br />
"This was an animal which was very considerably bigger than the largest [hypercarnivore] we've got today, the Tasmanian devil, probably two to three times," UNSW's Professor Mike Archer told the ABC.<br />
Professor Archer said the animal — discovered with the fossils of several other small to medium animals new to science — was in the size range of thylacines but much more "massive".<br />
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While the tooth was first discovered in 2013, the animal is the first of those discovered to be formally identified.<br />
Whollydooleya — and the place it was discovered, Wholly Dooleya Hill — is named after Riversleigh volunteer Genevieve Dooley, the partner of team member Phil Creaser, who named the fossil-rich hill for the team before various types of fossil came their way.<br />
"There's also a new kind of kangaroo that turned up, a distant cousin of the musky rat kangaroo that lives on the Atherton Tableland," Professor Archer said.<br />
Medium to large-sized Australian Late Miocene animals have previously been recorded at Northern Territory sites, but little is known about smaller animals from the period.<br />
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"The small to medium-sized mammals from the New Riversleigh deposits will reveal a great deal about how Australia's inland environments and animals changed between 12 and 5 million years ago," team member Dr Karen Black said.Satellites help uncover fossil field<br />
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The story behind the discovery of the new fossil field is almost as remarkable as the animals themselves.<br />
Scientists from UNSW used satellite data to locate the 'New Riversleigh' fossil field before visiting it via helicopter. (Supplied: UNSW)<br />
A PhD student at the university, Ned Stephens, developed a way to use satellite data to find fossil fields by studying the frequencies being returned from known sites at the well-known Riversleigh World Heritage Area.<br />
In 2012, Mr Stephens found a specific set of frequencies coming back up to the satellite but found it was being returned well outside the bounds of the known fossil fields.<br />
"It turns out this area which we're calling New Riversleigh is bigger than the world heritage area, and yet it's not within the world heritage area," Professor Archer said.<br />
"We're just beginning to understand there's a massive deposit of fossils out there which we had no idea about."<br />
<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-26/fossil-discovery-hypercarnivore-marsupial-evesleigh-queensland/7660812"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Source</b></span></a>mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421307258970022315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-23792849312758381242016-06-26T16:30:00.003+10:002016-07-26T18:50:46.685+10:00Latest FB "thylacine" Prank Photo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-afRYEv9HQkw/V29yenVt5fI/AAAAAAAADJI/2Sx6aS5QPzke3ZM2Iz7Hst7e9cKiuqGVQCLcB/s1600/13495055_884257025035714_8368063242973287348_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-afRYEv9HQkw/V29yenVt5fI/AAAAAAAADJI/2Sx6aS5QPzke3ZM2Iz7Hst7e9cKiuqGVQCLcB/s320/13495055_884257025035714_8368063242973287348_n.jpg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dWZBd_EZ1mo/V29yY2yGQyI/AAAAAAAADJA/m5NKcKJTCAoxA7FgOMt0eMgTQDKMrhO5ACLcB/s1600/13466436_884256998369050_8625198832861634258_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dWZBd_EZ1mo/V29yY2yGQyI/AAAAAAAADJA/m5NKcKJTCAoxA7FgOMt0eMgTQDKMrhO5ACLcB/s320/13466436_884256998369050_8625198832861634258_n.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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<br />
Tis the season for Facebook pranks.<br />
Make sure you pretend you just stumbled on to the animal.Tick<br />
Make sure the animal doesnt react like a normal animal.Tick<br />
Pretend you do not know what the animal is..your just "<i>putting it out there</i>" .Tick <br />
Pretend you dont have any idea what the true value of the photos would be, if they were real..just give them away on facebook.Tick<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SYV9wDiSzUg/V290aRaoKOI/AAAAAAAADJU/9AWWSlcIHuszOpX0vCyl6adbPlQ6ie1MQCLcB/s1600/Geoff%2BTreloar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SYV9wDiSzUg/V290aRaoKOI/AAAAAAAADJU/9AWWSlcIHuszOpX0vCyl6adbPlQ6ie1MQCLcB/s640/Geoff%2BTreloar.png" width="496" /></a></div>
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And Geoff Treloar, ergo..The Prankster has pulled the post.<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.treloar.7/posts/884257041702379"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Link</b></span></a><br />
<br />mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421307258970022315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-82865956074999513682016-06-19T18:12:00.000+10:002016-06-19T18:15:09.164+10:00OOPA: Golden Possum turns up in BrisbaneWe love it when unusual wildlife turn up where they're not supposed to - in this case the rather splendid-looking Golden Possum, a rare colour phase previously only known to turn up in small pockets of Tasmania (and every once in a Blue Moon, on the outskirts of somewhere like Sydney).<br />
<br />
These beauties have a hard time in the wild - it's tricky staying out of sight from large predators like Powerful Owls when your fur is as blingy as this bloke's!<br />
<br />
So our thanks to Queensland-based CFZ Australia reader Dylan Smerdon for sharing his friend Auresh Yousefpour's pictures of this rare beauty, which appeared in a suburban backyard in Highgate Hill, Brisbane recently. We've never heard of a Golden Possum so far north.<br />
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Have you seen an Out of Place Animal (OOPA) in Australia? Send in your pics, we'd love to see and share them on the blog.<br />
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<span id="goog_1292729564"></span><span id="goog_1292729565"></span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-24563196737589024622016-06-19T18:01:00.000+10:002016-06-19T18:21:19.879+10:00Book Review: Lure Of The Thylacine by Col Bailey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a gp="" href="https://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=" https:="" product="" ref="as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00CL3N4R0&linkCode=as2&tag=bigoutdoorliv-20&linkId=b9dbf8c79ea0bc1d7086f0f658586303" www.amazon.com=""></a><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wfeVrCR91S4/V2ZQp7DuDtI/AAAAAAAADG4/QmspNcWwhwwr6lQT5V26btpCIBfRZcIwQCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-19%2Bat%2B5.32.18%2Bpm.png" width="265" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Mike Williams</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Easily Col Bailey's best book so far, Lure Of the Thylacine is now out, the second of three planned books dedicated to the Thylacine. Get your copy <span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E9PTHRS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01E9PTHRS&linkCode=as2&tag=bigoutdoorliv-20&linkId=3e96e6e6c22f7b57ae535dd794d0e782">HERE</a>.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The passion and dedication that Col has put into this subject astounds me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As
