Tasmanian Tiger Caught on Camera? (New 2024) 

What do you all think? Is this legit or a hoax?

I bet some random dude has a perfect picture of a thylacine that they think is just a wierd dog

Y’all remember like 5 years ago when people would say “pics or it didn’t happen” and now most photos are fake

In 1983, the American media mogul Ted Turner offered a $100,000 reward for proof of the continued existence of the thylacine. In March 2005, Australian news magazine The Bulletin, as part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, offered a $1.25 million reward for the safe capture of a live thylacine. When the offer closed at the end of June 2005, no one had produced any evidence of the animal's existence. An offer of $1.75 million has subsequently been offered by a Tasmanian tour operator, Stewart Malcolm.

I am Tasmanian and have spent 50 years in the bush.I call BS. You cannot confuse Darwin with Hobart to start with. He could not have forgotten this basic fact.

Can you imagine if they brought a Thylacine into a Vet.😂

Dude found an animal extinct for 80 years and doesn’t have an ounce of excitement

They are also native to Papua New Guinea. I saw one in a remote village in 1975. It was less than 10 feet from me. I never told a soul because I didn’t think anyone would believe me.I only recently found out that they were native to PNG

As a Tasmanian whose father use to go bushwalking and swore he heard these I don't doubt it. Even that one pic where the nose looks gone, it is actually there, but it's blending in a bit. In the same photo don't stress about how wide the jaw is going, I am fairly certain this animal could dislocate their jaw when they needed to. In these shots it's likely being done as a threat response. My mother also says her and dad saw one run in front of their car in this same area years ago. Dad's been dead since 2012.

I think he's scared to say that they hit it with the car, which for me explains why it was laying down and they wanting to take it to a vet and "rescue it"except when they got too close it ran away

Don't understand why wanting to remain anonymous is an issue. The internet is a fucked up place

This guy lost all credibility when he said he flew direct from LAX to Hobart. The ONLY international flight into Hobart is from New Zealand.

The amount of gullible people who don't do research on this and just take it as a fact is just wild 💀

Forrest, I really think this father,son duo hit the Tasmanian Tiger because he said there were no other cars on the road for like a hundred miles. Also, the Tasmanian Tiger would not be laying on it's side in the grass in that position if it had not just been hit. I think the only way he got photos of it at all was because the animal was dazed from being hit because tigers are very elusive You heard him say the total encounter was about 30 seconds. Why would they automatically want to call a vet if they had not hit it. I believe the young man and his dad think they will be criticized for hitting the creature. Also, his personality is not unusual for todays youth. Thank you Forrest for sharing this story.

Get him to send you a screenshot of the photos in his camera roll, so you know they’ve been taken on that phone

TheGamingBeaver got me convinced its fake

I wish Forest had just asked asked him; "You guys were traveling and saw what you thought was a dog, what made you want to take pictures of it?"

the theory that they accidentally hit the animal with the car is interesting. explains why he's so restrained and akward about it

As a Tasmanian, theres one major inconsistency ive noticed. The grass is way too green for the area the photo was taken. For the past few months it hasnt been raining much, so the grass is quite yellow/gold at the moment. The area I'm in is the "tropics" of tassie and its still fairly yellow at the moment. Ita mainly yellow/gold from the northwest to far below hobart. The entire southern midlands is yellow. Thats the main issue ive noticed.

Direct flight from New York to Hobart… yeah, right pal

With the large mouth being a VERY tell tale sign for thylacines it seems pretty "convenient" that he caught that tell tale sign on the camera.

Only his dad could help legitimise the story in an independent interview

Born and raised in the state of Tasmania. A lot of things this dude says/things that he is leaving out make me think he has never stepped foot on our island, let alone seen a Thylacine.

The shape of the thylacine with his stripes, rod-like tail, shape of his face and how it’s slightly different from a dog, his coloring despite the crappy phone camera, the eye shine, and then the mouth opening. That was done as an act of aggression I believe I read years ago and other pics of them doing it before extinction show them doing it often. I think it’s legit.

