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Hello, an unusual program tonight. The hunt for something that doesn't exist, or rather
something that is said to be extinct, and there is a difference. The Tasmanian tiger,
or thylacin. It's thought to have died out in the 1920s, but today there is a growing
belief that the tiger is still alive. In the past 20 years there have been hundreds of
reported sightings, but no one has managed to capture the animal, even on film. And this
documentary, while not a brilliant piece of film making, is remarkable for one feature,
the absolute conviction of the eye witnesses interviewed in the program. There's no doubt
in my mind, that there's no doubt in their minds, that they have seen the Tasmanian tiger.
Ever since the days of European settlement in Australia, the sea lanes to Tasmania have
been busy. In recent years, the Sydney Hobart yacht race has become one of the blue water
classics. The Maxi Yacht Condor, skippered by American Ted Turner, has enjoyed considerable
success in the race to Tasmania's capital. This was the famous victory for lion honours
over Apollo in 1982. On his latest visit, Turner, a TV magnate and world renowned conservationist,
displayed great interest in the legendary and supposedly extinct Tasmanian tiger, the
animal rampant on Tasmania's official crest. Turner has offered the sum of $100,000 for
any positive evidence of the animal's existence today. It was here in Hobart's zoo that the
last known specimen died, back in 1936. However, there's a lot of evidence that the animal
rampant exists. However, there's a widespread belief, especially in the bush, that the tiger
still exists. Over the years, vast sums of money have been spent mounting large scale
searches, but so far no positive evidence has been forthcoming. For 40 years, the possibility
has haunted naturalists around the world. Is it still there? It couldn't have chosen
a better place to live than Tasmania, wild and beautiful backwater of the world, underpopulated
with only 400,000 people in an area half the size of Great Britain. It is an island of
quiet forests, gum trees and wattles, and clear mountain streams. Two people who believe
in the tiger's existence have been searching for that elusive proof for many years, long
before offers of rewards and the like projected the search for the tiger into the headlines.
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Farmer Ned Terry has two obsessions. Fishing and tiger hunting. But chasing tigers requires
great resourcefulness. So Ned has teamed up with a bushman, Alex LaFever. Alex was born
and raised in tiger country. A real Tasmanian bushman. When wife Margaret, Ned and their
three sons settled here on Derry Plains, the farmhouse, one of the originals in the area,
was almost derelict and the property run down. Now, some 30 years later, they run pigs, sheep,
cattle and produce a variety of crops. Sophisticated mechanisation and an extensive irrigation network
has developed the property into somewhat of a show place. The three sons have all married,
but remain to work on the property, leaving Ned more time for fishing from his well stocked
dams and for tiger hunting.
Just getting back to those traps, we're definitely in the right area. You know that, well, Bill
was telling us where he saw that animal, you know, when you think about it, that's not
very far from where he saw that, is it?
I was going back to work one Sunday night and I turned a little corner on the road and
he should be a tiger standing on the side of the road. He just trotted off down the
road along in front of me and I just followed him. And I followed him for about 50 yards
down along the road and he just trotted along like a cow, you know, a milking cow with its
bag swinging. I followed along quietly behind him. When he got down to where his track was,
he just turned off and went into the side of the road.
I'd left home about 20 to 10 at night. I work at the hospital and I was on my way to work.
And I'd driven about three mile and I got up on top of the hill and went to go round
the corner. And when the lights come back onto the road, I saw what I thought at first
was a dog. And when I realized that it was a tiger, I stopped the car, or I'd stopped,
I'd slowed right down enough to stop. And I looked at it and I was just utterly amazed
that it was a tiger. And she just sort of put her head round really slow and I thought,
well, she's not going to run off. And I thought of the camera and everything and thought,
what will I do? And I'm thinking everything at once. And she just slowly looked round
and I thought, what's she looking at? And she's not going to run away. And this little
baby trotted out beside her. And she just sort of made a funny grunting, not a noise
like a dog. I knew it wasn't a dog then because when I saw that she had stripes down her back
and her head was, oh, she was so different than a dog and she had a pointy nose, a long
head she had. And she just, she didn't worry about me and the car lights or anything. And
she was just more concerned about the baby and he just trotted along beside her.
