Study suggests the Tasmanian tiger survived into the 21st century (video)

More than 1,200 records of sightings and physical evidence from 1910 up to 2019 were collected and collated by scientists

In July 2019, Australian authorities on the island of Tasmania received a report of a footprint spotted by an unnamed individual on a walk up to Sleeping Beauty Mountain in the southeast of the state.

“Wasn’t able to take a photo, however he googled it when he got home and believes it was a Tasmanian Tiger,” the report reads, according to the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE).

That same year, a government plant biologist saw what they believed to be a Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), or thylacine, from 30 meters (100 feet) away in a remote area.

“Good description given, bounded into bush,” the report states.

In 2018, three cyclists said they witnessed a thylacine crossing the road in front of them.

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These are just three of more than 1,200 alleged thylacine sightings reported between 1910 and 2019 in Tasmania that have been collated and analyzed by Barry Brook, a mammal ecologist at the University of Tasmania, and colleagues to create the Tasmanian Thylacine Sighting Records Database, which they used to estimate an extinction date for the thylacine.

Read more: Mongabay