Thylacine print from
1919
Here is the first article that I
ever wrote on the subject of possible thylacine survival on mainland Australia,
which was published in the May 1996 issue of the now long-defunct British
magazine Wild About Animals, but has never been reprinted anywhere since
then – until now, in this ShukerNature exclusive:
During the mid-1990s, the Internet
was awash with fascinating reports concerning the Beast of Buderim - an
unidentified creature reported from Buderim (a mountainous Sunshine Coast
region) in Queensland, mainland Australia, which bears an uncanny resemblance
to an animal that supposedly died out here more than 2000 years ago.
Thylacine
illustration from Gerald Krefft's The Mammals of Australia (1871)
Take, for example, the sighting
made in March 1995 by Buderim dentist Dr Lance Mesh, who spied a mysterious
creature on the fringe of an expanse of rainforest while driving near his home.
According to his description, it was: "...goldy, brindly in colour, had a
doggish shape and a prominent bump on its head above its eyes". Its most
striking feature, however, were the black stripes across its back - "I could
not take my eyes off them", said Mesh.
One of several Beast
of Buderim articles from Brisbane's Sunday Mail newspaper (click it to
enlarge it for reading) (© Sunday Mail, Brisbane)
On 8 August, a much more dramatic
incident took place, featuring a very similar animal but this time in the
vicinity of Bundaberg. Roy Swaby was driving along the main road when suddenly
a full-grown male grey kangaroo bounded in front of his vehicle, forcing him to
brake heavily in order to avoid hitting it. The kangaroo was evidently fleeing
in terror from something - and a few moments later, Swaby discovered what it
was:
"This incredible
sandy-coloured striped animal leapt out from the side of the road a full
fifteen feet and into the glare of my 100-watt halogen spots and four
headlights. It stopped on the road, turned to look at me and fell back on to
its huge hindquarters, its large green-yellow eyes glowing in the light, and
then it opened its jaws and snarled at me. I have never seen anything like it.
The white teeth were large and the jaws like a crocodile, like a mantrap. It
took two steps and then suddenly crouched and sprang again, 15-20 feet, this time
into the scrub...The animal was 4-5 feet long and its huge tail was another 2-3
feet. The stripes started halfway down its back. I thought it was like someone
had cut a dingo in half and a 'roo in half and joined them together...On the
Thursday following [i.e. 10 August] I went to Bundaberg to try to check in the
library what it was I'd seen and I found a lithograph of a Tasmanian tiger.
There is absolutely no doubt that is what I saw."
Artist's impression
of the Beast of Buderim (© Sunday Mail, Brisbane)
Just like 'zebra wolf' and
'Tasmanian wolf', 'Tasmanian tiger' is one of several colloquial names for
Australia's most spectacular species of carnivorous marsupial - Thylacinus
cynocephalus, the thylacine - which makes it all the more tragic that this
remarkable creature is 'officially' extinct. Closely resembling a golden-brown
wolf or large dog, but patterned across the rear portion of its back and tail
with black stripes, on mainland Australia the thylacine suffered greatly from
competition with the dingo, introduced by man, and is believed to have died out
here over two millennia ago. On Tasmania, however, it survived until as
recently as 1936, when the last fully-confirmed specimen died in Hobart Zoo.
Taxiderm specimen of
a thylacine (© Markus Bühler)
Nevertheless, numerous reports
describing thylacine-like beasts have come from Tasmania since then, and it
does seem possible that a small population may have survived among some of this
island's wilder, less-explored regions. On the mainland, conversely, such
survival would seem far less plausible - were it not for such impressive
reports as those given here, and many others like them. What makes them so convincing
is that their descriptions contain tell-tale thylacine features that readily
discount normal dogs as likely identities.
Photograph of a
thylacine revealing its jaws' exceptional gape (public domain)
Although, in evolutionary terms,
the thylacine is the marsupials' answer to the wolf, its ancestry is totally
separate from that of true wolves and dogs. Hence it exhibits several
significant differences. Most noticeable of these are its stripes, and also its
jaws. Thylacines could open their mouths to a much wider extent than wolves,
yielding an incredible 120° gape - which would certainly explain's Swaby's
comparison of his mystery beast's jaws with those of a crocodile. Equally
unexpected was the thylacine's ability to hop on its hind legs like a kangaroo
- but corresponding perfectly with Swaby's description of his beast as
half-dingo, half-kangaroo. Another thylacine idiosyncrasy was a bump above its
eyes - matching the account given by Dr Mesh. Also its long tail was very
stiff, far less flexible than a wolf's - and several reports of thylacine-like
beasts specifically refer to a stiff, rod-like tail.
Captive thylacine in
kangaroo-like pose (public domain)
Time and again, Queensland and
other mainland eyewitnesses have selected the thylacine as the species most
similar in appearance and behaviour to the striped canine mystery beasts that
they have seen - but there is an intriguing twist to this tale of would-be
resurrection. The aboriginal people have their own native names for all of
Australia's known modern-day animals - but they do not appear to have any for
the thylacine lookalikes. Yet if these really were native mainland thylacines,
surely they would have their own aboriginal names?
There is, however, one further
idea to consider in relation to this apparent anomaly. Perhaps they are genuine
thylacines, but not native mainland specimens. When still common in
Tasmania, thylacines were imported onto the mainland as exhibits and even as
exotic pets. Did some of these escape and establish populations in the wild
here? If so, this could uniquely explain not only the current spate of claimed
thylacine sightings but also the lack of any native Aboriginal name for them.
Thylacines, Henry
Constantine Richter, 1845
POSTSCRIPT
Since writing the above article, I have uncovered
one possible mainland aboriginal name (albeit not originating from Queensland) for
the thylacine, which I have documented as follows in my book Dr Shuker's Casebook (2008):
Another
dog of the Dreamtime is the marrukurii, which, according to aboriginal
traditions prevalent in the vicinity of South Australia's Lake Callabonna,
resembled a dog in outline, but was brindled with many stripes. They were
believed to be dangerous, especially to human children, carrying away any that
they could find to their own special camp at night, where they would savagely
devour them. When questioned, the native Australians denied that the marrukurii
were either domestic dogs or dingoes. Is it possible, therefore, particularly
in view of their brindled appearance, that these Dreamtime beasts were actually
based upon memories of the striped Tasmanian wolf or thylacine Thylacinus
cynocephalus? After all, this famous dog-like marsupial did not die out on
the Australian mainland until about 2300 years ago.
Name considerations aside,
however, is the Beast of Buderim still being reported today? If so, I'd greatly
welcome any information that ShukerNature readers can post here – thanks!
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