Nagorcka thylacine

Nagorcka thylacine still frame

An article was published in December 2007 in the Hamilton Spectator describing some interesting film footage obtained by Robyn Nagorcka.

The story begins 12 months prior when Nagorcka found herself staring at a "sandy coloured animal she thought could be a Tasmanian tiger in the Portland area".

The sighting piqued her interest in extinct marsupials and for the last two months in 2007 she returned to the same location hoping to glimpse the animal again.

In late November 2007 she saw a reddish-brown animal which appeared to have stripes on its tail and hindquarters but she did not have a camera. From that point she always had a video camera in hand and on 22 December 2007 she captured 30 seconds of film footage of an animal that "was brown in colour with stripes on the tail and hindquarter, had a long tail and a large head".

Says Nagorcka "I couldn't believe what was happening and after about 30 seconds I closed the camera; I was so excited and then looked up and saw another adult of the same description with three cubs looking at me ... I rushed home and hooked the camera up to the television for a better look and to me it was pretty clear it was not a fox."

Opinions are currently divided between the very remote possibility the animal is a thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) and the more realistic possibility that it is a mangy fox.

According to the article the footage is being examined by researchers and Where Light Meets Dark will be making inquiries at the first available opportunity to see whether the footage might be made available for an analysis here.

All updates will be announced on this page and the homepage.

Notes

• At a first glance, the general proportions of the animal seem close to the animal captured on film by Liz and Gary Doyle in 1973 in South Australia - west of Nagorcka's sighting (see the 7 still frames at the bottom of every WLMD page)
• The Doyle footage was captured amidst a flurry of 4 separate sightings by different people within a few weeks in 1972 and 1973
• Respected thylacine researcher Col Bailey claims he first saw a thylacine at the Coorong in South Australia in 1967 - again, west of Nagorcka's sighting
• Although thylacines do not have stripes on their tail, they can sometimes give this impression because the vertebra under the skin shape the skin in such a way that they cause shadows to appear - resembling stripes (see Paddle)
• All confirmed photographs and film footage of thylacines is in black and white. While taxidermies remain, there is still open debate about the range of colours which the thylacine took. It is possible that thylacines existed with fur colours ranging from grey through to tan (or "sandy") and also chocolate brown.

Source article

A scan of the original Hamilton Spectator article is available.

Reader discussion

The following discussion was had at the old WLMD site:

Thylacine?
Posted on: 2008-01-30 06:39:33   By: Mobofg