A Tassie tiger? It's the $3m question

Is this a $3 million marsupial? With Tasmanian tiger fever reaching boiling point over mysterious pictures snapped by a German tourist, the bounty on the striped creature's back soared this week.

A Tasmanian businessman has offered $1.75 million for proof an animal presumed extinct for 70 years is alive and well, and The Bulletin magazine $1.25 million.

The millions have Nick Mooney, a Tasmanian wildlife officer, alarmed. He believes the rewards not only threaten any thylacines clinging to survival, but native wildlife as well.

Earlier this year, Mr Mooney and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery's director, Bill Bleathman, were shown two digital images, said to have been taken by a German touring Tasmania.

Mr Mooney hears of thylacine sightings "about 10 times a year" but both men agreed the snaps probably did show a partially obscured Tasmanian tiger. Neither, however, was willing to say the pictures were genuine.

Even this newspaper cannot say beyond a doubt that the pictures are of a live animal. The Herald and its sister paper, The Age, ran extensive tests on the pictures after being offered them three weeks ago. These included an examination by thylacine experts and an independent photographic specialist but the results did not conclusively show a live tiger, and we declined to buy the pictures.
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The tourist took them on February 3 while driving through Tasmania's rugged central highlands with his girlfriend.

As evening approached they turned off the main road, and found somewhere to park for the night. He grabbed a bottle, put his camera bag around his neck, and set out looking for water. Not far into the bush he spotted a striped animal.

As the animal approached, he snapped twice. It then vanished and he he dashed back to tell his girlfriend. They returned to the spot but the creature was nowhere to be found.

The man's brother, who lives in Victoria, arranged through a journalist on The Age to show the pictures to Mr Mooney and Mr Bleathman.

"One," Mr Bleathman said later, "was very badly out of focus." The other, also blurred, revealed an animal partially obscured behind a log, 15 or 20 metres away. But a tail, and those distinctive stripes were clearly visible in the frame.

He described the thylacine evidence as "inconclusive", but cautiously added that without analysis from photographic experts "we can't rule it out".

Mr Mooney, who is a wildlife biologist with Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, now will not comment on the pictures until the tourist hands them over for a detailed forensic analysis. They are still in the possession of the owner.

Robert Paddle, author of The Last Tasmanian Tiger, estimates there have been up to 4000 sightings since the animal became extinct, mostly by "people who are profoundly mistaken, or disturbed, or malicious".

After inspecting the pictures this week, the Herald's photographic managing editor, Mike Bowers, conducted his own experiments. First he copied a black and white photograph of a thylacine with its mouth wide open, in Hobart Zoo, taken in the 1930s. Using a colour picture of a thylacine pelt, sold at auction a few years ago, as a guide, Herald imaging specialists then coloured the photo.

"I blew up the picture, as big as I could, probably to a quarter the size of a real Tasmanian tiger. I then cut it out with a Stanley knife," Bowers said. "I stuck it in a tree fern in my front garden."

He photographed his cut-out, trying to produce a blur similar to that in the tourist's image by setting the camera out of focus.

"And I used a very slow shutter speed to blur it a bit more. I shot it at one-tenth of a second and purposely moved my hand as I shot it to blur it further."

This renewed interest in the thylacines has started a gold rush. The Bulletin promises its prize for anyone producing a living Tasmanian tiger before 5pm on June 30. Mr Mooney is confident no one will claim the bounty before the deadline.

Under the rules, which the magazine's editor-in-chief, Garry Linnell, described as "strict and unbending" only one thylacine per entry can be submitted.

It must be "alive and unharmed", a pure-breed, an adult, and "must be naturally conceived and not have been genetically engineered". And "the animal must not have been in captivity at the time the promotion commenced", ruling out any pets.

However, Mr Mooney said the requirement that entrants must "obey all laws ... that require permits, approvals or authorisations" needed to obtain a thylacine provided the real glitch for those after The Bulletin's money.

"We won't be issuing any permits," he said. "We have to draw a clear line between the welfare of the animal and public curiosity. Its welfare comes first."

Mr Mooney fears the millions on offer will start an international stampede that will threaten not only Tasmanian tigers but other native animals.

"The risk of trying to catch a thylacine is immense," he said. "I see no excuse for catching it. It would be completely unethical."

Several animals known to have been trapped died suddenly from the shock and a huge hunt would inevitably involve traps and hurt native species. Mr Mooney said although the species was presumed extinct it was "still wholly protected" under the law.

And to collect the $1.75 million offered by Thylacine Expeditions the person discovering the living Tasmanian tiger must be a customer on its tours. The owner, Stewart Malcolm, conducts tours of Tasmania's north-west, where the creature is said to roam.

His brother and business partner, Stewart, gave the game away. "It's a promotion."