engrossing as the stories are, what is perhaps the saddest thing
is that they show you how ignorant people were, sometimes, in those days when
they encountered these poor animals.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are 64 punchy short chapters on Tiger encounters and stories, some that do end happily, at least for the tiger!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Professor
Mike Archer has been so impressed with Col's work that he happily
accepted the request to write a really thoughtful introduction.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Col's first book started when Col interviewed Reg Trigg back in 1980.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The tiger is still out there and the Lure Of The Thylacine will never go away.</span>mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421307258970022315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-24616112550598776902016-06-13T17:27:00.002+10:002016-06-19T18:26:48.947+10:00Victorian Big Cat Hoax on FacebookOkay, some Facebook funster has tried a quick hoax, which failed miserably, claiming that he had photographed a large black panther crossing a dirt road in central Victoria.<br />
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Click the image to enlarge it. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-neosnnlXf5s/V15c7U5I__I/AAAAAAAADEA/IU1_Z2zq_c4iVB9ZYV1bVFuQnvKB69z3gCLcB/s1600/ryan.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-neosnnlXf5s/V15c7U5I__I/AAAAAAAADEA/IU1_Z2zq_c4iVB9ZYV1bVFuQnvKB69z3gCLcB/s320/ryan.png" width="291" /></a></div>
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The image was taken down but that didn't stop the power of social media from sending it viral within minutes, with multiple people claiming either they, their friend or close relative had taken the photo.<br />
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You have to admire their pluck!<br />
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Our thanks to Tania P. Woodliffe, who appears to have solved the mystery by pointing us to this local news article featuring a fearsome-looking model. <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://issuu.com/dhslocal/docs/the_local_issue_72_may_23__2016" target="_blank">Source</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bsqb8FSr8MU/V15dTKwaQiI/AAAAAAAADEI/C6gOFszqY4cqEJxSCQF9OZwfjQAsNoyXACLcB/s1600/cat%2Bmodel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bsqb8FSr8MU/V15dTKwaQiI/AAAAAAAADEI/C6gOFszqY4cqEJxSCQF9OZwfjQAsNoyXACLcB/s320/cat%2Bmodel.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
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<br />mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421307258970022315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-71167613416635122712015-03-15T22:01:00.000+11:002015-03-15T22:01:12.361+11:00Exhaust Notes talks to us about tracking Tigers with Toyota<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hkRybjeHUBg/VQVl4bnR1cI/AAAAAAAADGk/0RNXZJYJl0A/s1600/IMG_3500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hkRybjeHUBg/VQVl4bnR1cI/AAAAAAAADGk/0RNXZJYJl0A/s1600/IMG_3500.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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The team over at <a href="http://exhaustnotes.com.au/index.php/toyota-backs-expedition/" target="_blank">Exhaust Notes</a> caught up with some CFZers recently to talk about the recent Tasmanian expedition sponsored by Toyota Australia.<br />
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Here's a snippet:<br />
<br />
<b>Why did Toyota Australia sponsor your trips?</b><br />
<br />
Toyota Australia agreed to sponsor our trips after we approached them with our idea. They thought the premise was exciting and a good fit for their 4WD vehicles; popular in regional and rural Australia. We were attracted to Toyota because of its solid reputation as a manufacturer of high performance off-road vehicles, and their popularity in the bush. It was a perfect match for us really, and meant we were able to do so much more than we had originally planned.<br />
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<a href="http://exhaustnotes.com.au/index.php/toyota-backs-expedition/" target="_blank">Get the full story over at Exhaust Notes.</a><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-50626494535768891072015-03-15T21:07:00.000+11:002015-03-15T22:20:13.680+11:00On the trail of the Tiger<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VQveYZnJHVM/VQVnFD2gDlI/AAAAAAAADGw/BaqyBq2_ex8/s1600/r0_0_1280_720_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VQveYZnJHVM/VQVnFD2gDlI/AAAAAAAADGw/BaqyBq2_ex8/s1600/r0_0_1280_720_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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NSW man Michael Williams is on his <a href="http://www.cfzaustralia.com/2013/10/toyota-backs-biggest-search-yet-for.html" target="_blank">eighth Toyota-sponsored trip in 10 years</a> to the State searching for evidence the Tasmanian tiger walks the Apple Isle - 29 years after it was officially declared dead and gone.<br />
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The last known thylacine died in captivity on November 7, 1936.<br />
<br />
"Initially I wasn't that much interested in the tiger and we did a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Australian-Big-Cats-Unnatural-Panthers/dp/0646530070/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top" target="_blank">Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers</a>, which is folklore on the big cat mythology on the mainland," Mr Williams said.<br />
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"While we were doing that, we started to get Tassie tiger reports and we started to follow that up.<br />
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"I initially thought it couldn't exist and the quality of witnesses really surprised me.<br />
<br />
"When I'm dealing with multiple witnesses especially on the same event, I just don't think that everyone of them is lying to or hoaxing me.<br />
<br />
"When a husband and wife are sitting there and saying to me in 1994, 2004, or whatever, 'we saw three animals cross the road in front of us with a funny head, weird gait and stripes', I think they are telling the truth.<br />
<br />
"All up, I have spoken to about 30 to 40 people."<br />
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Mr Williams said the last reported sighting he had received was 13 months ago when multiple witnesses allegedly watched a large adult male thylacine cross the road in the North-East.<br />
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He said if the carnivorous marsupial was still around, it would most likely be in the North-West or North East.<br />
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"The technology that I think will prove they do exist will be 'Joe Tourist' driving around with those crash cameras," Mr Williams said.<br />
