Rediscovery of forgotten Tasmanian tiger photos sparks excitement
Experts are hopeful there could be more images unearthed from collections around the world, shedding new light on this extinct species.
Tasmanian tiger researchers are “excited” after rediscovering two photographs of the long-extinct animal in an overlooked museum archive.
While the Australian Museum quietly published one similar image on its blog, members of the Tasmanian Tiger Archives, which collates records of the creature, had never seen the other two before. Its members are only aware of 119 other photographs showing the species, which is also referred to as the thylacine.
Sadly, little is known about the animal in the pictures, so now enthusiasts are trying to piece together more about its history. It’s possible they were taken in 1902 in Melbourne because three individuals died that year at the city’s zoo. Because its body was soft enough to be posed in three different positions, it's thought to have died just moments before the images were taken.
Do you have a picture of a thylacine in your collection? Email michael.dahlstrom@yahooinc.com
More stories on the Tasmanian tiger
Where was the Tasmanian tiger photographed?
The tiger was unlikely to be an animal held captive in Tasmania as the famous Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart didn’t house the animals until 1907. It’s also unlikely to have been shot in the wild as its ears haven’t been marked, as was customary with scalpers.
Tasmanian Tiger Archives researcher Branden Holmes told Yahoo News he's very grateful to the Australian Museum for supplying his team with high resolution copies of the images. He said their rediscovery has sparked hope many more pictures could be sitting long forgotten in collections.
“These ones have gone relatively unnoticed for years in a public collection. But there’s also potential for images to be in private collections as well,” he said.
“There were dozens of thylacines held in captivity at various zoos around the world — including London, the Bronx, Antwerp, Scotland and Berlin — and zoo visitors may have photographed them. Now they could be just sitting in a dusty old box.”
The images were sold to the Australian Museum by the University of Sydney and clearly show a thylacine. But Holmes believes it’s possible there could be photos in private collections with thylacines in the background.
While any new photo is exciting for researchers, no one is yet to produce what’s considered to be the holy grail of tiger photos — one in real colour.
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