Alleged thylacine photos to be released

[tortugabob]

I was hoping for something a little more convincing.  Looks like one of those pademelons.

[Nnicolette]

I think It's more than likely there are still thylacines... But I dont see why these pictures were called that.

[Nobu]

I enjoyed the video

[oldrover]

In a different more sane univetse; while all this was going on the South Australian Museum released this clear version of an  incredibly important historical image. But not many people noticed. 

[Kleng]

Nah, I'm convinced it's a thy.

[Nnicolette]

Here is a young pademelon and thylacine butt. I am not an expert in butts but it doesn't match up. There's got to be more pics on the cam.

[Myles]

16 hours ago, Nnicolette said:

I think It's more than likely there are still thylacines...

 

I also think it is possible that they still exist, but I was surprised you said "more than likely".   I wouldn't agree with that.  

[Earl.Of.Trumps]

3 hours ago, Nnicolette said:

Here is a young pademelon and thylacine butt. I am not an expert in butts but it doesn't match up. There's got to be more pics on the cam.

 

Good demo.,

Noticing the thylacine has a ring right around the base of the tail, but the animal we saw in the vid did not.

 

[gillmanjoe]

thats a cat...

[rutski]

I thought he was going to post pictures of something that was unambiguously a thylacine.

First image, best you can say is that the muzzle was possibly longer than a cat, nothing like a thylacine, superimposing a thylacine didn't make that any more convincing, I'm sure superimposing a pademelon would though.

If we were looking at a thylacine the muzzle would be significantly longer and then if you argue that its the angle you're seeing the head from then there's nothing about that photo that could resemble a thylacine.

Second image shows the rear of the animal with no stripes, the area where stripes would be the best place to identify a thylacine. It's quite telling for me that he cannot see a rounding of the rump but can see shading that might be stripes.

Third image which should be the clincher doesn't give us anything that helps to identify a thylacine, the angle doesn't give us body shape but it does show a tail which appears short and points upwards, neither are characteristics of a thylacine tail. If it is supposedly a juvenile thylacine closer to the camera then it makes the coat very fluffy, not short and coarse like the thylacine shown in the Adelaide museum. He points to hocks but if we're looking at an animal mid leap surely that should be paws. An infant pademelon on the other hand has a relatively shorter tail and dark shiny pads on their feet which would appear like that in the photo.

Fourth image from the rear of the animal shows no stripes and a rounded rear end, hearing him say its not a pademelon when it doesn't exhibit characteristics of the thing he claims it is far from convincing.

This guy is a great example of someone who hears hoof beats and thinks unicorns.

Several times he asks the question 'what do you think' and that is a red flag for someone who doesn't have the answer but wants you to think they do.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, all this shows are two photos that can't be a thylacine and one that might perhaps possibly be if we could see what's in the photo.

He claimed that he had evidence of a breeding family and to be fair for them to exist at all they must be breeding but there's nothing here that matches his narrative.

The cynical part of me thinks that these photos have been selected to sell a story and even if that isn't the intention, it is the outcome.

If you want to prove the existence of these animals get a specimen, do a scatolotical study, get a sample of fur, look at their prey and see if you can match bitemarks and find if you can get DNA.

I have no interest in not seeing a thylacine appear from extinction, I think it would be a wonderful story but when the animal is so visually distinct I can't be convinced by fuzzy photos that don't show stripes.

 

[Cryptid_Control]

This is why I hung around here for a decade! Finally!! A picture of a cat jumping over a log!!!!

[oldrover]

On 3/2/2021 at 11:15 PM, rutski said:

not short and coarse like the thylacine shown in the Adelaide museum.

Just to say, their coats are surprisingly soft to the touch, very much like a short dense haired cat feels. I'm not a lunatic by the way I've just handled skins. 

 

On 3/2/2021 at 11:15 PM, rutski said:

An infant pademelon on the other hand has a relatively shorter tail and dark shiny pads on their feet which would appear like that in the photo.

Thylacines also had elongated pads on their hind feet, but this is a coincidence because as you say that's pademelon or other similar macropod.  