Surprised I didn't search for a channel of yours. One of my fav Joe guests ✌🏻👍🏼. Subbed immediately 👍🏼✌🏻

The question everyone is thinking Forrest is "did he send the originals? and did the dates match?" Pls give an update

You should send this to Corridor Crew to look for any sort of VFX/photoshop technique

A kid from Chicago calls a flashlight a torch?!

The most convincing photo is actually the one of its arse as it's walking along the fence, because people who fake a thylacine, or mistake a dog for one, usually don't get the fact that they had no appreciable buttocks and their back end segued smoothly into the base of the thick tail. If this is a fake it's an extremely good one.

what's most suspicious to me is that he "chose to take pictures" of an animal he "thought was injured" under the assumption it was a dog and not knowing it's an extinct species Edit: I want this to be real

If I was a betting man I'd say fake, but I so want it to be real

As a Australian hearing an American visiting Tasmania is a red flag

Hey! I just found this channel but im very impressed by your work! Im from Bulgaria (country in Europe) and im really interested in those kind of things like extinct or rare animals, mostly like Thylacine is... That's exactly the reason to sub for your channel - the Thylacine, i watched the video about it that was before several months and then i saw this one... The Thylacine "extinction" and itself have been haunting my mind for so many years, cus dude that animal is impressive and its so sad that it meet his end of the hand of the humans (like a lot more animals did) just before almost 90 years... In my opinion there is still a chance a population of these little marsupials to be out there, like, the woods in Tasmania are not that easy to be studied, and if we take the fact the Thylacine is probably a night animal there is high chance of it to live out there... (My suggestion is, if the Thylacine is still alive his population is very small with 100 to 1000 individuals max). I'm really impressed with this animal and one of my biggest dreams is to go in Tasmania one day (or even Australia and New Guinea, that came in my mind after your video for these 2 possible locations) to look for it and find evidence for his existence today. Im still in the Univercity and i hope, one day i will have the chance to visit Tasmania to look over for this unique creature. Admirations for your effort!

The kid seems like he may be on the autism spectrum. He acts like my oldest boy who is 19 and has autism. He can tell you what he did and what he saw but as far as names of places he doesn’t retain that information very well.

I need more extinct or alive episodes ...actually I need any new forest shows

The Gaming Beaver cooked.

ARCHESUCHUS IS THE GUY TROLLING FORREST

Hearing this dude tell this story sounds like a 3 year old explaining that they just saw a unicorn

As an ecologist, wildlife surveyor and someone who has spent a lot of time in Tassie I would say put the original photos on a google drive so people can see the metadata (although that can be manipulated). There are no direct international flights from the USA to Tassie. Anyone who goes to Tassie is confronted with images of Thylacines EVERYWHERE- it's the government logo, it's on beer bottles, it's used in advertising widely. The journey from Hobart to Stowport would take many hours, especially at night when there are animals all over the roads, including wombats which you DON'T want to hit, it's literally not safe to drive over 80km/h at night in Tasmania. There are bucketloads of camera traps deployed all over the place in Tassie for wildlife monitoring, Thylacine fanatics and farm security and NONE of these have picked up convincing images of Thylacines. I think it's likely that Thylacines persisted in Tassie until the 1970s, (after speaking to people in aged care who had seen them) but they were a creature of the open woodlands, not the dense forests. No road kill, none shot, none on quality camera traps. I call this a hoax, sadly.

The entire thing falls apart when he talks about the travel lol

Hey Im Australian, as other comments mention it is very strange to confuse Darwin with Tasmania. Darwin is a very small city, very out of the way, its not really mentioned a lot. Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory which is not even an official state and most of its area is unliveable by humans. It really does sound like he just googled an australian airport. Also weird he briefly said he drove to Chicago airport which is 5 hours from Minneapolis correct? Very Strange to not elaborate on that and then got on a direct flight to Hobart from Chicago which is impossible. Also if I travel to another state let alone a whole other country, and it was a month ago and stay a few days, I know the town name. I can remember the town name of the Airport I went to in Fiji 10ish years ago.

