Steve Irwin’s Thylacine Hunt

Sadly, the world lost the Crocodile Hunter almost a year ago. The anniversary is approaching quickly. Feelings are still stirred by how Steve Irwin (February 22, 1962 – September 4, 2006) died and that he left the Earth too quickly.

Intriguingly, here we are again talking about Steve and one of his quests that overlapped with cryptozoology.

On Thursday, August 30, 2007, at 6:00 pm ET/PT, at least in the USA, on the Animal Planet, the long-lost episode with a segment on Steve Irwin’s mini-hunt for the Thylacine will be broadcast. This occurs during his 60 minutes program, “The Crocodile Hunter,” on the specific episode entitled “Where Devils Run Wild.”

The description for the program follows: “Steve and Terri Irwin roam Tasmania among exotic wildlife including wombats, Tasmanian devils and copperhead snakes. Here, they search for the fabled Tasmanian tiger, considered extinct since the 1930s.”

This is the only known image of Steve Irwin from that episode, technically known as “2.07.”

As you may recall, after Irwin died, I was challenged by critics who said Steve Irwin never looked for the Thylacine. This program is the evidence that he did.

After Steve Irwin was killed by a stringray, a strange rumor circulated that he might have captured an elusive, supposedly extinct Thylacine on videotape during the making of the mentioned episode. But, for whatever reason, the blurry footage was never broadcast. Or was it? I assume we will all be able to know – one way or the other – after the episode is shown on August 31, for the first time since Steve Irwin died.

Irwin’s link to the Thylacine hunt was noted, sometimes with curiosity, during the week after his death on various sites based on my posting here at Cryptomundo. But my discussion of the Irwin-Tasmanian Tiger program has been also mentioned on other blogs with skepticism. One individual even wrote: “Update: I still have many people saying that this episode is a hoax.”

In doing an in-depth search of cached sites, I discovered back then that this episode did show up in mostly well-hidden old records. It was screened, apparently, as episode number seven of the second season, the 17th overall ever produced. It’s exact code is “2.07, Episode Number: 17.”

In the cache of one site, I was able to find the same episode description as given above.

If anyone copies the episode (unfortunately my recorder is down) and it contains footage of a Thylacine, I’ll be very surprised. Nevertheless, just to watch what Irwin and his team do with their television-friendly search for the Tasmanian Tiger will be interesting.

Feel free to leave notes to the Irwin family and friends in the comments section below, as Cryptomundo will be read by Steve’s mates and folks across Australia, at the Australia Zoo and at Animal Planet.

Loren Coleman 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.

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