I was shooting and I was driving along a fire break and I come to the end of the fire break
and just driving off onto the road and this animal walked across in front of me and I
looked at it and thought it was a dog first off, but then I could see the stripe and it's
just as easy and it just, it didn't look like a dog, a normal dog. But you could tell by
its tail and all that.
What was its tail? What made you think it was different to a dog really?
Well, most dogs have got a bushy sort of tail and this was sort of real smooth for not sticking
up in it.
And could you see, what about his ears? Did you see stripes?
Yeah, I could see his ears and that, they were just really small.
That boy, that young boy, that was most impressive to me where we found that dung about the same
time, you know, he was just in that area and that was only the year before last. That was,
well I liked about that and it all links up when you think about it.
Yes, I'd say they're all one family.
Ned and Alex conduct their search in the depths of the rainforest in the north eastern sector
of the island. It's a vast area of dense bush and many stands of giant eucalypts. Even after
all these years, the forest remains a marvel to them.
This is a beautiful patch of timber along this track here, Alex. They tar up out of
the scrub, some of the biggest trees about the countryside I'd say here.
Yeah, very good ground. A little big white, white top gum, here full up. We run the taper
around and we've got him in the gloveboxer.
Yes, he'll do. We'll run the taper around him alright. He's just a pretty average sort
of a tree about here.
Give us the end of it Alex, you go around, get round there can you?
Yeah, I'll get round him.
Just bring out how you're going around there. Keep going, you have to put it around behind
the scrub, you mustn't cheat, you know.
You need to reach your knee like stockwork.
Round you go. These big, big fellow round there. Can you find your way round alright?
Yeah, I'm coming.
Where are you?
Wait, I've got to get through here.
You have to push your way through there, I reckon. I wouldn't like to be trying to fall
this one with a cross cut saw. Where are you?
And what is it now? 49 feet, yes. Well now that's 16 feet in diameter, that's about,
on his height, about 60 tonnes of newsprint in that tree.
Yes, that built about 8 or 10 houses plus a few little fillets.
Bloody hell, look at you dead.
Ah, fancy that.
You're across the track.
You want me to knock the axe through him?
Yeah, what a pity because only just up here where we saw that wallaby skin that died.
That's right, it was that far up here.
We thought a tiger would eat that out like they do. They peg them out and spread them
out on the ground and eat it right out to the ends of the legs. That's what they do.
Very distinctive way they kill.
Ah, I love that.
Using the old logging trails, Ned and Alex penetrate deep into the bush.
The chances of seeing an animal in the undergrowth are pretty remote.
And it's easy to imagine the tiger going undetected for 40 years,
particularly as it's a nocturnal predator.
In the old days, when the fur trade was lucrative,
man and his snares limited the natural food supply available to the tiger.
To kill, his territory was necessarily far and wide.
These days, with the collapse of the fur trade,
the tiger's natural prey has again become prolific.
Hence, the tiger no longer has to venture into man's domain.
I'd like to see what's in here some night.
I mean, they live in the thick bush, these tigers, but...
Well, we know what's here.
They catch their game, I think, in these more open, clearer places,
where they can come and hunt.
I think they go for miles of a night time...
Living in the thick stuff.
As the quest continues and Ned and Alex disappear into the remote forest,
we, at least, can find the mortal remains of a Tasmanian tiger in the city.
On the banks of the River Tamar, 30 miles from the sea,
is the city of Launceston.
Spread out between the hills of northern Tasmania,
it's really a prosperous market centre.
The busy streets reflect its importance as the centre of a large rural area.
With proper civic pride, it also has an imposing museum,
and it's in this museum that the tiger's natural prey is found.
And it's in this museum that you'll find those mortal remains of the Tasmanian tiger.
It has the look of a strange, waddling dog.
The head looks too big for its body,
but the most distinctive features are the stripes over its rump,
which gives it its common name, the tiger.
Head on, he's not so friendly.
But to discover more about the animal and its history,
what better authority than resident naturalist and zoologist Bob Green?
It is the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial,
and its scientific name, Silasinus sinusephalus,
simply means the marsupial dog with a wolf's head.
