Fresh Sighting Of Tasmanian Tiger
[Original headline: Tassie Tiger alert after reported bush sighting]
One of the state's most celebrated Tasmanian tiger hunters yesterday told of a fresh sighting on a bush road this week.
A North-West man said the supposedly extinct predator had stared at him before following two wombats it was hunting on a track near Circular Head.
Tiger hunter James Malley, who has spent almost half a century searching for a thylacine, said he had no reason to doubt the report.
The man who said he saw the tiger is reluctant to go public because of the stigma associated with sightings.
Mr Malley, of Black River near Smithton, said the man phoned him soon after the incident on Tuesday.
"It was definitely a tiger. I get news of sightings like this extremely regularly and it all fits," said Mr Malley, who immediately went to the area of the reported sighting.
"That's not the only one I have heard of in that area.
"Over the last two years I have probably had five [reports] and all fit with a seasonal pattern."
The man who reported the sighting said he had stopped his four-wheel-drive to engage its hubs and had turned the engine off.
"The wombats went past him for about 15 metres, flat out into the bush," said Mr Malley, who has scaled back the time he personally devotes to tiger searches.
"Then in front of him, the tiger was no further than five metres away. He was dumbfounded.
"The tiger stopped. He saw it for more than 10 seconds and it just stopped and stared at him.
"He then got in his four-wheel-drive, knew it was no good chasing it through the bush, and came straight in and called me."
Mr Malley said he had been unable to find tiger footprints in the area.
"A sighting like that is worth three months of searching, to do it well," said the man who has covered some of the state's most rugged terrain in his search.
"I still get calls from all over Tasmania from people wanting me to come and have a look at tracks."
Mr Malley it would be more useful spending millions of dollars on a full-scale search rather trying to clone a tiger.
"If they put the money into rediscovery, there would be a much greater chance of the tiger being seen again," he said. "Put (it)into protecting the tiger and its habitat."
Mr Malley said conditions were ideal for thylacines because there was plenty of game about but, like any animal facing extinction, the tigers were wary.
• Story originally published by:
The Mercury via news.com.au / Australia | Luke Sayer - June 21.02
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