NSW 'Thylacine' sightings update

More on those Tasmanian Tiger sightings in northern NSW...

There have been several recent sightings of an unusual 'dog-like' animal, seen in and around the region of northern NSW and north coast wildlife expert Gary Opit has been taking note, according to the Daily Examiner.

For the past 15 years, Mr Opit has been a regular guest speaker on ABC North Coast (formerly 2NR) and in that time he has received around 50 reports from callers describing an unfamiliar animal that he said resembles one of two species, possibly the marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex), or the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus).

While the last known Tasmanian Tiger died in Hobart Zoo in 1936, Mr Opit said that the most recent fossil evidence of the marsupial lion, which lived on Australia's mainland, was dated at around 3000 years old.

Many of the recent sightings have occurred around Mullumbimby, Nimbin and Byron Bay.

But before you jump to any conclusions, Mr Opit has been gathering newspaper clippings and eyewitness reports from all over Australia since the early 1960s when, as a young man, he first became interested in unusual and unclassified native animals.

"I always wanted to be a zoologist, was always visiting Taronga zoo and the Australian Museum and, as a 19-year-old Sydney teenager, I bought my first zoological text book, 'Furred Animals of Australia' by the Curator of Mammals at the Australian Museum, Ellis Troughton, our top zoologist," Mr Opit said.

"I was surprised to find between the studies and descriptions of the Tasmanian Devil and the Tasmanian Tiger, two pages dedicated to the Striped Marsupial-cat of North Queensland. Years earlier, in 1963, I had kept a clipping from one of the Sydney papers with a photograph of an unknown animal, described as the Ozenkadnook Tiger and taken by a Melbourne lady named Rilla Martin," he said.

Not long after, the young Gary Opit moved with his family to Surfers Paradise and it was here that he read and kept a letter to the editor to the Gold Coast Bulletin, published 22 September 1967, from Mr Carl Lentz, an early pioneer, who wrote in response to articles on a mystery animal observed by people on the edge of Southport living beside the State Forest.

He wrote: "Then a great strange head appeared out of the thick foliage. It was about to jump towards me so I quickly fired and it fell with a hard bump onto stones only two yards away. It was as big as an Alsatian dog. We tied its legs together with tough vines and stuck a long pole through them, by which we carried it home about half a mile. It was heavy. I intended to take it to Nerang 10 miles away by pack horse the next day and send it by train to the Brisbane Museum but owing to heavy rains all night causing the creek to flood we couldn't make the journey to Nerang so we measured it and skinned it instead."

"From the tip of the nose to the end of its long thick black tail it measured six feet, height of shoulder 25 inches, around the chest 23 inches. It was long in the body and strongly built on the forequarters, but more slightly built around the waist and hindquarters. It had two extra long sharp fang teeth, one and five eighth inches long besides the four ordinary incisor teeth. Its forehead and face was a light bronze colour. It had five bright orange rings of very short hair around its eyes. Its eyes were puce (purplish-brown) coloured. It had round ears of a pale fleshy colour, almost human ears. It had a short thick coat of light pale blue-grey and white stripes running downwards with bright, marble-sized orange to yellow spots along the flanks."

"From the back of the head covering the body it had a dark thin coat of black hairs and this made it appear a brindled colour at a distance when seen standing up from the side. The light pale blue-grey and white stripes running downwards along the flanks shone through the long thin outer coat of black hairs and looked very pretty close up. Its tail was covered with long black hair, underneath that, white and blue-grey rings an inch wide. It was a magnificent, male, specimen."

After this, Mr Opit heard reports of a similar experience, which happened to Gilston's first pioneer, Mr. William Duncan who related that the blacks called the animal a 'Punchum'

A couple of years later in 1969, Mr Opit was fortunate to himself see this animal cross the road at night and drew a picture.

"I used to work with Australia's most famous zoologist David Fleay at his zoo at West Burleigh, he was famous for filming the only movie footage of the last Tasmanian tiger in Hobart in 1936 and the first to breed the platypus. A couple of times people described to him the same animal that I had seen and he wondered if it could be a mainland representative of the Tasmanian tiger."

In the early 1970s, Mr Opit began working as a park ranger for the QLD National Parks, and while at O'Reilly's in Lamington National Park, he recorded wildlife but never heard any more about the Punchum and he thought that whatever it was it was probably extinct.

Then, in the mid 1980s and early 1990s, Mr Opit received reports and drawings from people on Tamborine Mountain where he lived on and off for 25 years, but he had never seen it himself even though he explored most of the forests identifying plants and animals.

"It was only after moving to live on Jones Road between Wooyung and Yelgun that I finally observed again what is probably the same unknown carnivorous marsupial, the Punchum, though this individual is very dark brown," he said.

"I have found it two other times in the Billinudgel Nature Reserve and both times it moved off rapidly."

"I have never really gone too public about it before, except mentioning it on my Wildlife Wednesday broadcast two or three times over the last 15 years of broadcasting, when listeners described a similar animal that they had observed. Eventually I put all the reports that sounded most like a thylacine together for the ABC website. I still don't know what it is."

