Enhanced Doyle footage analysed
27th Jan 2010 10:09 AM
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 I have received an enhanced copy of the Doyle footage of an alleged thylacine, taken in South Australia in 1973.
Seven frames are compared with frames from David Fleay's 1933 footage of a thylacine. Key diagnostic features including the hind foot length, hindquarters, tail and chest depth are compared. |
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November trek summary - thylacine expedition
21st Dec 2009 05:52 AM
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 At last, the first results from Novembers trek to Tasmania in search of the thylacine are online.
With apologies for the delay (holding down 3 different jobs at present), you can now read the summary of results and view 46 trip photos with detailed notes about the different stages of the trek. |
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Expedition Photo Results
30th Oct 2009 06:30 AM
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 The first photos from the camera retrieved by Michael yesterday are here. These were taken by the camera we deployed in May this year.
One of the more interesting photos was this pair of boxing wallabies. Not content with getting their portrait in the limelight on this homepage, they came back 4 months later for a follow up photo-shoot!
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Name the cameras!
06th Oct 2009 01:28 AM
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 The 2009 Tasmanian Tiger Expedition will step into its next phase shortly.
Earlier this year we discovered a footprint that featured on the Monster Quest episode "Isle of the Lost Tiger".
You have the chance to name one of our cameras which will focus throughout summer on the location where we found this footprint.
Early descriptions of the thylacine hint that the species may have been migratory - and so we are hoping to get in early and catch the tiger - if it was a tiger - in 2010 that we must have missed by just days in 2009! |
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Big but not big enough
05th Oct 2009 08:06 AM
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 In June this year, police constable and dog handler Chris Swallow captured video footage of a large black cat in the UK.
Where Light Meets Dark conducts an analysis to determine the size, and likely species of the cat. |
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Animal tracks
28th Sep 2009 09:47 AM
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 It occurs to me that a comprehensive library of animal tracks might be a useful resource... |
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Rare cat caught by camera trap
18th Sep 2009 12:04 AM
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 The African Golden Cat has been photographed by a camera trap deep in the Ugandan jungle. Dr Gary Aronsen of Yale University in the US deployed the infrared camera.
A colleague has worked for years in the same National Park and has seen the species only once. Dr Aronsen says he is aware of only one other published photograph of the African Golden Cat, which was taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Photo: G P Aronsen |
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Greatest ever UK bird sighting
17th Sep 2009 11:44 PM
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 Some have already heralded it as the greatest ever bird sighting in the UK. A tufted puffin makes an appearance at Kent and bird watcher (also known as twitcher) Murray Wright has the photos to prove it.
Photo: Murray Wright |
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Mainland Eastern quoll captured 17 years after extinction
17th Sep 2009 11:36 PM
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 A news report that has come in today is that 17 years after the accepted mainland extinction date, an Eastern quoll was trapped, photographed and released by a farmer.
Photo: Andrea Little / Mt Rothwell Sanctuary |
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Invisible elephants?
21st Aug 2009 09:09 AM
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 "Matriarch", "Strange foot" and "Youngster" are the names given to 3 elephants known to live in South Africa's forests and "fynbos country on the foothills of the Outeniqua Mountains".
In the late 1990s the Knysna elephant population was described as functionally extinct. This follows a sad history of their demise. In 1902 there were an estimated 30 to 50 elephants in the main forest. By 1910 the number had sunk to fewer than 20. In 1920 the estimate dropped to single digits at just 7 elephants remaining.
In 1969 - 1970 a survey located 11 elephants and by 1980 the numbers dropped back to just 2 - a cow and a calf.
In 1989 a new calf was discovered. Since the 1990s however, it has been commonly believed that only a lone matriarch has survived.
In 2001, wildlife expert Gareth Patterson found the spoor of 3 elephants. Together with film maker Mark van Wijk he has conducted a search for the world's southerly-most elephant population. The pair has trekked thousands of kilometers and deployed remote cameras in search of their quarry.
On several occasions fresh scats were collected. Out of 35 samples, DNA analysis has shown there to be at least 5 different individuals, one of them a bull.
Other evidence of elephant activity includes the presence of footprints and signs of elephants feeding on the foliage of trees and digging.
