Thylacine Sightings Near Portland
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 13th, 2006
There is a Portland on the other side of the world from mine in Maine that is experiencing a series of Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger sightings. As reported in the Australian media today, Portland, Victoria, Australia, has been the site of at least four sightings in the last three months.
Reporter Sarah Scopelianos writes:
The last sighting was in early May by a Portland resident, Anthony Ersello, who said yesterday he saw the strange dog-like animal sitting in the middle of the Princes Highway on the outskirts of town near the Shell service station.
"I’d been walking home from a party, had one beer and was walking home when I saw it on the road sitting in the middle of the intersection. It kept staring into the distance and then looked at me,” Mr Ersello said.
The animal had a pointed face, chunky shoulders, stripes and its hind was long and lean.
"I wanted to take a photo with my phone but it had been raining and the wet road made a reflection. I got to about 15 metres then it ran into the bushes. I didn’t know what it was. It looked like a bit of a dog but it didn’t really look like one.”
Another Portland resident, who did not want to be identified, reported two separate thylacine sightings in the past year and believed the tigers regularly crossed farms and pups had been spotted.
The sightings have excited researcher Michael Moss, who is preparing to visit Portland with two infra-red cameras in an attempt to capture the creatures on film. Mr Moss, who has researched thylacines for a decade, said it was possible the animals had originated from thylacines released into Gippsland early last century.
He said a 1912 management report for Wilsons Promontory suggested the introduction of the tigers, along with other native animals. However no documentation confirms the animals were released despite the first sightings reported in Gippsland in 1915.
With a spate of sightings in Nelson and Portland’s latest claim to fame, Mr Moss said it was possible the introduced species may have moved west. The Portland sightings are across a two to three kilometre area and Mr Moss said records showed it was not unusual for the animals to come to a town’s edge.
Source: Warrnambool Standard, June 13, 2006
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Hey, if the okapi can be found again after presumably going extinct in an area…
If Bigfoot and the yeti are out there, this one’s even more likely.
Yes, there are complicating factors, competition with the dingo being one. But maybe there isn’t as much diet overlap as we think, or maybe there’s more food to go around.
I vote for Ma Nature springing the biggest surprises just when we think we have it figured.
Ever since I found out about the Thylacine. I have been fascinated and read up on them (keep in mind that I was young. But when I found out that they were extinct I just went crazy.
This is very exciting!
few things are us uplifting to me as a rare species of animal, defying all logic and belief, springing back from extinction. I hope the accounts presented are true and this intriguing creature has, indeed, made a comeback.
I hope sightings are true and if they are still alive and found. I bet they will not be hunted to extinction or near it anyway like the last time. This is very exciting!!
I have always had a hard time believing that the Thylacine was extinct. Maybe we’ll soon have some good photos to go with these sightings.
J-F:
Can’t say these are good photos, but take a gander.
The parent site, The Thylacine Museum, will make any Tassie Tiger enthusiast’s mouth water.
Like a terminal cancer patient suddenly going into remission, Ain’t it great? Of course, the trouble with cancers is that remissions may not always last…if the Thylacine does exist, it may still be too late to save it. The first step to enabling a rescue however, is to confirm that the species still walks the earth.
I’m actually surprised that mainstream science hasn’t devoted more efforts at investigating Thylacine reports. I mean, a big hairy biped could always be a man in a gorilla suit, a giant lake monster could always be a tree trunk, and a black panther could always be a big house cat or black dog, but what else could a long-tailed, regularly-striped, long-snouted quadruped in Australia be but a Thylacine?
I have always been convinced that animals are better survivors than we give them credit for, which of course is tied to my fascination with cryptozoology. I think we will see more and more ‘extinct’ creatures show up alive and well over the next several years. The Eastern Cougar, Okapi, and Thylacine may only be forerunners of what’s to come!
The worst part about thylacine sightings: they are far away.
The best part about thylacine sightings: No blobsquatches or gorilla suits!!!
DWA
That’s a Thylacine. Look at the legs. The hind legs have a long Femur, and a short Tibia/Fibula section. The front legs have the opposite.
The animal appears to be running with more of a gallop, which would be necessary for higher speed with the unique leg structure.
The long tail is most definately not suffering from mange, as the author says is a possibility. It is very long, touching the ground, and has an even texture. Mange would make it patchy, and the rest of the body as well.
Good link, thanks!
Those following up this thread and interested in the references to the 1973 Doyle footage (DWA posted the link on 13 June 2006) can see a variety of articles I have written which examine that footage in depth, frame by frame.
Chris.