He states “we were heading back to Darwin international airport” That is at the top of Australia, which is 4,254kms from his proposed sighting location. That is 2,643 miles. This guy is Full Of It!!

I disagree that a desire to stay anonymous is a red flag. If anything, wanting to be known for it (wanting the fame) would be a red flag.

The angles don't match. He would have to have been standing over it, taking pictures of it laying on the ground in some of those to get that angle, which means he would have been 2 feet away.

The face shot looks pretty good, but the last two look like artwork.

Not wanting to show his face is understandable in todays day and age .

I live in Tassie, have done for nearly 30 years, I know the area he says he was at when he claims this happened from my trail bike riding days, and have adequate knowledge of the native flora and fauna from studies and previous employnent. Aside from the original photo metadata, I'm 99% convinced. I believe the Thylacine is still alive, that their species are recovering in isolated regions of Tasmania and that as the next few decades pass, we'll start to see more quick snaps of them as they start to spread to new territories and re-establish their species as the apex predators of our ecosystem. This gives me a glimmer of hope for Tasmanian Wildlife to return to a natural balance 💚

The "Thylacine" in the image is a model made by _Archesuchus_ , watch the video that TheGamingBeaver made on this video and you will be suprised to see how fake this is. _Archesuchus_ also took the original images exactly like these that were much better quality than these ones so thats proof that the henry or zach or whatever just edited it in photoshop to make the images look blurry on purpose so it is more believable.

Thr lighting on that last picture is the one that got me. The angle of the lighting on the background seems more like a portrait but there is one or 2 that looks really good.

There are for sure things that sound suspicious, but I will say, if I had captured footage of something that would make me famous, being an intensely private person, I would also be in disguise any time I went on camera.

I love the theory that they accidentally hit it with their car bc can you fucking imagine You just encountered one of the most sought-after animals, a member of a species long believed to be extinct, and you've just accidentally obliterated it with a speeding honda civic

“I thought it was a dog and I always take multiple photographs of every dog I encounter in the world” Come on man this is a blatant forgery

Did you get the original pics from his personal phone.....??? Great interview digging without making it uncomfortable 👌

I have theory, maybe they accidentally hit it with their car and the kid is scared he’s gonna get in trouble

Tasmanian here, live 45mins away from that area. It actually looks legit to me. ive seen all sorts of animals on those roads at night, not a Tassy tiger yet, but i'll check the area and keep an eye out.

I live not far from Upper Stowport. He described it well. It is a remote country road. Small farms, mainly sheep. Not many people. No street lights. Google map it. There is literally 1 road (and that's not a busy one) between this area and huge national parks that cover most of the state. He mentioned the rigid tail, which is correct. Thylacines aren't dogs, they wouldn’t make the same noise. Thylacines' main enemy (apart from people) was wild dogs. In recent years they've been controlled a lot better. So if a few thylacines survived, they could have bred. Yes, he messed up the itinerary. A few years ago I flew from Hawaii to Melbourne (no international flights to anywhere in Tasmania) - it took 11 hours. I defy anyone to not feel a bit confused after that. There is a motel at Hobart airport, people often stay there to get the first flight out around 6am. Hobart to Stowport would take 4 to 5 hours. Most of the road is reasonable, except for the last 20km or so. I believe it could be legit. Either that or he stole the stuffed one from the movie they made a few years ago.

The guy is lying his guts out.

The way he says numerous times “that was after he meowed at us”, it makes me think it’s real. He says it every time so matter of factly. And to call the noise a meow so casually over and over it just really seems to me he truly is recalling an event that happened

THERE ARE NO NON-STOP FLIGHTS FROM ANYWHERE IN THE USA TO HOBART!! As an aussie who flies back and forth regularly, everyone knows you have to fly into Melbourne or Sydney first before flying onto Tasmania.