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"At the moment I am primarily collecting reports and trying to find locations, farms and areas where the highest probability of me finding the tiger is.<br />
<br />
"I'm looking for game trails to put cameras on."<br />
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Mr Williams said there were five other people in Tasmania searching for evidence and was excited for what may be discovered.<br />
<br />
He said the best secondary evidence available was a coloured image of a thylacine's footprint, allegedly shot dead in 1990 near Adamsfield, published in Col Bailey's book.<br />
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"The original photo is in colour which means there was an animal existing, after the black and white era, so it was up to 1991 that they were still around, we believe," he said.<br />
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"What the museum does is play a subtle game with the truth, they go 'there is no secondary evidence'.<br />
<br />
"If you speak to either of the museums when they get scats, they say 'this could be a Tassie tiger'.<br />
<br />
"Their question is 'are you going to do DNA for it', and they say they 'don't have the budget'.<br />
<br />
"If you go to the museum in Hobart they now use the term 'biological extinction', which is quite a weird argument.<br />
<br />
"It means that it has got such a small genetic pool it has very little effect on the local fauna."<br />
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Mr Williams said he had been stalled by some Tasmanian private land owners, not wanting him to explore their land for various reasons.<br />
<br />
"Eventually, we think it is worth a book - and after finding some really compelling evidence," he said.<br />
<br />
"I think we will keep coming back for another 10 years.<br />
<br />
"By that stage we will either be going 'yes we proved it' or know we are just deluded."<br />
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Mr Williams heads home on March 29 and is asking private land owners and those who believe they know where the animal is to call 0416 303 371.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.examiner.com.au/story/2945072/man-on-the-trail-of-the-tasmanian-tiger-video/?cs=95" target="_blank">Read the full story at The Examiner.</a><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-75486819624383681452015-02-26T22:43:00.000+11:002015-03-15T22:17:23.403+11:00Tasmanian tiger trackers return to island for new expedition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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An international team of Tasmanian tigers trackers is back in the island state for another Toyota-sponsored expedition to find the fabled creature.<br />
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The group of naturalists, headed by Mike Williams, returned last week to search for the thylacine, which was officially declared extinct in the early 1980s.<br />
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The last captive thylacine died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.<br />
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Joining Mr Williams on his latest six-week search will be zoologists and thylacine hunters from Britain and Denmark.<br />
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The expedition is being run by the Centre for Fortean Zoology, based in the UK and Australia, which investigates “mystery animals” considered rare, extinct or undiscovered.<br />
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It will be the group’s second expedition after travelling south in October 2013.<br />
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But Mr Williams, from New South Wales, has personally been searching for the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times for more than a decade<br />
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“If someone said to me when I first started that 10 years on we would still be getting tips — our last one was a year ago — I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said.<br />
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“With the increase of people using crash (dashboard-mounted) cameras, we believe a local using one might be a good chance of stumbling across a thylacine while driving.”<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>TIGER HUNTER CONFIDENT TECHNOLOGY WILL PROVIDE ANSWERS</b><br />
<br />
The five-person team arrived in the state last week and has already been following up tips and speaking to people who claim they spotted the animal in the state’s north.<br />
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They will explore areas around northern Tasmania for about four weeks before shifting their focus to the state’s isolated south-west.<br />
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“Tasmania is recognised as one of the most biologically rich places on the planet, so it makes sense that the Tasmanian tiger could survive in remote parts of the state,” Mr Williams said.<br />
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“We believe that there is a breeding pack somewhere in Tasmania but we need proof.”<br />
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Robert Paddle, who wrote a book on the history and extinction of the thylacine titled The Last Tasmanian Tiger, said finding proof might be impossible.<br />
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“I would love to be proved wrong,” he said.<br />
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“But there is a definition of extinction and to change that you need a body.”<br />
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Have you seen a thylacine? Call Mr Williams on 0416 303 371.<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1627383925"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/tasmanian-tiger-trackers-return-to-island-state-for-new-expedition/story-fnjj6013-1227239807893?sv=9bfbb1f0e0723868b2eacfcdc22ee86f#.VPKy6moDCD8.facebook">http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/tasmanian-tiger-trackers-return-to-island-state-for-new-expedition/story-fnjj6013-1227239807893?sv=9bfbb1f0e0723868b2eacfcdc22ee86f#.VPKy6moDCD8.facebook</a>mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421307258970022315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-69321170725090229482015-02-11T21:59:00.000+11:002015-03-06T22:00:23.257+11:00Search combs state for elusive Tasmanian Tiger<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xxzvIFUdpVo/VPmIUn1sjUI/AAAAAAAACro/fPrNnrdUVzA/s1600/IMG_5218.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xxzvIFUdpVo/VPmIUn1sjUI/AAAAAAAACro/fPrNnrdUVzA/s1600/IMG_5218.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike Williams and Lars Thomas hit the Tiger trail.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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An international team of naturalists from the Centre for Fortean Zoology has returned to Tasmania to search for the Tasmanian Tiger, <i>Thylacinus cynocephalus</i>, in one of the biggest concentrated ongoing searches yet for the elusive animal, which was officially declared extinct in the early 1980s.<br />
