Hope to Find the Tasmanian Tiger After 80 Years

Australian scientists are set to embark on an extensive search to find the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), which was believed to have gone extinct 80 years ago. According to Reuters, following several reports of sightings of this animal in Queensland, northeastern Australia, researchers from James Cook University decided to set up hidden cameras in the reported areas. The last known Tasmanian tiger died in 1936 in a zoo in Tasmania. Recently, an individual reported to local authorities in Queensland that they had seen a pair of these animals. Professor Bill Lawrence from James Cook University told ABC News that the details provided by this individual about the shine of the eyes, the stripes on the skin, and the animal's movement were very precise. After a former officer from the Australian National Parks service also reported seeing the animal in a remote area in far northern Queensland, researchers decided to install fifty advanced cameras in the two reported locations. Professor Lawrence expressed concern that people might go to the area with the intention of hunting these animals. The Tasmanian tiger, measuring about 125 cm in length and approximately 60 cm in height, weighed around 30 kg and fed on birds and small mammals. With the arrival of Europeans and the rise of livestock farming in Australia, the animal began to attack sheep herds. Consequently, private farming companies and even local governments offered bounties for hunting this animal, and excessive hunting led to its extinction in the first half of the twentieth century.