Thylacine Research Unit

In this episode the Thylacine Research Unit (TRU)'s

Chris Coupland and Warren Darragh discuss:

• Another victorian sighting and consider the reliability and motives of witnesses.
• A suggestion from Alison Moodie in the UK about placing photos of foxes and dogs with mange on the TRU website.

  • Alison says, "There is so little detail on these sightings! I wonder, would it be worth publishing a few mangy dog/fox/dingo pics on your site, so the public can get to know what they look like?" 

• A shout out to Luke Nowlan - Bill's biggest fan
• From the Government Files
  • Nature loves ratios
  • Thylacine feet like other marsupial carnivores have a ratio of 1:6 to 1:7, as opposed to 1:2 to 1:3 for cats and dogs
  • TRU has photos of all of the casts submitted to the government.
  • Old timers saying it was easier to tell thylacine and dog apart as opposed to devil and wombat.
  • History of dogs in Tasmania
  • A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes.
  • Plantigrade locomotion means walking with the toes and metatarsals flat on the ground.

- Recent West Coast Sighting

• Background
• Recent other sightings in this proposed thylacine hot spot
• Dash Camera experiment - is it really going to help provide evidence?
• Follow up long term camera study in the area. Cameras have been out for 5 months

- An alleged thylacine skull was analysed by the team to see if it was legitimate

• Background to skull
• Identifying a thylacine skull - what to look for

In this episode the team discusses:

• Behind the scenes of Hunt for the Tasmanian Tiger
• Discuss feedback about the show
• A recent Tasmanian sighting and the dash cam experiment that the team conducted.
• A review of the new 'Out of the Shadows' Web Series.
• A most interesting and far flung sighting.
• Season 2 of Hunt for the Tasmanian Tiger

In this episode the guys makes an talk about :

• their upcoming release of the Animal Planet Documentaries, 
• they interview the founder of the Great Search for the Thylacine Facebook Page Kristin Edwards
• they discuss the e-Book Magnificent Survivor!
  

• General introduction about sightings - why we dont give out locations
  • protect the animal
  • protect witnesses
  • Allow for follow up investigation
  • Protect any sensitive equipment
• Recent sightings in Tasmania
  • Over the last 6 - 12 months we have had a handleful of good quality sigthings - 2014-2015 where they score highly on the smith system
• We add them to our database - which includes a couple of thousands of sightings
  • about 380 official post 1936-1980 sightings
  • about 90 post 1980 official sightings
  • A plethora on unofficial sightigns
• The government estimates that only 1/3 of sightings are officially reported

Background to this sighting

• 3rd of April we get an online sighting notification.
• We responded to it straight away
• Telephone interview with the people involved
• Next day we have people on site
• Tracks/prints
• Field notes
• Photos of scat
• Face to face discussions with the witness
• Exact location of sighting - bit different to what was described in interview
•  3 H
• Recent sightings - one unofficial ' walked in front of truck mentioned by witness'
• Live captures
• Recent reports of yips/yaps in the areas from multiple different sources.
• Discuss photos
• Tracks
• Scat
• View of the interview
• Smith report system
• Smith report for this sighting
• Things that we like about the sighting - that indicate thylacine
• Things that we dont like about the sighting - that say something else
• Sceptometer 

In this episode, Bill, Chris and Waz talk about the potential for cloning the thylacine. They discuss the technology, recent history of cloning, de-extinction, and re-wilding of the thylacine.

Show Content

This is a topical issue, the question is broken into a couple of parts...
1. Cloning the thylacine
2. De-extinction
3. re-wilding.

• Professor Michael Archer's attempt to clone thylacine
• Was the attempt all media hype
• Does the technology exist?
• Talk about quality of the DNA
• Assuming that thylacines are still extant - but in very low numbers could cloning help with improving genetic diversity
• Given that thylacine suffered from a an illness that may have doomed them could cloned thylacines be destined to suffer from the same fate - again low amount of genetic diversity - e.g., devils are known to have low genetic diversity and this has assist DFT to take hold.
• Is cloning the answer for extinction - will it underpin 'de-extinction'
  
• Other cloning attempts - Mamoths
• Re-wilding - what are the answers to potentially re-introducing thylacines into the wild
• Facebook comments.
• Conclusion and sceptometer
  

In this this episode the team reviews a piece of video believed to have filmed in South Australia in 1973. Considered by many as one of the best pieces of evidence for the continued existence of thylacine post its recorded extinction date of 1973 many obsevers believe that this blurry old footage shows a thylacine.

• The team discuss - is South Australia suitable habitat
• The quality of the footage.
• The technology behind the camera equipment
• Some of the other online analysis of the footage
• Gait of the animal in comparison to other potential candidates
• The fact that this sighting is on the mainland - the Thylacine Preservation Society
• Review comments from Facebook followers
• Make conclusions

In this podcast Bill, Chris and Waz discuss - If thylacine are still alive why don't they turn up as road kill? This podcast also has plenty of Facebook page comments and questions from the TRU Facebook page followers. Listen in to see what the team thinks of this particular question!

In the first podcast Bil, Chris, and Waz discuss a sound recording that was sent to them through their Facebook page. Could the sound be evidence of the believed to be extinct thylacine - listen in and hear what the team thinks!

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Recently both Chris and Warren spoke the the guys at Expanded Perspectives for a chat about their upcoming Documentary!