In the 1990s, Professor Henry Nix conducted statistical analysis on thylacine sighting reports as they correlated to preferred thylacine habitat and concluded they almost certainly still existed at that time.

Just this week an article regarding modelling by Colin Carlson has come out saying the chance of the tiger being alive today is about 1 in 1.6 trillion - effectively zero.

Over the past couple months there have been news articles relating to scientists who will deploy 50 cameras into far north Queensland - the northernmost state of Australia. This search seems to be combined with broader research and tigers became a target on the back of two dated eyewitness accounts from that area. The tiger undoubtedly existed in all Australian states at some time. Most scientists accept it disappeared from mainland Australia (including Queensland) some 2,000 to 3,000 years ago suggesting Queensland is an unlikely location for a search. However research by Robert Paddle, in particular, gives some evidence tigers may have persisted in eastern New South Wales and eastern South Australia until the early 1800s - see his book The Last Tasmanian Tiger.

That said, reports out of Irian Jaya - the western/Indonesian portion of Papua New Guinea in the 1980s and 90s were that local tribesmen still reported seeing tigers there - off the north coast of Australia. A search was conducted by Ned Terry but it was difficult going and results are inconclusive - see his book “Tasmanian tiger - Alive and well”.

It seems more likely that if the species persists, it does so in Tasmania where the consensus is that the last verified specimen died in 1936. Recent research suggests the species almost certainly persisted into the 1940s and possibly 1950s. After this time it becomes a matter of opinion and whether eyewitness reports are believed.

There is an inordinate amount of eyewitness sightings for the species - both in Tasmania and on the mainland and yet, frustratingly, there seems to be a distinct lack of concrete evidence. Explanations for this - in the event the species persist - tend to focus on conspiracy theories of various groups of people covering up information, from land owners fearful of their land being taken or modified, to forestry workers concerned about the future of their industry, to National Parks and other government officials for any number of unknown reasons.

One intriguing report is of a thylacine shot in 1990 near Adamsfield in Tasmania. This account is described in Col Bailey’s book Shadow of the Thylacine. However for something as groundbreaking as a body on a table there is actually scant detail revealed regarding the incident and therefore the consensus amongst policymakers and most scientists is that the species is in fact extinct. However, by no means do all people think so. Firstly, many eyewitnesses believe they have seen it and secondly, some researchers still consider it plausible for the species to have persisted.