I think perhaps that describes it as well as anything.
The story of the tiger's decline is all too common.
The saddest part is that its history is so recent.
Probably when white man first arrived in Tasmania,
it wasn't very plentiful,
but it was well distributed throughout the island.
And as European man settled and commenced to farm
and have his domestic stock in little paddocks,
then the Silasinus found out that there was easy food
in the farmer's poultry and sheep,
and it started to become a menace by killing them.
Of course, this created some outrage amongst the early settlers,
and they started killing the Silasinus,
and eventually a price was put on the heads of the Silasinus, a bounty,
and something like over 2,000 pounds of gold
was killed in about 20 years,
to give some indication of the number.
The spread of killings was fairly general,
but mostly concentrated around the European settlements,
and then around about the beginning of this century,
it was realised that they were becoming rare,
they were eventually totally protected,
and haven't been produced from the wild since about the 1920s.
Is it out there?
I believe it is, certainly. I can see no reason why it is extinct.
I can see every reason why it still exists and is on the increase.
The reason Bob Green is convinced the tiger is there is unexpected.
Tasmanian development has been a patchwork.
Fields and pasture intruding into the native bush,
and the habitat for wildlife has vastly improved.
It is the margin of a forest which is important,
and as the herbivores of wild Tasmania increase,
the bandicoots and wallabies,
so too does the food supply for the carnivores,
like the Tasmanian devil, and the tiger, if it's there.
Man, perhaps spurred on by guilt,
has always searched quiet corners of the globe like this
in hopes of finding supposedly extinct animals.
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One thing that has spurred Ned and Alex on
in their belief that the tiger still exists
is the continuous stream of reported sightings.
Between 1960 and 1980,
according to a survey financed by the World Wildlife Fund,
there have been 263 records of people seeing tigers throughout Tasmania.
Many may be spurious, of course.
But this heavily forested area of the northeast
has accounted for a high percentage of reports.
Some of these have been investigated by scientific expeditions,
but others are only really talked about in the bush
by those who live and work there.
To get their story, you have to meet them on their home ground.
Ned's been told that tigers have been sighted near here
by forester and bullock driver Rusty Richards.
How are you, Rusty?
Not bad. Pretty good.
Pretty good? Yeah.
We're very interested in these tigers.
Have you seen one or two of them? Yeah, well, I've seen one,
I reckon closer than anyone, nearly in the daytime,
out here in the bush, here towards the back of Marina.
I was only about a chain off him a little bit more.
And I could see the look of him.
He had his head turned back and his little prick ears stuck up.
And when he turned to go, I could see he was a tiger then
because he had the brindle stripes on him.
Oh, I can't say.
And then, oh, another few months after that,
I saw one of them, I think, about 10 years ago,
and a few months later, or 12 months later,
I was out on the Thinner Plains and see one.
I walked down a log and he ran out from under the end of it
and I was pretty close on him too.
Frightened him. Yeah.
And then after that, or it would be about six months after that,
I seen two young ones here on the main road here.
I'm sure that's what they was because I've never seen other animals like them.
You've been in the bush all your life, you'd know.
Yeah. For 50-odd years.
What do they look like, the little fellas?
Oh, they're big feet, fairly long tail.
Clumsy, a bit clumsy looking? Yeah, clumsy looking.
They'd just shuffled themselves across the road.
I'd never seen anything like it all the time.
I've been travelling the roads.
They'd probably mummied across before you. I reckon, yeah.
In the middle of the long rusty and the pine forests,
Ned and Alex push on, deep amongst the man ferns.
It was in this area that they first set up tiger traps.
The first model was a well-camouflaged above-ground mesh cage
with a dipping lid which was placed beside a bank or large log.
The Mark II model tiger trap was also a wire mesh cage
placed deep amongst the ferns,
but this time the opening was at ground level.
The bait, placed in the back of the cage, enticed the animal inside,
triggering the door to snap closed.
Both models captured a variety of game, but still no tiger.
The pitfall trap was the next concept.
We'll leave him in the bag here.
This will tell us coming in here getting the blocks for chopping.
Yes, should be jailed.