Lmao this dude can't even remember what airports he went to a few weeks ago 😂 This is jacked.

Plot Twist: Forrest hired this guy to fake it so that he could get funding to go search for the Thylacine himself 🤣

Him not wanting to be known to a billion people isn't odd...it's smart

First impression is if he wants to remain anonymous about an amazing discovery is he’s lying

I have just watched your video. A big red flag to me is the way Zack described his travel arrangements. I live in Melbourne, so I have a pretty good knowledge of Australian geography. First he said he flew into Darwin, which is thousands of miles from Tasmania, the other end of Australia. He only said Hobart after you prompted him. Then he said he flew direct from New York. There are no scheduled commercial flights from New York to Hobart. It is simply too far. To my knowledge there are no scheduled international flights into Hobart from anywhere except perhaps from New Zealand. Tasmanians travelling internationally would take a domestic flight to Melbourne, then an international flight from here. The only realistic way to fly from New York to Tasmania would involve a stopover on the west coast of USA, normally Los Angeles, then the international flight would terminate in either Sydney or Melbourne and you would have to catch a domestic flight to Tasmania. If you wanted to get to Stowport, which is in the north of Tasmania, you would most likely take a domestic flight from Melbourne to Burnie on the north coast, not Hobart in the south. It is more than a couple of hours travel by road from Hobart to the north coast, more like about 4 hours.

I’m 50/50 to be honest. Some pictures looked spot on and in edited and others looks photo shopped. I pray it’s real and we revive this species from “extinction”

Not surprised that he want to be anonymous considering how much hate he is already getting, when he hasn’t even been disproved

One google search and you can learn that Thylacines were dog like marsupials that howled and barked. They certainly did not meow. I'm calling this BS

Looks like an digital artist work lol

There's one dude on that zoom call that's going to make money from this, regardless of the outcome...and its not Zack lol

Are people forgetting that this dude wasn’t the one who even had interest and sent it in it was his friend he said he’s not into wildlife like that so why would a normal person who doesn’t care about extinct animals like that care or be overly exited about it. If he was looking for fame or money then that would be more of a red flag than being anonymous

That isn't a thylacine. It's a joke. I don't think jokes are indigenous to Tasmania!

I cant wrap my mind around how anyone can really be dumb enough to believe this is real for a second 😂

I think the guy is genuine. His level of confidence even if it wasn’t very high doesn’t really change. Someone with made up story sounds really confident until you start picking it apart. This guy didn’t change his story after you started asking questions. My only area of concern is the travel info. I work in the aviation industry and as part of my job I interview people who aren’t professional interviewees regularly. What I can tell you about the flight info is you aren’t going to direct to Tasmania or even southern Australia from Chicago or New York without inflight air refueling. So even if he was mistaken about his airfield names and I don’t see an issue with that because the average young person these days could very well be, he would remember if there were layovers so either he isn’t being completely honest about that or he’s afraid of divulging too much of those details because of privacy reasons. The one mistake I’d say you made when questioning him was on that topic. Keeping questions open ended are going to yield the most honest answers. When you named an airport he latched onto it and said yes that one. In developing witness questionnaires you should avoid “leading” questions that send someone down a path to a particular answer. Let them answer to the best of their memory even if it’s mistaken. You can sort out the details once you have a full answer. Maybe try to interview him completely off the books and with no recording to establish legitimacy and report back in your own words a summary leaving out any details he doesn’t want you to divulge to protect his privacy which he clearly values for one reason or another. If you go above and beyond to address his concerns and make him comfortable you’ll likely get the best answers that way. I can’t comment on the pictures because I know nothing about photography. All I can say is taking pictures with a phone during the day on moving targets is hard enough at least with my phone. I can see where zoomed in and at night they wouldn’t be very good. I know I’m 2 days late and one of over 8000 comments but if you do see this I hope it helps.

