The Tiger Lives

Santa Monica, CA - Lili - Saturday, June 18th, 2005 : goo

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The houses are run down and people have lived here
for years, some of the lots are an acre or more,
Mom has wonderful tall grass growing between the banana
trees and we are having dinner in the yard. A beautiful
table is set. Mom is indigenous North American, don't
recall the tribe right now. The conversation somehow
shifts to Big Foot. And Mom starts hollerin "Sasquatch
is Real.. I'm tellin you lots of people have seen
Sasquatch and the legends are real..".

Years later I am thinking, "Hum, well, new species
are discovered all time; big creatures like antelope
and large primates". And I'm wondering about Homo
Floresiensis, "Flores Man", and I'm asking myself about
the Flores Man - Ebu Gogo legend connection ? And Mom's
voice comes back again.

A magnificent creature. Not a canine, not a feline, but
a carnivorous marsupial. It is known that the creature
survived in its modern form for millions of years in
Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. Up to 6 feet from
nose to tail tip and 2 feet in height. In the late 19th
to early 20th centuries it is thought to have been hunted
by man into extinction. "The 'last one' died in captivity
in 1936". The animal, thylacine or the "tasmanian tiger"
is now offically declared as extinct.

In 1982 a husband and wife are driving along the road
during the late evening in Tasmania, they comming back
from the theatre. It is dark and the autos lights are on
high beam. Then the husband notices two creatures about
100 meters up the road. They appeared, at first, to be
dogs.

"First I noted the erect ears and rather large head. Their
colour was light brown, just like the dog we had at the
time … sort of a light mutt brown. I thought, Oh, my
goodness, it's a tiger! By this time I was within about
ten metres of the two. Still they had not moved. It was
almost as if they were disdainful of the car. If I had
not applied the brakes I would have struck the larger of
the two. Still they did not move... It was now I noticed
the strange tail which seemed to be too big to be swung.
I also noticed the stripes which ran down from the top of
the back to the flanks. The tail struck me because of the
large hump on the rear... [ the animals had disappeared
into the bush and a minute later ] I said to my wife,

"what did you see?""

http://www.tasmanian-tiger.com/files_analysis.htm

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Tassie-Tiger/New-bush-sighting-
puts-tiger-hunter-back-in-business/2002/09/25/1032734216943.
html?oneclick=true

http://www.austmus.gov.au/thylacine/index.htm

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