By Brendan Rees
A second purported sighting of a Tasmanian tiger in less than a month in the Langwarrin South area has thylacine hunter Michael Moss intrigued.
“There’s definitely something matching the description of a Tasmanian tiger,” Mr Moss said.
The revelation comes after a Frankston resident told Mr Moss he saw an animal “identical to that famous black and white photograph of the Tasmanian tiger” in the Fauna and Flora Reserve in Langwarrin South three weeks ago.
The witness, who wished to remain anonymous, told Mr Moss he had been walking on the main track during a wet afternoon when he saw the supposedly extinct creature.
“Out came an animal 15 feet away standing on the track. It was large and scared me. It was not a fox or dog. It was scraggy, a fawnish colour. I could make out darker stripes on its back,” said the witness.
Mr Moss, a former Cranbourne South resident said, the witness also claimed to have also recently seen the head of a fox, “no body – freshly killed” beside the Owen Dawson Track in the Langwarrin Flora and Fauna reserve.
“A week later on the same track and spot he saw the intestines of an animal freshly killed. He came across a visiting Parks Victoria ranger in the reserve recently and relayed this to the ranger but the ranger was disinterested and did not take anything down in writing,” he said.
The sighting follows a Langwarrin South resident who said he was “100 per cent” certain he spotted a Tasmanian tiger that had a “long rod tail” near the reserve on Friday 29 September at 6.30pm.
Mr Moss, who has spent the past 20 years hunting for the mysterious marsupial, said the reserve was on his radar.
“I have upped my trail cameras to three in the Langwarrin South area.”
“It’s scientifically possible for these creatures to exist locally,” he said.
“Any Tasmanian tiger in the reserve would be passing in and out maybe from outside the catchment, or they have large territories and are in Langwarrin South and other areas as part of that.”
Mr Moss said Parks Victoria should not “rule out” the possibility that the Tasmanian tiger could be roaming the area.
“Prime Tasmanian tiger habitat abounds in Westernport and Peninsula as broken farm country, which is what Tasmanian tigers love.”