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Expedition leader Michael Williams said the six-week trip – once again generously sponsored by Toyota Australia - is exploring densely forested areas in the State’s north and south west.<br />
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"Tasmania is recognised as one of the most biologically rich places on the planet, so it makes sense that the Tasmanian Tiger could survive in remote parts of the State," Mr Williams said.<br />
<br />
"Tasmania is also something of an ark for Australia, acting as a final refuge for many species declared extinct on the mainland, such as the Eastern quoll.<br />
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“As on previous trips, we have already collected several compelling accounts of recent sightings of the Tasmanian Tiger. On this trip we're hopeful of finding scats, hair or footage to back up claims this rare marsupial remains active in these areas."<br />
<br />
Danish zoologist Lars Thomas has joined this year's expedition, and said the Tasmanian Tiger has long been a source of interest for him.<br />
<br />
"The Tasmanian Tiger is possibly one of the most fascinating 'extinct' animals I can think of - for me it's very much an animal of the Victorian era, evoking the frontier times of Australia's convicts, colonists, and early Aboriginal tribes," Mr Thomas said.<br />
<br />
"I think it's one of the few supposedly extinct animals on the planet that has the biggest likelihood of surviving." <br />
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The team is traversing the difficult terrain in two Toyota 4WD LandCruisers, using sophisticated game cameras, starlight scopes, and dash-cameras to monitor wildlife.<br />
<br />
Expedition team members for 2015 include: Michael Williams (NSW/AUS), Lars Thomas (DENMARK), Dr Chris Clark (UK), Rebecca Lang (NSW/AUS), and Tony Healy (ACT/AUS).<br />
<br />
Media Contact: Michael Williams on 0416 303 371.<br />
<br />
Seen a Tiger? Share your sighting at <a href="mailto:cfzaustralia@yahoo.com.au">cfzaustralia@yahoo.com.au</a><br />
<br />mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421307258970022315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-66151892591343407662014-12-24T19:42:00.002+11:002014-12-24T19:44:06.633+11:00The Tasmanian Tiger: Extinct or Extant? makes Top 20<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xhaJ-Sa83as/VIBCqogKfeI/AAAAAAAADEs/kB9rY1NDmQE/s1600/8152Fc8gpIL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xhaJ-Sa83as/VIBCqogKfeI/AAAAAAAADEs/kB9rY1NDmQE/s1600/8152Fc8gpIL.jpg" height="400" width="280" /></a></div>
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Great news!</div>
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The Tasmanian Tiger: Extinct or Extant? has made <a href="http://www.cryptozoonews.com/czbooks2014/" target="_blank">Loren Coleman's Top 20 list of best cryptozoology books for 2014</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/the-tasmanian-tiger-extinct-or-extant/" target="_blank">Cryptomundo</a> recently featured a guest blog post by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rebecca-Lang/e/B0055ZMDQ4/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1419410279&sr=8-1" target="_blank">anthology editor Rebecca Lang</a>:</div>
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The last Thylacine in captivity died on September 7, 1936, ironically just two weeks shy of the species receiving protection status. In 1986, 50 years later, it would be declared extinct. By international standards it no longer exists, and is just another marsupial ghost haunting the Australian landscape following European settlement.</div>
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While Benjamin is often symbolically referred to as ‘The Last Thylacine’, in all likelihood the species persisted in the Tasmanian wilderness well into the 1930s, possibly until the 1950s. In 1980 then-Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife officer Steven Smith conducted a detailed study of sightings between 1934 and 1980, concluding of the 320 sightings, just under half could be considered good, if inconclusive.</div>
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Judging by the thousands of sightings logged by government departments and private research groups since that time, however, it may still roam remote parts of Tasmania...</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HQt_2E0a2jk/VJp8XbcUueI/AAAAAAAADFM/33cxFeC0Lvw/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2014-12-24%2Bat%2B7.41.40%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HQt_2E0a2jk/VJp8XbcUueI/AAAAAAAADFM/33cxFeC0Lvw/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2014-12-24%2Bat%2B7.41.40%2BPM.png" height="400" width="381" /></a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-61931884436409662312014-12-04T22:35:00.000+11:002014-12-04T23:16:46.556+11:00New Australian book queries Tasmanian Tiger extinction...<br />
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Does the Tasmanian Tiger still roam the island state, parts of the Australian mainland, and the northern land mass of Irian Jaya-Papua New Guinea? </div>
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Despite being hunted to extinction in the early part of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Tiger continues to stalk the imaginations of people the world over. What's more, hundreds of reports of the striped dog-like marsupial with the fearsome gaping jaw are made each year in Australia. </div>
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In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tasmanian-Tiger-Extinct-Extant/dp/0646926349/ref=asap_B0055ZMDQ4_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417691848&sr=1-3" target="_blank">The Tasmanian Tiger: Extinct or Extant?</a>, biologists, geneticists, naturalists, and academics explore the evidence for and against the continuing existence of <i>Thylacinus cynocephalus</i>.</div>
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Featuring essays by Peter Chapple, Ned Terry, Col Bailey, Bob Paddle, Nick Mooney, Tony Healy, Paul Cropper, Andrew Pask, Malcolm Smith, Gary Opit and Michael Williams.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-46198835772009395822014-12-04T19:58:00.000+11:002014-12-04T22:58:57.008+11:00Monster croc stalks Queensland fishermen<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s00fSEMLB2g?list=UUvoZLe0mbk52TIeEM2Op4ow" width="480"></iframe><br /></div>
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A 6-metre-long "man-eater sized" crocodile has stalked two Queensland fishermen while they sat in a small boat in the Hinchenbrook Channel north of Ingham.<br />
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Whitsunday man Andy Thomsen and a friend were fly fishing from their dinghy when the monster croc appeared only 2m away and "scared the s--- out of" them.<br />