Should be jailed.
It's a good thing all these old logs are here
because it puts people off the centre bit, doesn't it?
It does a bit, yes.
Can you get over here, all right?
Yes.
It looks all right, doesn't it?
Yes, it's been here for a while.
A very natural place, this, isn't it?
It's a good place.
We'll set her up again and...
How many times you were set, Jess?
Just check it and see if it's set.
Ned's trap only reveals itself when the lid is sprung,
a gaping black hole.
But this time there's nothing in it.
She looks all right now.
I think, what about if you do a bit of burning here,
a bit of singeing, and I'll go away and lay a scent trail,
and then we'll come back and bait it up.
Ned lays a scent trail using a dead wallaby,
dragging it through the bush on a string behind him.
Guide wings are assembled from old limbs
to direct animals toward the pitfall trap.
Meanwhile, Alex is singeing, literally burning meat,
to leave a smell and remove the scent of humans.
Now then, we'll bait him up.
Having laid the scent,
Ned uses the wallaby as bait over the trap.
He's got a good eye on this.
Right hand ready, mate?
Wait a minute while I just try.
It might be all right.
Put him fair out of the middle of it there.
Whichever side he comes in from,
then he'll have his eyes up off the ground onto this wallaby,
and that will track him now.
Well, now, that looks all right.
This time of the year is not the best
because the flies are going to make him deteriorate fairly quickly,
but it's just losing his teeth and he can't kill very well for himself.
He can come here and he thinks he can get an easy feed,
and he's hanging about.
And the other chance, of course, is a young one
that's just about to leave its mother,
and a bit game and cheeky, that'll come along and have a go, you see.
So there's always that chance.
Yes, big chance.
Well, now, let's get going,
because on the way into camp we've got those things to have a look at.
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Camp is another good hour in the truck
to an even more remote part of the bush.
Ned came through this area the week before with one of his sons.
They were on a scouting trip to look for likely spots.
What they found made Ned most excited
and he can't wait to show Alex.
Alex, look, we pulled up here the other night
and I just knew that this was the only bit of water
that's left about here now for miles about.
It's that blessed dry and there's a nice little muddy place here.
And you wait till you see this.
It's the best I've ever seen.
We covered it up with plastic because if it rains, it'll spoil it.
I've never seen anything like it in my life
and the distances, we'll measure them all up.
You just wait till you have a look at this.
A very rare find.
Tiger footprints, Ned thinks.
Just wait a minute till he can clear this.
I'll just uncover it.
I hope, I thought this plaster might just save it.
Quite anything else from coming here, but nevertheless.
You sure it's a tiger print?
Well, you wait till you see this.
Oh, by Christ.
Yeah, he's come up to there to drink
and he's been able to reach the water from there.
And when he's had his drink, he's lifted this foot off
and put a little bit more weight on that foot.
To pull back.
And that's why that one's a bit deeper than this one.
Bloody ripper.
It's the best one I've ever seen.
If you got his foot shoved into the mud,
you couldn't have done any better than that, could you?
Very good print.
Only a bit of mud about the place.
We'll measure it up, Ali.
We'll just see this, because this is quite extraordinary.
It really rules out all the other animals, this I'd say.
Now, that's about 19 inches to the middle of the closest foot.
And it's about...
about 22.5 inches to the middle of the back foot,
the one he put all the weight on.
And it's about...
Let me see. What's that? 3 to 9? 6 inches?
A good 6.
Yeah, it's a good 6 inches just between the...
between the pads.
Now, a wombat, a badger, whatever you like to call him,
he's only got a little short nose and short stubby front legs.
It's about 9, 10 or 11 inches at the most
from the point of his nose to his feet,
so he didn't come to drink here.
He couldn't have reached the water.
And a devil, he's shorter still,
so there's only one thing that could have been to come and drink that,
and that's a tiger, that's for sure.
That's a tiger.
You all right? Yeah.
Nice, Ronnie.
No, it doesn't matter if it overruns a little bit.
It might run into this other one.
Oh. Yeah, it does.
Just give them a little touch on top, do you think?
A little bit of a...
Might help to jiggle them into the toe marks.