As an Environmental Scientist, Mr Opit has assisted Australian Government's in all areas of conservation and is highly regarded in the Australian Crypto world as an authority.

To view Mr Opit's log of eye-witness reports, visit www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/02/262172927


* Reports of unusual animals have been circulating in Australia since the early days of white settlement and while many of these animals have since been identified and classified, a small number remain unexplained.

Wildlife expert Gary Opit said many of the reports he has recorded over the years describe an animal of similar characteristics and have come from ordinary, reasonable people, leading him to believe that witnesses have described the same species and weren't experiencing hallucinations.

"While some people report seeing distinctive bands or stripes on the body and tail, and others don't, I believe what they are reporting is almost certainly the same animal species, mostly likely a thylacine or thylacoleo," Mr Opit said.

Now Mr Opit is hoping the widespread use of smartphones will eventually lead to some firm evidence; preferably a video.

"It's just a matter of time," he said, adding that the scientific community would probably continue to ignore these anecdotal reports until there is some form of hard evidence, either a live animal or a dead one.

So far, Gary says, he hasn't received any reports of the mystery animal from the Clarence Valley region but he expects they inhabit bushland areas throughout eastern NSW.


Have you seen an animal you can't identify?

We'd love to hear about it.

Queensland Tiger rears its head once again

The Northern Rivers may be home to a thylacine-type animal thought to be extinct on the mainland for more than 3000 years, according to a wildlife expert.

With recent sightings of an unusual animal reported in the Nimbin Valley and Byron Bay, and many more sightings in previous years across the region, wildlife expert Gary Opit said a thylacine was a possible explanation.

Mr Opit is an expert in identifying fauna and hosts a weekly wildlife segment on ABC North Coast.

He said he had received about 50 reports of a creature he calls the "mystery cryptic animal of Northern NSW."

Many of the sightings have occurred around Mullumbimby and Byron Bay.

One of the most compelling accounts came from a Byron Bay veterinary nurse in 2008 when she saw a large fawn creature weighing about 18kg in her backyard.

"At 6am she heard a sound that was like possum grunting," Mr Opit said.

"She saw what she at first thought was a dog about to attack a cat and rushed between them to protect the cat from the dog and realised it wasn't a dog.

"It was nothing like a dog. It was dog sized. It gave these bizarre possum like coughing grunts at her. She observed it for 5 minutes."

Mr Opit himself has encountered a similar animal on four occasions, once in 1969, on the Pacific Hwy, north of Beenleigh, and three times since 2007 in the Billinudgel nature reserve at Yelgun.

The animals could be thylacines or the marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex, he said.

"There is nothing in the fossil record of the thylacine on the mainland since 3000 years ago, but there have been lots of reports of them from the early days of settlement to the present.

The marsupial lion was only known from fossil specimens which were 38,000 years old.

The thylacine was perceived to be extinct 50 or so years ago, he said, which made it much more likely it could still be in existence.

"It is more than likely they are all of the one species," he said.

Byron Bay biologist Mary Gardner has also seen an unusual animal which she was unwilling to try to classify.

In late October or early November last year she was walking along Lighthouse Rd at Byron Bay with a friend when both saw the animal.

"I don't know what it was," she said.

"It was something that does not fit in with anything I know at all.

"It had a long snout, thick rounded ears, a bony rump; it had a long wiry tail and a lean, hard body with stripes toward the rump."

Ms Gardner said when she first saw the animal she thought it would hop because it had long back legs and a raised rump, but was surprised when it moved with a rocking pacing gait.

She knew of two other local people who reported seeing an animal "which confused their expectations," at about the same time.

Ms Gardner said the starting point in determining what the animal was would be to discover what it was eating.

If someone could gather some good evidence then research could possibly be done, she said.

Thylacines spotted in northern NSW

More alleged thylacine spottings have been reported to the ABC Radio's wildlife expert Gary Opit.

Officially they no longer exist, but that hasn't stopped wildlife watchers spotting thylacines in northern New South Wales.

Also known as tasmanian tigers, the last known thylacine is believed to have died in a Hobart zoo in 1936.

Since then, there have been hundreds of unconfirmed sightings of the animals across Australia, including a handful around Nimbin in recent weeks.

ABC North Coast wildlife expert Gary Opit says the recent spotters insisted the mysterious animals were not dogs, cats or foxes.

"It's not a dog or a cat, but it's about the size of a dog," he says.

"It's described as having a banded tail, a greyish animal with stripes across the tail and stripes along the flank."

Gary hopes the rise in popularity of smartphones will mean that eventually someone can capture the creature on camera.

"It's usually always the same thing, people driving their car and an animal they've never seen before crosses in front of them," he says.

"People are always adamant it's not a dog.

"No one has ever been able to get a photo of one, so we don't know what it is or if it really exists, but the fact that people keep reporting them is interesting."