On 3/2/2021 at 11:15 PM, rutski said:

First image, best you can say is that the muzzle was possibly longer than a cat, nothing like a thylacine, superimposing a thylacine didn't make that any more convincing, I'm sure superimposing a pademelon would though.

He's superimposed a very mature animal onto the 'tiger' the proportions of the face would be very different, but it doesn't make any difference as all he's done is overlay the eyes without any consideration for anything else. You could do that with any animal provided it had at least two forward facing eyes. 

 

On 3/2/2021 at 11:15 PM, rutski said:

I have no interest in not seeing a thylacine appear from extinction, I think it would be a wonderful story but when the animal is so visually distinct I can't be convinced by fuzzy photos that don't show stripes.

 No, but unfortunately a lot of this guy's followers will be. 

[rutski]

13 minutes ago, oldrover said:

He's superimposed a very mature animal onto the 'tiger' the proportions of the face would be very different, but it doesn't make any difference as all he's done is overlay the eyes without any consideration for anything else. You could do that with any animal provided it had at least two forward facing eyes. 

I think you put that better than I could

16 minutes ago, oldrover said:

Just to say, their coats are surprisingly soft to the touch, very much like a short dense haired cat feels. I'm not a lunatic by the way I've just handled skins. 

You got me there, never touched one, I shouldn't have commented on the touch when I can only go by appearance. The juvenile thylacine coat still looks short, the pictured animal looks like it has a long coat as a proportion of the body size .

23 minutes ago, oldrover said:

No, but unfortunately a lot of this guy's followers will be. 

Sad but true. The guy is likeable, he has a great enthusiastic energy and I can see how that make it hard for someone to disagree with him in person.

At the end of the day nothing here gives unambiguous proof of a thylacine.

[Skulduggery]

I'd love for this to be real. The images are sketchy to say the least.

[Cryptid_Control]

4 hours ago, rutski said:

I think you put that better than I could

You got me there, never touched one, I shouldn't have commented on the touch when I can only go by appearance. The juvenile thylacine coat still looks short, the pictured animal looks like it has a long coat as a proportion of the body size .

Sad but true. The guy is likeable, he has a great enthusiastic energy and I can see how that make it hard for someone to disagree with him in person.

At the end of the day nothing here gives unambiguous proof of a thylacine.

After so long like likeable attitude becomes incredibly irritating. I want to believe him too! All the crying wolf though, even if he does someday get a picture, good luck convincing anyone he didn’t edit it. 

[josellama2000]

Usa: Kitty-kitty-kitty
England: Puss-puss-puss
Romania: Pis-pis-pis
Lithuania: Kiss-kiss-kiss
Australia: Puss-puss-puss
Poland: Kitschi-kitschi-kitschi
Japan: Neko-chan oide
China: Miao-miao-miao
Agentina: Mish-mish-mish
Netherlands: Poes-poes-poes
Germany: Miez-miez-miez

Neil Waters: thylacine-thylacine-thylacine

[Aus Yowie]

It will be great to hear what the museum thinks of the photos. 

[Catspit]

That video is a prime example of the sort of person who wants so badly for something to be real that they're willing to bend any ambiguity to fit their narrative. You see it everywhere - politics, religion, racism - but at least in this case it's not really hurting anyone.

I'm very inclined to agree with the idea that the second photo shows a juvenile pademelon. If not, though, the only other native wildlife it could be would be a thylacine, and I would love to see definitive proof that they still exist and have a sustainable breeding population. I can't think of any likely scenario where a domestic cat would be hanging around with a couple of pademelons, except for one possibility: it may have learned that they flush out small prey animals. (This has been documented with a wild lynx and the cameraman trying to film him. He eventually began deliberately showing himself so the cameraman could accompany him on hunts, and their noisy steps in the snow would spook hidden rabbits that he would then intercept. I just spent a good hour trying to relocate the article and can't find it - but if I do I'll be sure to link it here.)

Regarding fur color and the presence or absence of stripes - I feel like I should mention that many species have a good bit of variation even within what counts as a "normal" appearance. When a population hits a genetic bottleneck (the number of animals dips very low and then begins to climb again), the following generations are going to have much less genetic diversity than the pre-bottleneck population did, even without constant, close inbreeding. Any living thylacine populations are now significantly more likely to show atypical color morphs because the chance of a breeding pair both carrying a rare and/or recessive gene or genes is much higher. In zebras, odd coloration can involve both the color and the thickness/coverage of their stripes, just as an example. I don't see any reason why a living thylacine might not show reduced or even absent striping for this reason. (I'm not banking on this, just putting it out there as something to take into consideration.)