Yeah.
Vibration, like that.
A couple of years ago, I see a real big one,
a foot equally as big as that.
Although Ned would never admit it,
he's a painstaking and observant naturalist.
Using plaster to preserve the prints as a record,
he's a naturalist.
Using plaster to preserve the prints as a record is important.
Took his eyes out with a rifle, but I wouldn't shoot him,
never, no bloody fear, I'd sooner catch him.
Now, just comparing these prints we've got,
now just look at that beautiful print, there's nothing else it can be.
Ned believes that methodical patience will eventually be rewarded
and prove to the whole world that the tiger is there.
Now, there's the devil, there's absolutely no...
It mightn't be a very big one, but it's just so distinctive,
the devil with his four toes straight across there like that,
there's just nothing like that, of course.
And then there's the little native cat,
well, of course, quite different altogether,
but quite an interesting little star-shaped foot that fella's got.
And then, of course, I haven't got a badger one here,
we haven't got the badgers, but the badger's got big long toes,
very long toes, two or three times as long as that.
And he's also got a triangular-shaped foot,
and the fact that these were 20 inches from the water
while he was having a drink,
there's no way in the world that a badger could reach that,
he's only got about nine or ten inches in front of his legs, hasn't he?
So that rules the badger out.
Now, the other thing we've got is a dog,
well, it's absolutely different from a dog,
there's sort of two and two,
the dog's always sort of, to me, in pairs like that,
and it's nothing like the nice even semi-circular shot
of the tiger's foot.
That's got to be a tiger, it can't be nothing else.
Yes, my word, this looks very interesting.
It's...
Yes, it's certainly not consistent with what I would expect of a dog,
it's far too big for a devil.
Uh...
Word, uh...
It certainly makes me smile to see something like this,
and, as I said, I've often talked about it with you
that I believe that they exist,
and I see these little bits of evidence coming through,
it's very encouraging.
Now, let's have a look over here at this foot here
and compare it with this old mount,
which is 75 or 100 years old, and it's shriveled all up,
but, my word, when you look at the row of toes round there
and the row of toes round here...
We must remember that when he came up to drink,
it was a soft, muddy surface facing down towards the water,
and he had to sort of prop and spread his feet out
to support himself, so they're splayed out
and he's supporting himself there in the soft mud.
Yes, well, that would certainly be consistent
with what you would expect.
He'd flop his foot down and it would be larger anyway.
Now, you were telling me that you found this in the same area
as this piece of dung that you found some time ago.
That makes it all the more interesting.
I don't know exactly the dung in this, too, but...
Exactly the same area where that boy gave us
a very good description, took us right to it,
and we were looking for that when we found this.
Yes, it's rather remarkable.
What struck me about this was the size.
You see, it was a foot long.
That's 30 centimetres, that marker there.
So that's smaller than natural size.
It was actually longer than that.
And, you know, to my way of thinking, it was...
Well, it's certainly not consistent with a dog.
It's partly a bit for a devil.
Process of elimination, you say, well, what could it be?
What could it be?
And it makes you wonder, doesn't it?
And then, of course, afterwards, when I broke it up,
again, my feelings are that it's not consistent with devil.
We wanted to see what was inside it
and we found that it was practically all fur
with a few little bits of feather, which could be...
Or they could be young native hen or something like that.
There's practically no bone.
There's a toenail there.
What do you think of that?
A little bit kangaroo.
Well, yes, I would agree with you on that, I think, too.
And, you know, when you see this sort of evidence,
it makes you smile a bit, doesn't it?
You really think that there's really got something here
that's consistent with what you believe may be a thought of science?
Well, so often people say to me, you know,
what's the footprint look like? What's the dung look like?
All I can say is nobody knows.
But, again, by the process of elimination,
it supports a lot of the theories that I've had over the years
that don't still exist.
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When Ned found the tiger tracks, he started two new traps immediately.
This is the second, not yet finished.
And you can see it's quite a hole.
There's a ridge coming down here,
and three or four game tracks converging in here.
We've dug it, we've got it nearly all ready.
That's a good place. Christ, you've done some bloody digging too.
