Tiger trek 2009-3
Overview
21 December 2009
In mid November Michael and I retrieved the final 2 Monster Quest cameras. Unfortunately there were no additional useful photographs on these cameras. We kind of expected this result as we deployed them knowing their battery life was very limited indeed, back in February.
All the same, we revisted the exact location at which we found our prospective print in February and deployed 6 cameras within a few kilometres, including 1 camera covering exactly the same spot. A number of early accounts suggest the thylacine was migratory, completing a circuit around the state each year. Given we discovered out print in February, we hope to have the same spot covered from November 2009 through to March 2010. The camera we deployed in May was still taking photos when Michael recovered it in November, 6 months later, so we are certain the deployments completed in November will run through until March at least.
We also discovered a number of interesting prints - smaller than those of February, and somewhat confusing: they match in general proportions with the long hind foot of a thylacine (x2) and the small, round forefoot also (x3), but seemed to be just too easy to come by. Either we've found a thylacine highway or there is some other mammal out there really confusing us.
At one point a silent dark mammal ran across the track in front of us. Its colour was chocolatey, like that of a devil. I only caught a glimpse as Michael was in front but he is fairly sure it had a bushy tail on it - making it most likely a silent devil.
The other big bonus to come out of this trip was the clear discovery of numerous wombat prints in mud similar to the mud where we found our prospective thylacine print in February. These will provide for the best comparison yet with our prospective print. As I write this, that comparison has not yet been made. Soon though, I hope to put all images online for all to constructively debate.
Expedition photos
The 6 cameras named
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The six Scout Guard cameras deployed in search of the Tasmanian tiger over November 2009 to March 2010.
Please note - I now operate an online store selling these cameras at Wildlife Monitoring. See there for full information about these cameras and how to order.
The top-right camera is the SG-550V. The other five are DTC-530 cameras. After asking readers of Where Light Meets Dark to write in, the following five names were chosen for these cameras:
- Eric Guiler
- David Fleay
- Heinz Moeller
- Benjamin
- Aurora
- (1 unnamed)
The first 3 names are in honour of men whose names will forever be closely tied to the thylacine: Eric Guiler who passed away in 2008 after spending decades researching the species and conducting searches throughout Tasmania. Guiler was a pioneer in using motion-activated cameras to search for the thylacine.
David Fleay is known for his expedition in search of the thylacine over 1945 - 1946. Sadly, hair samples collected during that expedition were revealed to be not from that species during the Monster Quest episode "Isle of the Lost Tiger" which follows the Where Light Meets Dark expedition of 2009. Fleay also recorded vocalisations and footprints on that trip. Fleay was later to become the first person to successfully breed the platypus and numerous Australian bird species.
Professor Heinz Moeller has contributed an essential text on the subject of the thylacine, "Der Beutelwolf", written in German in 1997. It includes a number of photographs not published elsewhere, together with a comprehensive analysis of the anatomy of the thylacine in comparison with other large, comparable predators including canids and felids. Sadly, Prof. Moeller passed away this year on 4 April 2009.
"Benjamin" is the name now commonly attributed to the last captive thylacine which died on 7 September 1936 at the Hobart Zoo. David Fleay, who filmed several of the last thylacines at that zoo in 1933 reported he was bitten on the buttocks by a large male but it is unclear whether that is the same animal to become the last known specimen of its kind. In any case, the name Benjamin was assigned decades later by someone claiming to have worked at the Hobart Zoo. The Zoo's curator's daughter, who spent much of her time caring for the zoo's animals later denied that that person worked at the zoo or that the last thylacine had any common name.
Finally, "Aurora" refers to the Aurora Australis, or southern lights. The reader who contributed this suggestion described the aurora as a thing of ethereal beauty and considered it an apt description of the thylacine also. Rosemary Fleay-Thomson, who provides her account of her father, David Fleay's search in 1945-6 notes that her family enjoyed the sight of the aurora australis during that expedition.
Possible thylacine tracks
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During this expedition we came across 5 interesting prints in mud. Two had the proportions of a thylacine's back feet and three, apparently in the same series, had the proportions of a thylacine's forefeet.
Interestingly, these appeared immediately adjacent to a low tree trunk that lay across the path about one foot off the ground. I could easily imagine a small thylacine, on reaching the trunk, rearing up onto its hind feet to place its paws on the trunk, thus leaving the extended rear feet marks in the mud.
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In this photo the two prospective hind feet marks and one forefoot print have been shaded.
What is unusual if these are thylacine prints, however, is that the right rear foot appears significantly forward of the left. However, if that position seems problematic for the thylacine, then it is even more problematic for a macropod as not only does this appear to be an unnatural position, there is no indication of any toe print to either side of either foot - something characteristic of clear macropod prints.
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In this close-up the forward-most (left) hind foot print is shown in detail. The front of the print is underneath the curled leaf on the left edge of the image. There is no clear indication of any digits.
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This shows the same print with shading.
