By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
A HOTSPOT for Tasmanian tiger sightings, Devon Meadows may be the first place the mysterious creature is caught on camera.
Hunter and Devon Meadows resident of more than six years, Stuart Allen, said he saw stripes and a very long tail in a recent sighting.
It was the second time Mr Allen had seen a creature he described as ‘brindle in colour with black stripes on the rear hips, greyhound body shape at about three feet tall with a long tail,’ but said he was not 100 per cent certain of what he saw.
“I’ve seen it twice in the same area in my front yard a year and a half ago and six to eight months ago,” Mr Allen said.
At around midnight both times Mr Allen only caught the back of the animal with his verandah lights on and said his Jack Russell alerted him to the nearby animal.
“One night my dog was going nuts, barking so I let him outside and I followed him.
“When the animal took off, my dog chased it – I use my dog to hunt 60 kilogram pigs and he’s not scared to grab a fox – but he didn’t want to go near this animal, he just chased it yapping like he does to deer and bigger animals,” Mr Allen said.
With a chicken pen next door, Mr Allen said the animal could have been a stray dog looking for a meal.
“Were all losing chickens to something and the Australian Animal Rescue nearby have been losing peacocks, numbers have gone from 15 to about three – I don’t think what I saw was a fox and if I saw a fox it was going in the pocket,” Mr Allen laughed.
Independent Tasmanian tiger researcher and former Cranbourne South resident, Michael Moss, will be joining Mr Allen at his Facey Road property to try and capture the mysterious animal on camera.
“We are going to set up cameras and see what we can find,” Mr Allen said.
After reading about numerous other sightings in Devon Meadows just a couple of kilometres from his residence, Mr Allen decided to contact thylacine expert Mr Moss.
“I rang him because it had such a long tail and the area has had so many sightings,” he said.
