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Friday, June 24, 2005

Big cats, tasmanian tigers are out there
Thursday, 23 June 2005
Presenter: Liam Bartlett


LISTEN:
http://www.abc.net.au/wa/stories/m1077305.ram

The Tasmanian tiger. Still out there?

There's the Loch Ness monster, the abominable snowman, the mythical Australian big cats and the Tasmanian tiger. A Melbourne man draws the line at the last two because he reckons they may not be so mythical...and the government's not doing enough about it.

Michael Morris describes himself as an independent researcher who monitors such things. He thinks that whilst the Nannup tiger, and the Pemberton panther are difficult to find, we shouldn't discount their existence.

When asked if he has evidence, Michael says: "Not as far as the elusive photograph obviously," he says (but) "I have seen a lot of stock loss that I can't attribute to feral dogs...a lot of full blown dairy cattle rippped to pieces, etc."

busily filing freedom of information requestsMr Morris brings something new to the table in these matters - he's been busily filing freedom of information requests to the various authorities. "It's the same uniform description of the same sort of big cats being seen from Queensland to Victoria over to the west," he says.

Our guest concedes that whilst WA's Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM)does maintain a register of all sightings, they're not pro-active enough. "You won't get the evidence until you start looking," he reckons.

Michael Morris is unsurprised that one of these cat-like creatures hasn't been found. "These big cats are predominantly on public land, and of course if the people that own the land, the government, are not looking for these creatures then there's nobody else out there except amateurs."

Even as an amateur, Michael thinks he's seen sufficient for belief in big cats (as well as Tasmanian tigers) because of "the uniform consistency right across the country of the sightings as far as the consistency of sightings, the time of year," he says.

He concludes by returning to his call to arms: "I would urge CALM to show some leadership on this."

http://www.abc.net.au/wa/stories/s1399190.htm

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