While I was taking photographs and videos of these prints, Michael moved up the track a short way. After some minutes a large mammal raced off from near our location. He thought it went to ground nearby and we searched for evidence of footprints, disturbed plant material or burrows. We did find what appeared to be a burrow but turned out to be simply a hollow beneath a bush.
As we came back to the location of the prints it became apparent that there was in fact a den of sorts under another nearby shrub. Several animal tracks led in and out of this overhanging shelter from two directions. One of these led directly to where I had discovered the prints shown here.
Needless to say we now have a camera deployed at this exact location.
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This shows the rear-most hind foot print in the sequence that we found. It would be the left hind foot.
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This is the same footprint with shading.
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This blurry photo shows one of the three possible forefoot prints found in sequence with the two long prints shown above. As can be seen, the mud is quite soft. Although the impressions of the digits are not clear, their general shape can be seen. The direction of travel in this photograph is to the upper-right corner of the image.
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This is the same print with shading. From the photograph I can only discern three digit impressions clearly. Obviously it is most likely this paw had at least four digits, regardless of species.
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This is the same print with a water bottle for scale. Direction of travel is from left to right. The tiny fungus can be seen in this image as in the last two.
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This is the same print with shading. The digits have been indicated as a single unit.
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This is the first prospective hind footprint shown above, with a water bottle for scale.
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This is the second prospective hind footprint shown above, with a water bottle for scale.
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This is the ground near the prospective forefoot prints. I believe this image includes at least one of the prospective forefoot prints but it is not immediately clear where this might be in the image. I will have to refer to the videos that were made before I can definitely draw a conclusion.
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This photo shows the tree branch which is raised approximately 1 foot off the ground (at the right edge), the two prospective hind feet and at least one prospective forefoot print.
I believe the water bottle was positioned to indicate the size of another prospective forefoot print, but see the notes following the previous image also.
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This is the same as the previous photo, but with 3 of the prints shaded.
Our campsite
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Our tent and gear. Michael is removing the fly. We set up camp on this night at about 8.30pm. By about 8.45pm an electrical storm blew up out of nowhere. Although we had looked for "widow makers" (dead tree limbs hanging overhead) and dead trees while setting up camp, we hadn't accounted for the possibility of lightning dropping a healthy tree right onto our campsite.
Fortunately that did not happen. The thunder truly was ethereal as it rolled forever amongst the hills and mountains.
During the middle of the night I took a look outside in the pitch black to discover we had camped right beside a patch of luminescent fungi.
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In the thick scrub of Tasmania's south-west, any open patch of ground will do for a campsite, no matter how small. The black thing in the middle is my stove.
As we packed up we felt hot bursts of wind come through the camp. At first we wondered whether it was a nearby bushfire, but after noting there was no smell or smoke we concluded it must have been gusts of hot air crossing Bass Strait from the mainland, which was experiencing a severe heatwave across the three south-eastern states and the ACT.
However, as it turned out, the electrical storm we experienced the night before did in fact start a bushfire. I don't know how we were feeling the heat without any smell or smoke, but the same fire prevented us from retrieving one other of our cameras which had been deployed in January.
Thank goodness the fire didn't blow our way while we slept (or at any time for that matter). Portions of that National Park were closed for two days due to the blaze.
Comparison prints - Tasmanian devil
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Now we get to some interesting comparisons. These are almost all certainly Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) footprints and considerable variety is shown.
The print nearest my index finger is perhaps the most typical. We commonly saw prints of this square shape throughout all out treks.
Immediately behind it, near all the tiniest leaves, is one clear print with digits more splayed. There appears to be a second, similar print to the left of that. These may be the hands of a Bennetts wallaby placed side by side in the mud.
Behind the left wallaby hand (or splayed devil foot), and next to my thumb, is a rather long footprint, similar to the prospective hind prints discussed in detail above.
The whole distance between the elongated print and the devil print is one handspan. In front of the devil print is another print which appears to have two lobes. The digits of that print are not visible as the ground is too disturbed to show any digits. This is in the upper right corner of the photo.
To the right of the elongated print is an apparently circular print of similar depth.
If the elongated print relates to a macropod, then it too lacks any indication of a second toe. The apparent wallaby hand prints do not seem disturbed by the elongated print. This may be due to the presence of the twig, or because the hand prints were placed on top of the elongated print and disturbed the mud sufficiently to obscure the anterior portion of the elongated print.
We must also consider the possibility that the long print belongs to the devil. In this case the distance between fore and hind prints is one handspan.
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In this version which includes shading, the elongated print incorporates the likely second wallaby hand print and may not be a fair reflection of the tracks.
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This photo shows the above devil print in detail (note the absence of claw marks) and the two-lobed print in the same sequence. Note the texture of the skin on this foremost print.
Deploying more cameras
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A typical, mossy creek in Tasmania's south west. Michael is checking his pack and we deployed a camera near this location.