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The keen angler captured the whole ordeal with a camera strapped to his head to record for his YouTube channel.<br />
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"This is a man-eater sized croc and if we had not been watching who knows what it may have done," Mr Thomsen told the Townsville Bulletin.<br />
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Over a 50 minute period the carnivorous reptile had followed them for more than 50m and then another 2km before popping up in the water beside them.<br />
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"We were sliding down the food chain," Mr Thomsen wrote in the video.<br />
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"I've never got that close to one before," he said about the encounter on the weekend.<br />
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"If it had have stayed up, I don't know what we would have done."<br />
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Despite his terrifyingly close encounter, Mr Thomsen said he would not be giving fishing away any time soon.<br />
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Read more at <a href="http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/12/04/11/20/queensland-fishermen-stalked-by-6m-man-eating-croc#RwhCVsBKiV4MlgDf.99">http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/12/04/11/20/queensland-fishermen-stalked-by-6m-man-eating-croc#RwhCVsBKiV4MlgDf.99</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-82246501212417224552014-09-14T22:17:00.000+10:002014-09-14T22:17:14.096+10:00Book review: The Science of Monsters by Matt Kaplan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gqQq-8ublkc/UstnT8GF17I/AAAAAAAAC9g/LjqkugIKeN0/s1600/9781472101150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gqQq-8ublkc/UstnT8GF17I/AAAAAAAAC9g/LjqkugIKeN0/s1600/9781472101150.jpg" height="400" width="246" /></a></div>
<br />
The Science of Monsters by science journalist Matt Kaplan<br />
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Review by Mike Williams<br />
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It was with some trepidation I initially delved in to this book. Perhaps it was the title 'The Science of Monsters' that was a bit off-putting (cue: slightly patronising tone and allusions to 'frightened, hysterical peasants'). But it turned out to be a really fun read on legendary monsters...and how they might be explained by modern science and the cultures that lived in awe and fear of them.<br />
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Did dragons really terrify people?<br />
How did the legends of werewolves and vampires really start?<br />
Could science resurrect dinosaurs? And would you really want a T.Rex living next door?<br />
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Kaplan discusses animals that really did exist, such as the fierce Eurasian cave lion, which was about 25 per cent bigger than today's lions, and then elegantly segues to giant European boars and the 2004 Alabama 'Hogzilla' which, when dug up, suddenly shrank in dimensions.<br />
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And he makes a thorough job of sifting through folklore, history and literature for clues to the origins of monsters. With references to everything from King Kong and giant squids to demons and vampires (and more than a few nods to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other icons of popular culture), it's sure to interest most readers.<br />
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Grounded in facts that would one day bear the fruit of fiction, The Science of Monsters is all about humans making sense of the world around them, even if it means putting fangs, fur and fear into the equation when it comes time to grapple with the great unknown.<br />
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The last word must go to Kaplan: "People have always looked to the horizon and feared that which they did not understand…"<br />
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If you like history, fables, with a dose of real science, then you will love this book.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-85299094614155315272014-06-26T22:04:00.001+10:002014-06-26T22:05:32.819+10:00Book review: A Gift From the Snake That Bit Him<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SOdVZBNgxQA/U6wKxipXQ9I/AAAAAAAAC_4/aH9mfK5pw6s/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SOdVZBNgxQA/U6wKxipXQ9I/AAAAAAAAC_4/aH9mfK5pw6s/s1600/photo.JPG" height="400" width="293" /></a></div>
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A Gift From the Snake That Bit Him: Adventures of an Australian Reptile Man by Neville Burns<br />
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Review by Mike Williams<br />
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Neville Burns, of <a href="http://www.nevilleburns.net/">www.nevilleburns.net</a>, is one of Australia's most famous herpetologists.<br />
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After years of being prodded by his friends, Neville has finally released his much anticipated memoir detailing his life-long interest in, and the early days of, reptile collecting in Australia.<br />
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Combine the weird sense of Australian humour, a complete disregard for his own safety and a genuine love and passion for reptiles, and you end up with this great book.<br />
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His early travels up and down the coast of Australia are fascinating as well as his encounters with all sorts of 'crazy' characters, the kinds of people you could only meet in the Antipodes.<br />
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One of the genuine good guys in this field who holds no airs or graces, Neville has always been the first to give fellow enthusiasts his sought-after advice and time.<br />
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Even if you don't know the difference between a Death Adder and a Taipan, you will still find the book an enjoyable collection of stories about these fascinating animals.<br />
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And you might actual learn a thing or two, especially why you should never 'borrow' a young crocodile when owed money!<br />
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Of course you have to buy the book to find out what happened next.<br />
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The book is available through <a href="http://www.nevilleburns.net/">www.nevilleburns.net</a>.<br />
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CFZ Australia's Mike Williams caught up with Neville this week to talk all things herpetological.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wXPhvqY6qPs" width="480"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-65561752321384737732014-02-15T20:13:00.001+11:002014-02-15T20:13:32.775+11:00Mystery animal captured on thermal camera - what is it?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fXy4_RMTloo/TwPPSeRS03I/AAAAAAAABTU/kT-pf1uplIg/s1600/gse_multipart67357.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fXy4_RMTloo/TwPPSeRS03I/AAAAAAAABTU/kT-pf1uplIg/s1600/gse_multipart67357.png" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