Two key things. He said it “galloped off”. Which is characteristic of their mobility. Also the wide wide open mouth which thylacine are known to be capable of opening their mouths wider than any type of canine.

"The thylacine was able to open its jaws to an unusual extent: up to 80 degrees. This capability can be seen in part in David Fleay's short black-and-white film sequence of a captive thylacine from 1933."

I wonder how many times over the last eight days Zac and Henry have chuckled and said to each other 'I can't believe he bought it'

Honestly props to you for putting up with the interview that was so painful at points

Hi! Tasmanian here. Stowport is a small rural community. A yank married to a local running a sheep farm would stand out like dogs nuts. The long time locals would now exactly who they are. Asking a few locals might be a good place to start to verify some of this story?

I am a dog handler from Russia and I was interested in this topic. I read the opinion of biologists about the photographs, someone said that an individual of this species cannot be so massive and it made me laugh, to be honest. There is such an effect in genetics called the bottleneck effect. if Tasmanian tigers survived we have no idea what they look like now because there was severe inbreeding between them >The “bottleneck” effect is a reduction in the gene pool (that is, genetic diversity) of a population due to the passage of a period during which, for various reasons, a critical decrease in its number occurs, which is subsequently restored. A reduction in genetic diversity leads to changes in the relative and absolute frequencies of gene alleles, so this effect is considered among the factors of evolution.

Bro spray painted stripes on his dog 😂😂

sucks because it’s clear the guy has social anxiety, however he doesn’t want to admit it. it’s pretty common amongst people with social anxiety having trouble with admission, and another thing that pointed out to me was that he asked how long they have to talk for. great video.

I live in Australia (mainland), have visited Tasmania, have friends living there and spoken to people who grew up there and can say that not only do most Tasmanians not question the Thylacines continued existence, particularly in remote areas, there are Tasmanians who say they have seen them when camping or fishing in remote areas of north west area. Tasmanians do not want the attention on the Thylacine's ongoing existence and the subsequent risk that Thylacine 'hunters' will negatively impact their habitat and bring unwanted tourism to conservation areas.

As much as I want this to be real, looking at the image file names, you can see that the first photo is named ‘IMG_6630’ and the last is ‘IMG_6700’. These names are automatic and chronological, meaning there would have had to be 70 photos taken between the first photo and the last. Zack said the whole interaction only lasted 30 seconds, which means he would have had to take 2-3 photos per second. Assuming he had the flash on and/or night mode activated on the camera, this wouldn’t be possible as it takes a few seconds to capture a single photo at night.

Great question about flight route, New York to Hobart would have to be the world's longest direct flight lol

Im 48yrs old now but 35yrs ago when I was 13yo out spotlighting with my father I spotted the wierdest looking kangaroo standing up behind a big fallen trunk. Rules of sbooting are hou never shoot at anything you cant psotively identify so I was hesitant to pull the trigger. The old man is losing his crap holding the spotlight screaming at me to shoot but I couldn't. This thing then slinks over the trunk and i said to myself 'thats no roo!' as I watched it trot away on all fours. Just before it reach the tree line another one came and joined it with 2 smaller ones in tow. Never made any claims about what I saw other than 'it was a slinky thing' to my fathers and my uncles ridicule. Years later (maybe 34yrs old) watching Thylacine videos on youtube I saw the one where the last Thylacine does the same slinky back arching thing I saw and I immediately had flashbacks and knew what I saw that night. This was in South Australia's Riverland. I know they are out there and will eventually be found. Lets just hope we dont destroy them for the second time

Things that do make sense: -random foreigner stumbling upon it -‘meowed’ at me -including the in-between blurry pics -he & his dad wondering if they should take it to the vet -guy wanting to remain anonymous -the way guy talks on interview. He’s a random guy unfamiliar with podcasts, zoom talks etc -not knowing exact flight paths, hours driven etc is normal -he not volunteering any ‘fantastic’ info or unrealistic details BUT Photos instead of video? Thats what makes no sense whatsoever. Why not record video? Who the hell shoots pics nowadays? I want it to be true.