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Another camera deployment. Being on a log we hope the devils don't get too inquisitive and interfere too much with this one!
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The author (Chris Rehberg) deploying a Scout Guard camera in a clearing in Tasmania's south west, in search of the thylacine.
Monster Quest cameras
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This is one of the Bushnell cameras deployed during the portion of the expedition which featured in Monster Quests' episode "Isle of the Lost Tiger".
Unfortunately when this camera was deployed we were aware that its battery life would be very limited. Having now retrieved it in November it took no additional photographs of use. Far from being a failure, it was this deployment that eventually led us to our prospective thylacine print discovery at the start of the year.
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The controls inside the Bushnell camera. Despite the rubber seal, the weather made its way inside the cover. The battery terminals had corroded, as had the metal components on the outside of the camera.
More animal tracks
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Numerous animal tracks in the mud, with my foot for comparison.
Comparison prints - wombat
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We come again to some very interesting prints, although mainly I am considering them in light of the print we discovered in February. At time of writing I have not published images of the print we discovered in February just yet, but plan to do so in the near future.
However, there are a number of notable features in this image. Firstly, the wombat's forepaws are clearly distinguishable from the hind feet. The hind feet, to the left of my hand, have a very angular appearance at the rear edge (left side of image).
Secondly, the claw marks of the fore feet in soft mud are readily apparent.
Thirdly, the distance between forefoot prints and hind foot prints is about one hand span.
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Here is the same photo with shading. Portions of the left edge of the image, and the upper left corner, may relate to additional wombat prints.
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Here the same prints are shown again with a water bottle for scale. Note the size of each print, and in particular note the distance between prints.
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Numerous additional prints in a different patch of mud.
Mystery animal sighted
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Some time after photographing all these prints in mud, Michael was walking in front and I behind. From my viewpoint I caught a flash of dark, chocolatey brown dash across our path from right to left.
There was no audible noise and I couldn't see any markings on the fur, nor even a tail. The only shape I distinctly recall was the curve of the rump.
Michael suggested the animal moved more like a quadruped than a macropod and he clearly recalled a bushy tail. Taking all points into consideration we concluded it was most likely a Tasmanian devil.
The image here shows one spot in the moss on the ground which appears to have been disturbed by the running animal.
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This shows a second spot disturbed by the running animal.
It is interesting to compare this sighting to sightings of the thylacine. Our observations support the notion that the animal was a Tasmanian devil. This would be the first Tasmanian devil I have seen in the wild in Tasmania after having visited the state about 8 or 9 times.
Half those trips have been specifically to search for the thylacine and have included lengthy night-time drives.
The sighting lasted only a second or two and we weren't even sure what we saw, but had to draw a conclusion by deduction.
All this for a species which is estimated to number about 20,000 individuals. When I first visited Tasmania 16 years ago there was estimated 120,000 devils in the state.
Despite these numbers I can count the number of seconds I have seen a devil in the wild on one finger.
If the thylacine persists in numbers fewer than 1,000 individuals, then I can expect to have to spend at least 20 times the duration searching in that state before I can hope to have a single sighting lasting 1 second. That would be another 76 visits!
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And a third disturbance in the moss. You'll see the point of all this in the next photo.
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Finally, the 3 steps which disturbed the ground cover, together with a fishing hat for scale.
Another Monster Quest camera
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Another Monster Quest camera in situ. Along with the earlier one recovered during this trip, this one too was known to have low batteries and did not take any additional useful images.
That's the way it goes sometimes.
Grasshopper
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A large grasshopper, possibly the Tasmanian grasshopper (Tasmaniacris tasmaniensis).
More camera deployments
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Another Scout Guard camera deployed as part of this expedition.
Location of February print
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This is the exact patch of mud in which we found an unusual, large, prospective thylacine print in February 2009. You can see even at this distance the amount of animal traffic that passes through here. For this reason, and given the frequency of rain in the area, we feel that whatever animal made the track passed through only a matter of days before we did.
Hence, this November deployment will cover this, and nearby areas, from November 2009 through to March 2010 in the hope that if the thylacine was migratory, and if the print was made by a thylacine, it might pass through this exact location again during this period.
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Michael Nelson deploying another Scout Guard camera for this survey.
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The deployed camera.
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Our final deployment for this trip.
Plaster cast of wombat tracks
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A plaster cast of wombat tracks which can be found in an exhibit at the Lake Dove National Parks office. Note the obvious claws on all feet, the size difference between fore and hind feet, the length of the digits compared to the size of the foot pad (on the fore feet in particular), and the proximity of the prints to one another (although I don't know if this was a set of naturally occurring prints).
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Another view of the same plaster cast.
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Three of the thylacine's relatives: the Tasmanian devil, the spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) and the Eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) - all extant.
These taxidermies are on display at the Lake Dove National Parks office.
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And a final closing quote from Albert Einstein, hanging over the cafe counter at the National Parks office at Lake Dove:
"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
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