Now here's something interesting.<br />
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This game camera footage was shot by Wayne Knight in rural Victoria.<br />
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The mystery creature with felid-like movements was captured on a thermal camera. We guesstimate the distance at about 400 metres.<br />
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If you think you know what this animal is, please contact us at <b><a href="mailto:cfzaustralia@yahoo.com.au">cfzaustralia@yahoo.com.au</a></b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XMmUizr11G8" width="480"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-28417658198595931362014-01-20T21:44:00.000+11:002014-01-20T21:44:18.636+11:002013 CFZ Tasmanian Tiger expedition snippets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xVuHfOQHTxM/UoK3oi55QMI/AAAAAAAAC5Q/Mt-51PS9CBA/s1600/%2522Benjamin%2522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xVuHfOQHTxM/UoK3oi55QMI/AAAAAAAAC5Q/Mt-51PS9CBA/s1600/%2522Benjamin%2522.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
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Poisonous spiders, Tasmanian Devils, Thylacine sightings...the 2013 CFZ Tasmanian Tiger expedition had it all! Here are a few highlights...including some fascinating sightings.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/VB_2ms0hHkM" width="480"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-92024943937804026782014-01-07T11:46:00.001+11:002014-01-07T12:45:08.542+11:00Book review: Abominable Science! by Loxton & Prothero<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231153201/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0231153201&linkCode=as2&tag=bigoutdoorliv-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2RzAlNYxHvo/UstHwAizLQI/AAAAAAAAC7s/XjVXHEGH8Fk/s1600/book_abominable-big.jpg" height="400" width="260" /></a></div>
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By Mike Williams<br />
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The last book I had read by so-called "skeptics" on cryptozoology consisted of an anger-filled polemic against the "stupid people that chase monsters that everyone knows cannot exist".<br />
I expected <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231153201/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0231153201&linkCode=as2&tag=bigoutdoorliv-20" target="_blank">Abominable Science!</a> to be something along the same lines. I was wrong.<br />
But let me make a brief digression.<br />
<br />
While on Facebook recently, I noticed some cryptozoologists deriding this book as garbage.<br />
When I asked them directly which pages exactly contained mistakes, I was told that the authors "were being smart arses" in their book.<br />
I agreed that they may well have been, but again I asked what information was wrong.<br />
I was then told by one of the Facebook critics that they had already pointed out problems with the book on another site and were not going to do it again.<br />
And from the cricket sounds to my subsequent questions, I guessed that I had been hit by the dreaded Facebook comeback, "the unfollow". (Apparently when some people find themselves in a corner and cannot answer a question, they "unfollow" the conversation.)<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SPm-XyFC7y0/UstM-wnT6HI/AAAAAAAAC8M/l4-W3Ws8oqU/s1600/5d4a77a6b83fd6b355b87a5836844f824191ee174f9925b941c6a2146b3a26ac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SPm-XyFC7y0/UstM-wnT6HI/AAAAAAAAC8M/l4-W3Ws8oqU/s1600/5d4a77a6b83fd6b355b87a5836844f824191ee174f9925b941c6a2146b3a26ac.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Anyway, this book slays any semblance of the possibility of the existence of the Yeti, Sasquatch and Loch Ness Monster dead.<br />
The authors carefully lay out the claims, and then show you the actual facts.<br />
Personally I gave up years ago on a Sasquatch-type creature ever existing. In Abominable Science, the authors expose all the fakery around the Yeti, and language translation problems involved with the word itself.<br />
Who would not be annoyed at being told there was a Yeti, and having people point at a bear? Just a quick hint: a bear at a distance can be bipedal for short periods of times. There is your Yeti.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e-7vm8W1gEA/UstNwzMPQ4I/AAAAAAAAC8U/1EXW8Q6RIXA/s1600/yeti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e-7vm8W1gEA/UstNwzMPQ4I/AAAAAAAAC8U/1EXW8Q6RIXA/s1600/yeti.jpg" height="335" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A popular representation of a Yeti.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But then the authors went too far and destroyed my fondest, dearest belief in the possible existence of The Loch Ness Monster! :-)<br />
The Loch Ness Monster industry was spawned in the 1930s, around the same time that the first version of King Kong was released in Scotland by Hollywood studios. And in that film was a long-necked water monster. What a coincidence!<br />
But believers often point to the "historical" account of a sighting of the beast by Columba, the Irish missionary monk, in the 560s.What they forget to mention is that it's not a first person account, but a story, one of many stories about Columba, made up by a man called Adomnan about 100 years later.<br />
<br />
If you love the cryptozoology field - that is, what's left of it (and what hasn't been destroyed by hoaxing), then you should definitely buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231153201/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0231153201&linkCode=as2&tag=bigoutdoorliv-20" target="_blank">Abominable Science!</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kA7b1oqS75k/UstK028AXMI/AAAAAAAAC74/6V_9639v2sE/s1600/1934-lochnessmonster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kA7b1oqS75k/UstK028AXMI/AAAAAAAAC74/6V_9639v2sE/s1600/1934-lochnessmonster.jpg" height="292" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> The famous (and disputed) 1934 'surgeon's photo' taken by <br />
Lt. Col. Robert Kenneth Wilson.</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6W1ZYh9LyMc/UstLPdlwjVI/AAAAAAAAC8A/hu2wF1AUrSI/s1600/KingKongStill_Kemp-inset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6W1ZYh9LyMc/UstLPdlwjVI/AAAAAAAAC8A/hu2wF1AUrSI/s1600/KingKongStill_Kemp-inset.jpg" height="200" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from the original film King Kong. Inset image: A sketch made from a <br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
witness’s description many months after his sighting.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-47941069622845666082014-01-06T11:52:00.000+11:002014-01-07T11:57:01.612+11:00Denmark gets behind Tasmanian Devil preservation<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i8EBR9EuXiQ/TNdCNa16zqI/AAAAAAAAAa0/5K-ubERXWTg/s1600/tasmanian+devil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i8EBR9EuXiQ/TNdCNa16zqI/AAAAAAAAAa0/5K-ubERXWTg/s1600/tasmanian+devil.jpg" height="252" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Denmark's Copenhagen Zoo hopes to become a centre of excellence in Tasmanian devil handling.<br />