I reckon that once a little bit more off that edge there,
I'll get down there and take that off while you get that side there.
Right.
That's going a little bit better, I think.
I've got us a long way up there.
Gloves have shifted some dirt here.
I've got it hot down here.
Once Ned has finished calling on his maker,
he satisfies himself that the hole is just right.
After a few finishing touches, he's ready for the steel work.
Bring that side down, Alec, can you?
They're awkward things, aren't they? Yeah.
This tin bottom's a good thing in one way, but it's a bit too tight.
Just let him go.
I'll put him outside in a minute.
Get the other one for me.
We'll start till we get it tied up a bit.
Good idea prefabricating it though, wasn't it?
The water, huh?
Yeah, it's a good idea.
The water's not quite long enough, I'll try this bit.
This time, the trap is built completely of steel.
It may seem elaborate, but earth walls would never hold the powerful claws of the tiger.
I'm not going to just do it from here a bit.
The lids, being of steel, should eliminate the problem in the previous model.
The wooden lids, which became sodden and heavy after rain, thus becoming unbalanced.
Putting it together is quite a struggle, but Ned's a perfectionist, and it has to be just right.
We're mostly in the middle here, Alex, so give us those weights and we'll try it out.
They should be just right.
I'll pass this up and you'll have to thread it through that hole up there.
Wait a minute, put it up.
Now, does it come down a bit?
I'll hold it there when you tie it.
Now, just see how they work now.
It shouldn't be far out.
Now she's down, now just see if it'll go back up.
Oh, beautiful, look at that.
Flurry out the feed, jumps on that.
Down she goes like that, in he slips, up she comes, and he's out.
Well, I think it's better than sneering one.
I'd rather hang up with the guts all night.
I wouldn't like to be caught down here anyway with all the steel around me.
It'd be better than having a sneer on you, Nick.
Well, now you know how to build a tiger trap.
But that was the second of Ned's new traps.
The first new trap he finished on his last trip.
It's about half a mile away through the bush.
Whilst the traps are freshly made, Ned doesn't expect them to catch anything.
But to be fair to the animals, they have to be checked, and you never know.
By good, look at that.
Now, they cover that with leaves, and it's all gone shiny.
I wouldn't be surprised if something...
Something sprung it.
Might be something in that. Let's have a look.
Oh, yes. Oh.
A bloody great devil. Look at these bloody fangs.
Now, we've got to get him out of there, Ned.
By good, that's going to be a picnic tonight.
We'll have to get in with him to get him out.
Well, there he is. I think we'll try and put these snares on him.
He's a big heavy side, isn't he?
You take these snares, look.
Yeah. And just watch when I get down in there.
I'll put this little ladder down in the side here.
And just watch that... I'm flying out of there when...
Watch it.
I'll chuck this bag off here.
I'm going to take my bloody coat off before I get in there.
Wait a minute. I'm going to be shopping.
Watch out. I'll be leaving behind.
Watch out.
All right. Put that snare on him.
Get hold of his.
Pull his head here.
What's he like?
He'll be quiet until he gets stirred up a bit.
Let's get him close, won't you?
Yeah. Mind your bloody leg.
Let me hold him while he's out.
Just keep a bit of weight on it so you can stick off him.
I think we want to snare on his front foot now.
What do you think?
Yeah, mind your...
...bastardly back end.
And while I get him up now,
can you get down on his front foot?
That's it. Got him. Got him.
Look out for yourself.
Look out.
Just hold him up in the air so he can't run off.
Look at him.
Look at his balls. He's a real old buck, isn't he?
Look at that. Look.
Now, get another stick and take that one off his neck.
Look, I reckon I can flip this one off his leg.
Or I'll give it off his leg first.
Wait a minute.
Look out.
Now,
only until I get this one off his leg,
you'll probably flip that off his...
All right, well, I'll leave him there if I can.
There you go.
There you go.
There you go.
Yeah, you do.
Bloody rounder, right?
That's awkward.
Slacking it off a bit.
He could come too.
He might come forward, yeah.
Yeah, he could come forward really easily.
Just can't quite.
That's nearly off too.
Now,
give it a slack if you can.
That's got to go off his leg.
All right.