As to fur texture, I've been rescuing feral cats for years, and I've seen all kinds of coats - velvet-soft short hair, thick and glossy course hair, cats with an extreme difference between their superfine undercoat and the longer, thicker guard hairs, sleek mid-length hair... you get the idea. I can actually tell most of my cats apart by touch when it's too dark to see them. I would expect to see much less dramatic variation in wild animals, but again, inbreeding can bring odd recessive traits out, and individual variance is still a thing.

I'd be happy if even just five or ten percent of alleged thylacine photos turned out to actually show thylacines. Hell, even one percent. It's always nice to think we might have a chance to un-screw something that humans screwed up in the first place.

[onlookerofmayhem]

9 minutes ago, Catspit said:

I just spent a good hour trying to relocate the article and can't find it - but if I do I'll be sure to link it here.)

https://www.cbc.ca/wildcanadianyear/m_videos/web-series-one/a-wild-canadian-lynx-and-a-camerman-develop-an-amazing-relationship

[Catspit]

13 minutes ago, onlookerofmayhem said:

https://www.cbc.ca/wildcanadianyear/m_videos/web-series-one/a-wild-canadian-lynx-and-a-camerman-develop-an-amazing-relationship

Thank you!

[onlookerofmayhem]

3 minutes ago, Catspit said:

Thank you!

Not sure how you were searching.

I searched "lynx uses cameraman to hunt" and it was the first result.

[Catspit]

1 minute ago, onlookerofmayhem said:

Not sure how you were searching.

I searched "lynx uses cameraman to hunt" and it was the first result.

Honestly, I was trying too hard to remember keywords and forgot the obvious, simple option. Given the sort of forum this is, I think there's a kind of beautiful irony there...

[oldrover]

On 3/22/2021 at 5:38 AM, Catspit said:

As to fur texture, I've been rescuing feral cats for years, and I've seen all kinds of coats - velvet-soft short hair, thick and glossy course hair, cats with an extreme difference between their superfine undercoat and the longer, thicker guard hairs, sleek mid-length hair... you get the idea. I can actually tell most of my cats apart by touch when it's too dark to see them. I would expect to see much less dramatic variation in wild animals, but again, inbreeding can bring odd recessive traits out, and individual variance is still a thing.

In my experience thylacines (dead ones of course) feel like Siamese cats. Very soft and really lovely. I also have to say that I don't find the majority of your post convincing sorry. 

[Catspit]

17 hours ago, oldrover said:

I also have to say that I don't find the majority of your post convincing sorry. 

No apology necessary, since I wasn't trying to convince anyone. I was just adding some points that no one else had addressed yet. How people choose to apply that information, if at all, is up to them. I've never been to New Zealand or Australia, so I don't think I have any real authority to say what does or doesn't live there.

That's very interesting about thylacine coats though. From the way their bodies are shaped, I kind of subconsciously attach a "rough dog coat" texture to them, but they're not canines or felines so I'm not surprised that I'd be wrong there.

[oldrover]

On 3/24/2021 at 7:18 PM, Catspit said:

No apology necessary, since I wasn't trying to convince anyone. I was just adding some points that no one else had addressed yet. How people choose to apply that information, if at all, is up to them. I've never been to New Zealand or Australia, so I don't think I have any real authority to say what does or doesn't live there.

That's very interesting about thylacine coats though. From the way their bodies are shaped, I kind of subconsciously attach a "rough dog coat" texture to them, but they're not canines or felines so I'm not surprised that I'd be wrong there.

Definitely feline in texture. In fact surprisingly so. But then, the only ones I've ever touched have been dead for knocking on 100 years so who knows? It's definitely not what you'd expect though but that's probably context,  before actually touching one my expectation was based on an account I read that they had a woolly texture. And they didn't, equally the ones I handled were definitely of a shorter finer hair than what's seen in some of the photos. Probably.