Any updates Forrest, lots of people on the edge of their seats

The pic with the open jaw doesn’t look like a natural jaw opening, it looks unhinged like a snake, only more alien.

The dude really needs to get his flight story sorted out. There are references online for "direct" flights to Hobart from the USA. But when you drill down and actually attempt to make a booking, you get hit with at least 2 stops. As someone who has lived in Tasmania while working for clients in the USA, it would be have been incredible to get to the USA directly. Even if he flew into Darwin and then Darwin to Hobart, Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin ALL stop in Melbourne first. Get his flight itinerary.

The Thylacine has been my heart animal since I was 8 years old in 1970. My first school report was on the Thylacine. My teacher had vacationed in Australia and she told us about the Hobart Zoo. Back then the research was with encyclopedias, no internet so looking up the zoo led from one thing led to another and I discovered that amazing animal. The story of the last one is a heartbreaker. I have been watching and waiting for legitimate sightings all of my life. Recently when I heard that science was trying to bring it back from extinction, I was so excited. I haven't seen any recent developments lately though. I hope and pray that someday soon the thylacine will be found or brought back to walk the earth again. I am old and would die happy if I could just see it alive before I go.

Forrest as someone who is on the spectrum I believe this young man is on the neurodivergent spectrum. His caginess, awkward attempts at humour, large pauses between sentences and anxious nature reminds me of me when I’m nervously trying to recall events. We also have a tendency to unintentionally sensationalise story accounts to try piece them together in a more concise fashion for both us and the person listening. In regard to remaining anonymous I have two prevailing theories. 1. They struck the animal and are afraid of the potential legal ramifications of striking the last potential thylacine in existence. 2. If he is in on the spectrum, his involvement in such a profound scientific discovery will garner plenty of unwanted attention both positive and negative. He could get publicly bullied by peers in his area for his involvement. The world can be cruel for neurodivergents.

that zak guy sounds like he's in the principals office about the get detention.

Hey, local Tasmanian here, I am gonna analyse what he says. Okay, sorry its not adding up, there are no direct flights into Hobart from the u.s. Hobart is not an international airport anymore, and the only international flights it used to do where to NZ. He wouldve needed a connecting flight from melbourne or sydney. There are NO direct fligts from the u.s. to Tasmania, that is not something that exists. Upper stowport is in the burnie area in tasmania that is around 3 to 4 hours from hobart, so the 2 hour drive is unlikely However - The Road he is talking of, is very close to the Emu River reserve, which, would be a good habitat for the thylacine, so it defiantly isn't far fetched.

He's obviously a bit of an atypical personality, probably on the spectrum, but that doesn't mean his story is any less real or the photos are fake just because he communicates a bit weirdly compared to most typical people. Definitely the most convincing photos of all. The way Forrest keeps interrupting tends to make people like this very uncomfortable as well. I actually find him very believable and natural, quite unaware of what a miracle he's involved in

"im not a mammal guy" well i got good news bro

Wow, I've been interested in the sightings of the Tasmanian Tiger for so long. Truly amazing 👏 thanks for sharing.

It looks legit. The kid not knowing airports sounds like someone who doesn't travel much. He doesn't want to face the harassment and ridicule of the trolls.

I think it's a guy who randomly took some pics of an animal he had no idea would garner so much attention. From his interview he seems to be legit just someone not wanting a bunch of attention from pictures he innocently took as a part of a trip he took with his dad.

Imagine if he brought a Tasmanian Tiger to the littoral vet, that would be so funny😂

How do we not know this is NOT AI? You can easily create an AI picture of Tasmanian Tiger and then edit it to look all grainy and dark.