Gary Opit talks yowies et al

Naturalist and ABC Radio regular Gary Opit talks about yowies, big cats, thylacines and other mystery animals of the Australian bush on internet radio.

Are there big cats in Australia?

Australian naturalist Gary Opit has been a wildlife consultant for ABC Radio for more than 10 years, and has written about all manner of animals - including ones that aren't supposed to be here!

Here is an article Gary wrote a few years ago about the existence of Australian Big Cats, which features on the ABC's website. Gary believes pumas roam Australia's wilds - what do you think?

"One of the great mysteries of the Australian bush concerns the reported sightings of big cats usually described as pumas or black panthers.

"In north-eastern NSW stories of the "Tyagarah Lion" have been passed down over the years. Local resident David saw one bounding along the side of the road and reported to me, "This was along the Old Tyagarah Straight in about 1979, and I' ve never forgotten it."

"Neil saw an animal that he could not identify in June 2003 while driving to Rosebank from Clunes at 8.30 pm. Two km to the south-west of the general store he and a friend saw in the car headlights an unusual animal cross the road 6 to 12 metres in front of them. It had a feline-like face and a long body and tail, from snout to tail tip at least one and a half metre in length, covered with yellow tawney fur.

"There have been over one thousand reports of sightings in every state received by researchers, several have been photographed or videoed and at least two have been shot. Retired businessman Dale O'Sullivan unveiled to the media a stuffed puma in October 2003, which he said was shot by his father at their Woodend cattle stud property in Victoria the 1960s. The puma was stuffed and stored in a back room and forgotten about for nearly half a century.

"When I was down in the Grampians in Victoria 1982, I was surprised to find that most of the forestry workers, the Hamilton Mayor, the Superintendent and some of the staff of the Hamilton Water Trust had all had close encounters with brown and black pumas. Farmers showed me photos of sheep carcases hanging in gum trees or lying on the ground stripped of flesh. The only problem is that black pumas are unknown as specimens in museums or zoos. However, there have been many unconfirmed sightings of black pumas in North America. It is possible that if pumas are reduced to very few individuals then the inbreeding will produce a melanistic colour phase.

"Reports have been received from Australian military personal at bases across the nation during WWII that pumas were kept at several bases and that US airmen used a compartment in Vultee Vengeance dive bombers to smuggle the cats into Australia. Brown and black pumas have been regularly sighted at Cordering in south-west Western Australia, Darwin, Cape York, the New England Tablelands, the Blue Mountains near Sydney and in Gippsland.

"Mr Kurt Engel, a 67-year-old retired engineer of Noble Park, Victoria shot a panther-sized black cat while hunting deer in rugged terrain near Sale, Gippsland in June 2003. "He came straight towards me. I saw his teeth and white eyes. I was only about 80 yards away. I pulled up the rifle and at that moment it turned to the left. He was making long jumps. On about the third jump I shot him. The bullet entered behind the cat's shoulder and blew its head off," he said.

"In November 2003 a NSW State Government inquiry found it is "more likely than not" a colony of "big cats" is roaming Sydney's outskirts and beyond. The revelations were the result of a four-month investigation into the "black panther phenomenon" which for years has plagued residents across Sydney's west, north-west, Richmond, the Blue Mountains and Lithgow. While National Parks and Wildlife officials are yet to implement a positive course of action, a senior source confirmed a big cat expert had been contacted with a view to future work.

"In May 2001, a successful Freedom of Information request revealed the NSW Government had been maintaining a secret file on the creature. It also revealed wildlife hierarchy were so concerned about the potential threat to humans that they commissioned big cat expert Dr Johannes Bauer to evaluate what had previously been deemed unthinkable. He concluded: "Difficult as it seems to accept, the most likely explanation of the evidence... is the presence of a large feline predator."

"When Kenthurst teenager Luke Walker suffered deep cuts in March 2003 and said they were the result of a terrifying struggle with a panther-like cat, the NSW Government reopened the case. A report compiled by NSW Agriculture included a review of sightings and extensive interviews with residents of Grose Vale, where the creature has frequently been sighted. It found that recent witnesses to big cat activity in NSW were highly credible.

"Also taken into consideration was a previous report by Dr Keith Hart, district veterinarian of the Moss Vale Rural Lands Protection Board, who, after testing scat samples, concluded a large cat was living in the Grose Vale area. The report said, "Nothing found in this review conclusively proves the presence of free-ranging exotic large cats in NSW, but this cannot be discounted and seems more likely than not on available evidence."

"One theory the report refused to dismiss was that "historically, sightings in Eastern Australia occur in old gold mining areas and that anecdotal evidence suggests pumas (Puma concolor) were brought to Australia by American goldminers in the 1850s. The report added, "These animals may have subsequently escaped or were released, causing numerous sightings over many years."

"It seems unlikely that any of these animals are black panthers, which are a melanistic colour phase of the leopard. It is more likely that we have American mountain lions running wild and perhaps giant black feral cats as well. It looks like there really is a breeding population of big cats now stalking the Australian bush."