By Brendan Rees
Is the Tasmanian tiger is still alive? A Langwarrin resident says he is “100 per cent” sure he spotted one in Langwarrin South recently.
The resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he had driven barely 300 metres south along West Road, Langwarrin South on Friday 29 September at 6.30pm when the marsupial “strolled across the road like it owned the joint.”
“It wasn’t moving quickly. It was casually strolling across the street,” he said.
“I cringe every time I say this but I don’t think – I know. I’m 100 per cent.”
He said he was driving home with his eight-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter and their eight-year-old friend, Jet after attending the PARC recreation centre in Frankston when they got a “10 to 12 second look” at the animal.
“This thing came out of a bit of a cleared area or must have. It’s gone straight in front of us across the road to the big dam there and it crossed into there and disappeared.”
He says the kids saw “tiger stripes” on the animal’s back. “I’ve gone ‘Okay.’ I didn’t really see. It just looked like grey patches to me.
“It originally looked like a big greyhound. We got closer and I thought ‘OK, that’s a really long head.’ But it wasn’t a long head. It was a long neck with a largish head.”
“We just thought wow, that was freaky.”
“The main thing that got us was its tail was a long rod. It was like a stick. That’s when we went ‘Okay, what the hell was that’,” he said.
“It was crystal-clear except for a little bit of darkness. All I can say is wow – these things are supposed to be gone and there they are.”
He says he got home not even within a minute “all excited” before he asked his partner to Google a picture of the Tasmanian tiger. “That’s exactly what we just saw,” he said.
He said it was slightly dark at the time when they spotted the dog-like animal, adding “It crossed straight in front of our vehicle – 10 metres ahead of our vehicle. We were that close we know we saw one.”
It was its long rod tail that stood out, he said. “Near its rear end it seemed to be like a marsupial, a similar shape to a kangaroo’s bum.”
He said it was the first time he had seen one: “They’re supposed to be extinct, aren’t they?”
But to his dismay, his mobile phone was flat and he didn’t have a camera or a charger at the time to capture the animal.
“Pretty cool stuff it was. We’ll keep our eyes open. If we see it again this time we’ll have our phone ready to capture it.”
Thylacine researcher and former Cranbourne South resident Michael Moss encouraged people residing in Langwarrin South and around the nearby Langwarrin flora and fauna reserve to check their CCTV to see if a Tasmanian tiger was on the prowl.
“Someone in these areas may have footage of a tiger without knowing it.”
He said the Langwarrin South resident’s find on West Road was an exciting revelation.
“I have visited this area already and have placed an infra-red trail camera there. Also I have done some night drives with my dash cameras in the backroads in Langwarrin South, and near the Langwarrin flora and fauna reserve.”
He said dashboard cameras were the key to proving the animal was not only roaming the Earth, but perhaps even in Casey.
On Sunday 23 November, 2014, he says a Casey resident revealed sighting an animal – a cross between a small greyhound and a wallaby “but not either one” on Fultons Road between Baxter and Langwarrin when the animal ran across the road about 15-20 metres in front of their car.
This sighting, he said, along with the recent Langwarrin’s South resident’s sighting were about five kilometres apart near the Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve.
Mr Moss said if people believed they had sighted what they think might be Tasmanian tiger or had footage, they were welcome to contact him on 0434 904 944.