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The zoo celebrated the first successful breeding of the endangered animals outside Australia last year when two female devils gave birth to a total of seven joeys.<br />
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Now the zoo is planning to open a dedicated devil handling school, where staff from other European zoos can receive the training that will be necessary to take part in Tasmania's overseas Ambassador Devils initiative.<br />
<br />
Copenhagen zoo curator Flemming Neilsen, who received his training at Tasmania's Trowunna Wildlife Park, has become the first so-called devils' advocate outside Australia, which also supplied the zoo's devils.<br />
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Read more at: <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/denmarks-copenhagen-zoo-plans-to-lead-way-in-tasmanian-devil-care/story-fnjj6013-1226795010612">http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/denmarks-copenhagen-zoo-plans-to-lead-way-in-tasmanian-devil-care/story-fnjj6013-1226795010612</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-20647924518794557192014-01-04T12:02:00.000+11:002014-01-07T12:04:00.833+11:00Is Prof Sykes putting the nail in the Yeti coffin?<br />
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by Andrew Masterson, <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/">www.brisbanetimes.com.au</a><br />
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October 2013 will go down as a bittersweet watershed in the curious field of cryptozoology - the study of creatures that probably don't exist.<br />
Cryptozoologists are people who search for animals of folklore and rumour: yowies, bunyips, rogue panthers, ape-men, the Loch Ness monster, the Beast of Buderim, the Goatman of Maryland, Oklahoma Octopus and many more.<br />
In October, though, something really weird happened.<br />
A well-respected mainstream geneticist, Dr Bryan Sykes, from Oxford University, announced that he had done DNA tests on two hair samples collected, centuries apart, by yeti hunters. The samples, he reported, both came from a species unknown to science.<br />
For believers in the Abominable Snowman, that was the good news. The bad followed immediately: the species was not an ape, but some type of bear. The mysterious creature roaming the Himalayas was not so much Yeti as Yogi.<br />
Sykes' research, yet to be published in full, has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of Australia's cryptozoological community. The hunt for our own ape-man, the Yowie, continues unabated.<br />
Prime among the Yowie hunters is Rex Gilroy, 70, self-proclaimed ''father of Australian cryptozoology'', author, naturalist and hunter of improbable beasts.<br />
''The silly sketches of Yowies as giant, hairy apes are all wrong,'' he says. ''Yowies are a living form of [human ancestor] Homo erectus.''<br />
Gilroy claims to have collected a number of fossil hominid skulls - of Homo erectus and the even earlier Australopithecus - which he says proves that human ancestors were living in Australia long before the arrival of Aborigines.<br />
Some of his best specimens were discovered near the Fish River in the central western district of NSW.<br />
''I believe there is a population of Homo erectus still living there,'' he said.<br />
''The Yowie is no gorilla-like monster. It's a fire-making, tool-making hominid. I've found campsites and stone tools, some of them only a few months old.''<br />
Gilroy is also active in the hunt for two perennials of Australian cryptozoology - the thylacine and wild panthers.<br />
This last is a popular target for investigation in Victoria. Reports of big cat sightings appear frequently in country newspapers, blurry video clips crop up on telly, and shots of hideously mauled dead sheep are often cited as evidence of big cat kills.<br />
Indeed, in 2012 one of the first acts of incoming Victorian Premier Denis Napthine was to commission a review of big cat sightings. The review, conducted by the Department of Primary Industries, concluded that feral panthers, jaguars or other feline peak predators were almost certainly not roaming around the state.<br />
However, because it is impossible to prove a negative, the report's findings are unlikely to dampen the spirits of the cryptozoological sleuths. Prime among them is Simon Townsend, of Geelong, who heads a group called Big Cats Victoria.<br />
''We are desperate for actual specimens,'' he said, ''but that's a difficult thing. We think the cats are Malay leopards - black leopards - and there are maybe only a couple of dozen across the state.''<br />
Townsend is careful to separate his pursuit from the windier shores of crypto-research.<br />
''We take this as a totally serious undertaking,'' he said. ''We keep well away from the 'goblin university' folk. They're not very useful when you're after something that kills sheep and eats roos.''<br />
Townsend enjoys a long-term collaboration with crypto-sceptic historian Dr David Waldron, based at Federation University in Ballarat. In 2012 the pair combined to produce a book: Snarls from the Tea-Tree: Big Cat Folklore. Waldron said that while ideas of yowies, bunyips and other fabulous beasts can be traced to the creation myths of different Aboriginal communities, the big cat idea arrived with the Europeans.<br />
''Big cat stories go way back into the 19th century,'' he said.<br />
''Settlers found themselves in an alien landscape, and they had to try to make sense of things such as stock predation and farm failures.<br />
''Their tools for doing this derived from European colonial experience in Africa and Asia - where there were big, dangerous animals, including big cats.''<br />
Some early settlers, he said, were startled that there were no monkeys in Australia. In 1826, settlers visiting Rottnest Island heard sounds in the night, noted dig-marks in the ground, and saw a large shape in the water. They concluded the place was home to hippos.<br />
Big cats in the bush are not, in one sense, mythical at all. There have been several cases, especially in the later 19th century, when lions, pumas and so forth have escaped from travelling menageries and nicked off into the scrub. Waldron has a collection of skeletal remnants lodged in Federation University's library.<br />
The myth kicks in with the idea that these cats somehow survived, bred, and established permanent populations. The usual evidence for this - bizarre stock mutilations - is easily explained.<br />
''Most likely, the mutilations are caused by multiple animals,'' said Waldron. ''A wild dog kills the sheep, then a fox has a go, then birds, rats, and so forth. The result looks unusual.''<br />
Back in NSW, Rex Gilroy, perhaps surprisingly, rejects the idea of wild big cats roaming the bush.<br />
''The panther is a marsupial,'' he says. ''It's a large marsupial, possibly a relation to the extinct marsupial lion. There have been plenty of sightings around Katoomba.''<br />
