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According to this article it is! This is great news.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/australia-tasm ... ct-1510479

Ironically the first time I'd ever heard of these creatures is from watching Howling III, but they referred to them as Tasmanian wolves.

I hope that is true, it would be wonderful news. I once spent some time with Australian soldiers who told me they thought the animal might still be around in some of the remote areas of the country. Considering how large the continent is and how lightly explored, they felt there was a fair chance that isolated populations might remain in the most remote locations.

Interesting. That's a strange-looking critter!

Murfreesboro wrote:Interesting. That's a strange-looking critter!

They fall under the genus, Thylacine, and are related to Tasmanian Devils. Like many species in Australia they are marsupials and have pouches like kangaroos do. They have the ability to open their jaws to a much wider degree than most other carnivores and had very strong jaws. They were considered a threat to the sheep raising industry, just like wolves and cougars were considered a threat to livestock here. Thankfully we didn't kill all of ours off...yet.

There has been reports and photos taken, and plaster casts made from different people for over 50 years. It was thought that a population could still be hiding in the Hartz mountains in Tasmania, because many of the sightings in the late 20th century were coming from that area. Unfortunately no concrete proof such as a carcass or live capture has been able to prove some might still be alive.

Marsupials are interesting; I think the earliest mammals were marsupials. This particular creature evolved independently from dogs and cats; I think they call that convergent evolution when a species evolves similar traits separately from another species.

A little note on Howling III since it's because of that movie that I knew about the species in the first place; I actually thought the concept was an interesting and unique perspective on the werewolf story. But it didn't get the best reviews. It has a bit of a strange story though.