Author reveals ‘Tasmanian tiger' spotting

THE mystery of the Tasmanian tiger has been revived after a researcher revealed how he thinks he saw the fabled creature.

Thylacine seeker Col Bailey claims he saw the dog-like marsupial standing just metres away from him in southwest Tasmania's rugged bushland on an expedition in 1995.

"I was trembling like a leaf. It was surreal. I had no idea how I would react,'' Mr Bailey, 75, said.

He said the officially-extinct carnivore appeared while he was camping in Weld Valley and he followed it beyond a cluster of ferns.

"It was about 15 feet away and it turned and looked at me for several seconds, then backed away,'' he said.

Mr Bailey said it stopped and looked at him a second time before it disappeared into the scrub.

He claimed that while he had brought a camera, he left it in his pack, and therefore couldn't provide definitive proof.

"I certainly haven't got the acid proof, which is a pity because the thing's certainly out there, it's not extinct at all,'' he said.

He also said that he had kept the sighting a secret for so long because he didn't trust authorities to deal with the information competently and feared for the species' safety.

Mr Bailey, the author of Tiger Tales, has been searching for the thylacine since 1967, and claims to have seen footprints, and heard and smelled the creature.

The last known Tasmanian tiger died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.

It was declared extinct in 1986.

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