Now, we've got to get it off his neck.
Just get it down behind his neck
and his snare.
We'll have him in a minute.
Just steady, steady.
What if I get into the tail, Ed?
Just hang on.
I'll go get into the tail.
Oh, Christ.
He's got a sticky knee in his mouth.
He's got a sticky knee in his mouth.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Nearly.
Just hang on a minute.
There you go.
Cut the bloody snare off his
thick and heavy neck.
Wait a minute.
Nearly got it.
See the...
See the...
Mr. Dead Glow.
He's got...
He's got...
Before Bill got his IBM
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then down again for research files.
But with his IBM workstation,
Bill can get all the information he needs
without moving from his desk.
IBM workstations,
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In many years of trying,
Ned and Alex have caught wallabies,
kangaroos, rare tiger cats,
wombats, possums,
and literally dozens of Tasmanian devils
in the traps.
But still no sign of the elusive
tiger.
What spurs these two on
in their search?
Is the tiger a myth?
Perhaps amongst all
the inconclusive scientific
reports and official jargon,
the most compelling evidence
that the Tasmanian tiger does
exist comes from the
eyewitness accounts.
Their simple conviction
is hard to dispute.
A lot of them wouldn't believe me,
but I knew it was right.
They're a funny looking animal when you
come onto them in the bush. They might
stand up on the back of me neck, I can tell you that.
I was walking along shooting one night,
another night,
down along the road, and there was ferns up on
the bank, and they were
walking along and I heard them rattling and that
little turn around and I had a look and note
and I thought I wonder what it could be and that, cause there's no wild dogs around,
there weren't any dogs
around there or nothing. I hadn't heard it
or any and I was walking along a bit further and he
still following me and that and
there was a big branch or something
through the ferns and he must have jumped
up on it and rattled a whole
heap of ferns and I took off down the road and didn't turn
around until I got to the bottom.
Then the next one I saw
was between
a fingal and a
tiger, one foggy
night and
when I come along the tiger
jumped up on the, like
on the side of the bridge and
he had a young cub with him,
would have been about a foot long
and about nine inches
high, nine inches to
a foot, oh beautiful
little tiger he was.
And I was convinced
it was a tiger when I saw it
because I know what a
native cat looks like or
or any of the other animals in the
bush and a lot of the
old timers will tell you that that's where they were
and there's no other people
there and no civilisation and they could
happily live there without anyone
interfering with them.
These tigers
they can lay, they will lay
flat on the ground. Dogs won't
get in, the dogs won't tell us they're
here, they can walk
ten, twelve yards
from where they lay flat on their guts
as we disappear they'll
get up and they'll
move off. Now
they could be watching us all the time, we don't know.
There's a funny thing
how they know, a dog
knows that a tiger's the boss
and he won't get near a tiger
and he'll cringe and cower away from one.
The man was thinking that
it's just like humans being frightened of snakes
I think it's the same sort of thing.
They're about the bush here
there's no doubt about it, they're in the area
and we've just got to keep on going
till we get one.
Bloody hell, we will.
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And they're available from these stores.
Good time, good time
for the great test on the
dolls.
Something special, take your
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So what do you think? Does the Tygo really exist?
Or are all those Tasmanian
people simply mad?
Well, there's another sort of madness that strikes from time
to time and it surrounds the British Royal
family. Royal weddings, coronations,
that sort of thing. And next week, the
twenty-first, the Queen's birthday,
we're going to celebrate that special royal event
by crossing to London for the worldwide release
of Queen Elizabeth II, Sixty
Glorious Years, a brand new program
which not only traces her life as a monarch,
but discovers her personal life
and her sense of humour.
I should begin my speech
with the words, my husband and I.
We, and by that
I mean both of us, are
most grateful.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary,
born on April the twenty-first, nineteen twenty-six,
made her first formal appearance
before the public and the movie cameras
at the age of four.
Bridesmaid at a wedding. Winston
Churchill already thought her a character.
With, he said, an air of authority
and reflectiveness, astonishing
in an infant.
So join us Monday, the Queen's sixtieth
birthday for this premiere special,
Sixty Glorious Years.
Until then, good night.