Tasmanian Tiger hunter shares a video he says PROVES the marsupial is not extinct 

Tasmanian Tiger hunter shares a video he says PROVES the marsupial is not extinct – and reveals one picture that has even the experts scratching their heads

  • Neil Waters believes he has captured footage of the extinct Tasmanian tiger 
  • He released three images, one of which he claims is solid proof they’re alive
  • The images show a small animal with a straight tail and a series of stripes 
  • Tasmanian Museum have concluded that the animal was unlikely to be a tiger

A man who has been combing the bush for years believes he has pictures of a Tasmanian tiger which is proof the marsupial is not extinct. 

Neil Waters, a known Tasmanian Tiger hunter from the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia, released a video made up of coloured pictures of the elusive animals.  

Mr Waters was so confident that he sent the photos to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for assessment – and said he expected it to agree and help reclassify the breed as critically endangered rather than extinct.

The video has been viewed more than 20,000 times and attracted some skeptical comments. 

‘These photos are not fake, this is not a hoax, our experts are real people, not actors,’ the video’s description read.

Neil Waters, a known Tasmanian Tiger hunter from the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia, released a video made up of coloured pictures of the elusive animals. He said the above image was solid proof the Tasmanian Tiger was still alive 

‘It gets really interesting when the camera gets into focus,’ Mr Waters said in the video.

In the footage, Mr Waters revealed three images that were captured three weeks ago as well as comments from experts. 

He believes the third image is solid proof the marsupial is still alive.  

The image shows a small animal with a straight tail and what appeared to be a series of stripes along its backside – two features that mark a Tasmanian tiger.

‘It’s the image I’m hanging everything on because I know what I’m looking at here,’ he said.

‘And what’s that we have here… several stripes on the tail, several stripes on the rump. Like a band going all the way around its back,’ he pointed out.

Mr Waters submitted the images to Tasmanian devil expert and honorary curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Nick Mooney who concluded the animal was unlikely to be a Tasmanian tiger.

‘Nick Mooney has concluded that based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos provided by Mr Waters, the animals are very unlikely to be thylacines,’ a statement from the museum said.

Mr Waters was so confident that he sent the photos to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for assessment. He said the picture right showed an animal with several stripes on the tail, which resembled a Tasmanian Tiger

Mr Waters was so confident that he sent the photos to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for assessment. He said the picture right showed an animal with several stripes on the tail, which resembled a Tasmanian Tiger 

Mr Mooney said they were most likely pademelons which is a type of small wallaby.

But Mr Waters continued to believe it’s a family of thylacines, not just one and said that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

‘With all due respect I disagree with Nick Mooney’s opinion and that’s fine – that’s perfectly OK – and he encourages me in his report to get as many opinions as I can because his is only one opinion,’ Mr Waters says in the new video.

But the museum statement said there had not been any confirmed sightings documented since 1936.

The Tasmanian tiger has been declared extinct since the 1980s.