Irwin’s Missing Thylacine Footage

I’ve been challenged by critics that say Steve Irwin never looked for the Thylacine. Here’s more evidence that he did.

As I wrote early after Steve Irwin was killed by a stringray, he apparently devoted an episode of "The Crocodile Hunter" to his search for the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger. There was furthermore a rumor that he might have captured an elusive, supposedly extinct Thylacine on videotape during the making of that episode. But, for whatever reason, the blurry footage was never broadcast. Or was it?

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."

I have tracked down, at least, exact information that there was indeed an episode of "The Crocodile Hunter" that partially focused on Irwin’s and his wife’s search for the Thylacine. Strangely, while you might think that more information on Irwin would be on the web than in the past, and I’m sure there is about many facets of his life, some of the data about Irwin is disappearing and gone missing.

In doing an in-depth search of cached sites, however, I discovered that this specific episode does show up in some now almost vanished lists and 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."

"Where The Devils Run Wild" Where the Devils Run Wild: Steve and Terri 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.

So the hunt is still on: Has anyone out there seen this episode? Can anyone find when it was first broadcast? Do you have a copy? Does it contain speculative footage about or on the Irwins’ possible sighting of a Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine)? Let us know here.

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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