Their film, "The Search for the Knysna Elephant" premiers in South Africa on Sunday.
On a personal note, I find it fascinating that the world's largest land mammal might be surviving in a small pocket, isolated from all other populations without any confirmed sighting or record of numbers for so long.
The pair also employed the help of 2 expert trackers in their quest, and the film was "commissioned in partnership by the Natural History Unit Africa and Animal Planet."
Now ... if Animal Planet is reading - I'll have 2 expert trackers, a fleet of cameras and plane tickets to Tasmania please. Thylacine, here we come!
Image: Painting of an African elephant, by Gareth Patterson, from the Kynsna Elephants website |
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Jaws - what was it?
13th Aug 2009 10:21 AM
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 In 1975 a photo was taken in Western Australia showing a decaying animal on sand.
Now known as Jaws, some have speculated that this might be evidence that Thylacoleo carnifex still survives - some 20,000 to 30,000 years beyond its accepted extinction date.
Let's take a close look at the dentition on this animal and see whether we can determine the species.
Image: Attribution unknown |
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20 year comeback
08th Aug 2009 09:48 PM
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 The western quoll, or chuditch, has not been seen in Western Australia's capital city of Perth in over 20 years.
I missed this story earlier, but in April a member of the public spotted a young male in the backyard of his suburban home at Wandi.
The animal had to be euthanased as it was badly injured, but wildlife officers are happy to see the species making a comeback. They attribute the migration into Perth as being helped by state fox baiting programs.
Image: unattributed at source article. |
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Freeway to extinction
06th Aug 2009 08:59 PM
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 Victorian Premier John Brumby in Australia last month, turned the first sod on a freeway project which is predicted to increase the liklihood of the southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus obesulus) being driven to extinction.
The project will destroy 53 hectares of native vegetation, including nearly 100 trees described as "large and very large".
Nine hectares will be lost from the Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve, of which 91% is "of high conservation significance".
Dr Terry Coates, an ecologist at the Royal Botanic Gardens says "this is one of the reserves put aside decades ago to preserve what was there. They are like little arks that carry what was once there."
The project is estimated to cost A$750 million. A plan to tunnel under the reserve to protect the bandicoot was rejected because of its cost, at A$320 million. Another recent road project named EastLink did successfully tunnel under the Mullum Mullum Valley in order to protect its wildlife and flora.
A spokesperson for the government says that the environment effects statement, costing A$5 million, "introduced significant protection, including a realignment of the bypass to protect areas of higher ecological significance".
Tamarisk Creek will be rehabilitated as part of the project.
Image: Tony Brown |
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Australian Zoo sells endangered species to sports hunter
06th Aug 2009 07:49 PM
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 Dubbo Zoo in New South Wales, Australia, has sold 24 blackbuck antelope (Antilope cervicapra) for between A$160 and A$300 each, to Bob McComb - owner of the Dongadale Deer Park and Stud.
McComb plans to charge hunters thousands of dollars for the right to hunt them on a private game reserve.
The zoo says the animals were "not required" and McComb argues that "private game reserves [are] a very effective way to achieve ... conservation."
The political organisation NSW Shooters Party has introduced a private member's bill which would alter the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in order to permit McComb using the species for trophy hunting.
The Indian Wildlife Protection Act assigns the highest level of protection to the species, alongside elephants and lions.
The Government maintains it will not support the bill. Robert Brown, who introduced the bill, has "vowed to hold the Government to ransom until it is passed."
Image: Simon Alekna |
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Australian extinction cloning breakthrough
06th Aug 2009 07:29 PM
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 Professor Mike Archer has stood down as Dean of the University of New South Wales in order to pursue a breakthrough in cloning extinct species.
When Archer was Director of the Australian Museum he was involved in launching a project to attempt to clone the Tasmanian tiger (or thylacine). Although critics argued that technology would never make up for the degraded state of thylacine DNA the team did experience more successes than many expected.
Over the past 3 years Archer has fostered a team of scientists from 3 universities and 2 research institutes to work on cloning another extinct Australian species. Archer believes the team is close to publicising a world first - possibly before the end of this year.
The team has not used traditional approaches to resourcing the project because Archer does not "yet want to be public about what's happening."
Image: AFPPix |
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