(Original headline: Tasmanian Tiger sighting claim )
It was 3.30am on a mild January morning when North Coast resident Mick Stubbs watched a cat-like creature walk along a roadway near Mullumbimby and then duck under a fence before disappearing into the long grass.
"In the first split second I said 'oh look, there's a fox' and then straight away I realised it was no fox because it had a huge long tail that was thin and even in length. I looked up the body and it was a long body, it looked very cat like, but obviously much larger than a cat, probably 700 millimetres high. The tail was a very long tail, it had a gold-coloured coat, and rounded ears, bright gold eyes in the headlights. It was definitely no canine animal. It was no dingo cross or no wild dog. I suppose I had a three or four seconds look at it. It was something like I have never seen before and it really took me back," Mr Stubbs said.
"It sounds a little bit sensational but I have been racking my brain and talking to people and looking up books, I have got it down to three animals, two of them are marsupial predators, carnivores, and the other is a domesticated cat, but in the gigantic form as big as any other large predatory cat."
Since sighting the animal, Mr Stubbs says he has heard of more than ten other people who have reported a similar sighting on the North Coast.
"The Great Dividing Range has never been totally destroyed and somehow they have managed to extend their range back down to the coast if they haven't always been here. Being nocturnal and probably very smart and able to range large distances, I don't put it beyond being a Thylacine."
"It turns out that I am not the only one to see strange looking larger predatory animals. I am a firm believer now, that as wild as it sounds, we have got a so-called extinct species in our midst," Mr Stubbs said.
See also: Second Recent Sighting Of Tasmanian Tiger
