Forums | MacLife
You are not logged in.
#1 2008-03-02 7:49 am
Tasmanian Tiger
Just out of curiosity - how many of y'all think the tiger is still there?
There's much of tasmania that is very difficult for us to get at, and I do think it is quite possible a population survived the bounties.
OTOH the colonists brought with them dogs and other animals that carried diseases that could have done the tiger in.
There have been numerous sightings that sound credible, but since there are almost no people alive who could have seen a confirmed tiger from the beginning of the 20th century, the possibility of sincere mis-identification of feral dogs as tigers is pretty good.
I'm fairly confident there were some past the last confirmed wild tiger, whether there were enough for a viable wild population to have survived until now is a different matter.
I'd like to think they are still there though.
I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys R Us? -- Jim Ferguson
Offline
#2 2008-03-02 2:40 pm
- toadkiller
- Member
- From: Mississippi
- Registered: 2002-09-26
- Posts: 719
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
Probably not.
However, where I grew up in Kansas we had bobcat - lots of them. Most people never saw them, even folks who were outdoors a lot. Cougar later repopulated the area and it took a good 15 (to 40 depending on who you talk to) before there was hard proof i.e. a road-killed cougar of it. This is a fairly highly populated rural area. Quite a few people and many of them spend a lot of time out wandering around on one errand or another.
So, I agree it is possible.
--TK
"Oh popcorn, you won't laugh at me!"
"Bill Gates" The Daily Show 1/30/07
Offline
#3 2008-03-02 6:49 pm
- Gurlugon
- Don't turn off the lights
- Registered: 2003-07-07
- Posts: 1087
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
Coyotes have managed to survive in suburban New Jersey, not that they're exactly comparable situations. I don't see why it would be impossible for a few stragglers to be left alive and breed.
Non-weeaboo Youtube vid of the week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCk8ByyCsks (updated 10/10) Now with more BEST THEME EVER
Offline
#4 2008-03-02 7:01 pm
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
The issue is if enough survived to avoid complications of inbreeding.
I believe that generally, a mammal population needs to be 500 strong to avoid that problem long term.
I'm sure that many survived the trappers. I'm not sure that many survived the diseases that domestic animals (including feral dogs) brought with them. I hope so though.
If I ever won the lottery, it would be fun to go there for a few months and search - looking at the more credible records and seeing the time of year they are most often spotted.
I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys R Us? -- Jim Ferguson
Offline
#5 2008-03-03 6:15 am
- Orion
- Master Mechanic
- From: America's Dairyland
- Registered: 2000-09-12
- Posts: 2907
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
I think they have a chance because there are many other species that were believed to be extinct, yet some were stumbled upon years later. Like that one fish that was supposedly extinct 65 million years ago, yet fishermen were catching them off the coast of Africa for thousands of years.
Its just sad that they were decimated because they were a "nuisance" to the people living there.
The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways. -John F. Kennedy
Farming is easy when your plow is a pencil and you are a thousand miles from the cornfield. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
Offline
#6 2008-03-03 7:18 am
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
It's a matter of pride for me that I was to see both ivory billed and pileated woodpeckers an later to hear pileated woodpeckers literally years before the scientific community was to acknowledge the fact that the pileated had not gone extinct and the ivory bill might still exist as well.
Offline
#7 2008-03-03 1:57 pm
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
Orion wrote:
I think they have a chance because there are many other species that were believed to be extinct, yet some were stumbled upon years later. Like that one fish that was supposedly extinct 65 million years ago, yet fishermen were catching them off the coast of Africa for thousands of years.
Its just sad that they were decimated because they were a "nuisance" to the people living there.
Yeah - it isn't too uncommon to hear of it happening.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are still Rocky Mountain Locusts living somewhere in Yellowstone (but not reaching population densities needed to transform and swarm).
There's a lot of wilderness in Tazmania - so maybe.
I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys R Us? -- Jim Ferguson
Offline
#8 2008-03-04 1:07 pm
- iSeamas
- Captain Howdy
- From: the Sticks
- Registered: 2001-12-26
- Posts: 762
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
ScifiterX wrote:
It's a matter of pride for me that I was to see both ivory billed and pileated woodpeckers an later to hear pileated woodpeckers literally years before the scientific community was to acknowledge the fact that the pileated had not gone extinct and the ivory bill might still exist as well.
Are you sure they thought the Pileated Woodpecker was extinct?
As far as I ever knew, they've had a fairly wide range and were considered fairly common (in both my Peterson's guide and the one my parent's owned -circa 1960).
Or was it only extinct in your state?
I know about the Ivory Bill being suspected extinct (and now claims they still exist).
All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me.
Offline
#9 2008-03-04 1:15 pm
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
The Ivory Bill still exists. The recent sightings are credible. How many still exists is another matter, but there are other reports that had previously been dismissed that now seem more credible.
If they find a Tazzy, then many (but not all) of the Tiger sightings will suddenly become more credible to many as well.
Funny how that works.
I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys R Us? -- Jim Ferguson
Offline
#10 2008-03-04 8:41 pm
Re: Tasmanian Tiger
iSeamas wrote:
ScifiterX wrote:
It's a matter of pride for me that I was to see both ivory billed and pileated woodpeckers an later to hear pileated woodpeckers literally years before the scientific community was to acknowledge the fact that the pileated had not gone extinct and the ivory bill might still exist as well.
Are you sure they thought the Pileated Woodpecker was extinct?
As far as I ever knew, they've had a fairly wide range and were considered fairly common (in both my Peterson's guide and the one my parent's owned -circa 1960).
Or was it only extinct in your state?
I know about the Ivory Bill being suspected extinct (and now claims they still exist).
It may have just been the dip smurf officials in my area who thought that. If no one sees something for years and the "officials" make assumptions about the thing's status round here.
Offline