While many professional scientists dismiss cryptozoology as complete fruit-loopery, Professor Bill Laurence, a distinguished biologist at Queensland's James Cook University, sees great value in the field.<br />
He points out that cryptozoologists have a good record of finding ''Lazarus species'' - types of animals presumed to be extinct but subsequently rediscovered. If the thylacine turns out not to be extinct, it will be a cryptozoologist who finds it, if only because no one else is looking.<br />
''I think there is something similar between cryptozoologists and people who search for aliens, for instance,'' Laurence said. ''There's a desire for mystery, a love of the notion of something out there that we don't understand. It touches something deep in the human spirit.''<br />
As for Sykes' possible Himalayan bear-cum-yeti discovery, Laurence is waiting for the full results to be published.<br />
''A giant bear there would be very remarkable,'' he said. ''What's its food base? I'm a bit leery about it, but it's certainly put the cat among the pigeons.''<br />
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Read more: <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/where-the-wild-things-arent-20140103-308eu.html#ixzz2pfaz5zAE">http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/where-the-wild-things-arent-20140103-308eu.html#ixzz2pfaz5zAE</a><br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-88500910306820141982013-12-30T12:10:00.000+11:002014-01-07T12:11:58.605+11:00Secrecy shrouds world's most 'mysterious' bird<br />
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<i>Some good discussion is happening over at <a href="http://theconversation.com/found-worlds-most-mysterious-bird-but-why-all-the-secrecy-18000" target="_blank">The Conversation's website</a> about the Night Parrot - the short answer, of course, is for its own protection!</i><br />
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The Night Parrot has been called the “world’s most mysterious bird”. First discovered in 1845, it was rarely seen alive for most of the next hundred and seventy years, but it has been rediscovered in 2013 by Queensland naturalist John Young.<br />
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The rediscovery has been shrouded in secrecy; photo and video evidence of the parrot was presented at an invitation-only viewing, and the Queensland government hasn’t been told the location of the parrot. So, why all the secrecy?<br />
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In 2013, Queensland naturalist John Young found what he thinks might be two pairs of Night Parrots, and, to top it off, a nest with three nestlings. Young recently presented a select group of experts with photographic and video evidence of Night Parrots from May 2013, confirming that these were indeed Night Parrots.<br />
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Young also made recordings of the parrot’s vocalisations, which he used to draw the birds close enough to photograph.<br />
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Young is keeping the Night Parrots’ western Queensland location secret for now. The fragile environments at the locality, if revealed, could be damaged by well-meaning but perhaps over-enthusiastic birdwatchers. The birds appear to have recently bred, and even relatively small numbers of people could have a serious impact. Disturbance could also interfere with research.<br />
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There is also the ongoing threat of illegal bird trade. Secrecy at least provides some restraint on this unscrupulous activity.<br />
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Read more at: <a href="http://theconversation.com/found-worlds-most-mysterious-bird-but-why-all-the-secrecy-18000">http://theconversation.com/found-worlds-most-mysterious-bird-but-why-all-the-secrecy-18000</a><br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095293976357252410.post-16464911452435649772013-12-26T12:55:00.000+11:002014-01-07T13:00:36.980+11:00Australia's 'Bunyip Bird' on the brink<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Dubbed Australia's 'bunyip bird', the Australasian Bittern is among the nation's most endangered species, and they've taken a liking to rice crops.<br />
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A pilot study conducted last summer identified rice growers as custodians of what appears to be the largest population ever recorded.<br />
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Neil Bull from the Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia (RGA) said it was very encouraging to confirm a minimum of 70 individuals using rice crops during the 2012-13 season.<br />
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"Only a small proportion of rice crops were surveyed, so the actual number was likely to run well into the hundreds. It's now clear that the rice industry can play in a key role in the conservation of bitterns," Mr Bull said.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/68458195" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> </div>
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/68458195">Bitterns Boom in Rice</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user18976291">BitternsBoomInRice</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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Ecologist Matt Herring, who is continuing the bitterns in rice study this season, said there are some key questions to answer in order to help the birds.<br />
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"Now that we know rice crops are so important for bitterns, we need to get a more accurate population estimate so that we can monitor them, especially for birds that are breeding," he said.<br />
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"We want to get a better idea of what it is about rice crops that bitterns like most.<br />
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"Many rice farmers I've spoken to are chuffed to be supporting an endangered species and are keen to adopt bittern-friendly rice-growing guidelines where possible," Mr Herring said.<br />
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Andrew Silcocks from Birdlife Australia is encouraging rice farmers to report their sightings of bitterns.<br />
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"This is a very poorly-known species and it's a national conservation priority. The more we learn about bitterns, the better chance we'll have of boosting their numbers."<br />
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Sightings can be reported online via the <a href="http://birdlife.org.au/projects/bittern-project/bitterns-in-rice-project" target="_blank">Birdlife Australia website</a>.<br />
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Read more at: <a href="http://www.theland.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/bitterns-sweet-returns/2682232.aspx">http://www.theland.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/bitterns-sweet-returns/2682232.aspx</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0