Great map of yowie sightings

[Alphawolf27]

Hey all found a great map of yowie sightings all around Australia take a look if you get a chance

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mi ... w&hl=en_US

[Alphawolf27]

anyone know how to delete a post? i dont know why it posted twice

[Yowie bait]

Thanks for the map. Someone went to a lot of work to compile that. Thankfully none around here!

[ChrisV]

What an interesting map.
Interesting to see it all placed out and where the hot spots are.....

[Yowie bait]

Yeah theyre mostly on the one side of the country. Maybe they dont report the sightings so much over in w.a and s.a. or the yowies have a mega predator over there. Ha imagine that!

[Searcher]

Neat map. Distribution as expected. Tassie sightings provoke some thoughts…. Have they been there since the apple isle was joined to the mainland?

A few options:

Stowed away in car boots to cross on the Spirit of Tasmania.
Are very adept at rowing.
Are amazingly good swimmers.
Turn into orbs and float across Bass Straight.

One of these possibilities must hit the nail on the head. No doubt macquariedave will have a couple more.

[Yowie bait]

Surely theyd be in tasmania. They have some of the most impenetrable forests on the planet. Probably feasting on those giant freshwater crayfish they had on deadly 60. Id say they rode over there on jet skis at night or possibly hovercraft...

[Mad Academic]

Yes, great (interactive ) map.

Yowie sightings are, for me, interesting both where they are noted, and for where they are not.

For example, the forests of the east coast no doubt contain more food per unit area than the sparsely-vegetated areas of SA or WA. They also support more thick bush in which a creature could hide. Not surprisingly, reports are most numerous right up the east coast.
There are only 2 reports from SA, one of which is fanciful.

Tasmania, although heavily forested and sparsley populated in parts, has had virtually no reliable reports. (The two listed on the map must regarded as dubious at best.) The simplest explanation is that yowies did not inhabit Tasmania prior to the sea-level rise that isolated it from the mainland.

It is easy to conclude that yowies exist in thick temperate to sub-tropical forest predominantly on the east coast of the mainland, and sporadically elsewhere (eg NT and SE of WA). They are more numerous where food and shelter is abundant and temperatures not extreme. Rarely sighted in desert locations, where food, water and shelter are scarce. Absent from Tasmania.

Really, from a biologist's point of view, the sightings mirror exactly what one might predict.

MA

[Yowie bait]

Thats very interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. Id always imagined tassie would be crawling with undiscovered wild beasts. I guess some sightings on the map are not real sightings or the smaller hairy ones too. Bet there would be a lot of people that dont bother to report a sighting or experience for whatever reason. Maybe more than those that report them.

[Yowie bait]

Yes, great (interactive ) map.

Yowie sightings are, for me, interesting both where they are noted, and for where they are not.

For example, the forests of the east coast no doubt contain more food per unit area than the sparsely-vegetated areas of SA or WA. They also support more thick bush in which a creature could hide. Not surprisingly, reports are most numerous right up the east coast.
There are only 2 reports from SA, one of which is fanciful.

Tasmania, although heavily forested and sparsley populated in parts, has had virtually no reliable reports. (The two listed on the map must regarded as dubious at best.) The simplest explanation is that yowies did not inhabit Tasmania prior to the sea-level rise that isolated it from the mainland.

It is easy to conclude that yowies exist in thick temperate to sub-tropical forest predominantly on the east coast of the mainland, and sporadically elsewhere (eg NT and SE of WA). They are more numerous where food and shelter is abundant and temperatures not extreme. Rarely sighted in desert locations, where food, water and shelter are scarce. Absent from Tasmania.

Really, from a biologist's point of view, the sightings mirror exactly what one might predict.

MA

Hi Mad Academic i was just re-reading your post and was wondering if you could clarify some things for me. Are you saying that yowies are only on the mainland and no possible way they could be on magnetic island,fraser or even png and are you basing this on yowies being a type of primitive human or an animal? Also if they cant survive in extreme weather does this mean sightings of the yeti and sasquach in places like russia or canada are b.s too? I hope this works as im not sure how to qoute....

[Mad Academic]

Hi Mad Academic i was just re-reading your post and was wondering if you could clarify some things for me. Are you saying that yowies are only on the mainland and no possible way they could be on magnetic island,fraser or even png and are you basing this on yowies being a type of primitive human or an animal? Also if they cant survive in extreme weather does this mean sightings of the yeti and sasquach in places like russia or canada are b.s too? I hope this works as im not sure how to qoute....

Hi Yowie Bait,

Firstly my opinion is just that; my opinion. It really isn't worth any more or less than anyone else's.
I'm not that familiar with Magnetic Island, but I have been to Hervey Bay and I believe it would be possible for a determined person/animal to swim across. If the yowie(s) came to Australia via a land bridge in not-too-distant times (approximately the same time as the Aboriginies) it is logical that they came via the same route (crossing PNG).
In fact, if you look up Prof. Gary Opit's website, he has had a sighting himself in the highlands of PNG.

I couldn't possibly class a yowie as a primitive human or an animal...they would seem to be midway between the two, as they have attributes of both. When does white cease to be white and become grey? When does grey become black?

I didn't mean to imply that they cannot survive in extreme weather. I simply meant that, if you were given a choice of being able to live in a nice, sub-tropical forest with plenty of fruit and game, or a scorching desert with little cover, not much game and no fruit at all to speak of, what would you choose? Of course, you would choose the former. And that is probably what yowies do.

In places like Canada and Russia they (or their cousins) must withstand periods of extreme cold and hardship (or else migrate, and there is some evidence that they do), but that is balanced by periods of plenty, as one finds in the northern spring, summer and autumn.
I have actually spent 10 years in Russia, and a year in Finland and I can tell you that their forests are full of food compared to our dry eucalyptus forests!
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

MA

[Yowie bait]

Thanks Mad Academic; thats awesome. Magnetic Island is near Townsville. I went there as a kid. We travelled by moke up the mountain to this lookout that i think was used in world war two. There is some dense forest there from what i remember. Nice topless beach too!

[huey1]

Hi Yowie Bait,

Firstly my opinion is just that; my opinion. It really isn't worth any more or less than anyone else's.
I'm not that familiar with Magnetic Island, but I have been to Hervey Bay and I believe it would be possible for a determined person/animal to swim across. If the yowie(s) came to Australia via a land bridge in not-too-distant times (approximately the same time as the Aboriginies) it is logical that they came via the same route (crossing PNG).

MA

Hi

Back around 1996/97 I spent almost a year living and working around Hervey Bay and on Fraser Island. There was plenty of rangers on the island who said they had witnessed Roos swim across from Inskip Point to the island. Seems unbelievable but I heard it from more than one person.

As for Yowies, unfortunately I was not aware of the hairy fella back then so never asked anyone but I do recall a couple of stories.

Something along the lines of some native Americans were over visiting the local indigenous and they were at Central Station on the island, one of the Americans asked if anyone else was aware of all the pairs of red eyes around them. I didn't really think anything of this until years later when I became Yowie aware.

Second tale. A woman who worked with my wife said her husband was a forestry worker down around Jimna and there were story's of very large hairy arms grabbing at tools and people through the bushes. Again I was told this on a drunken night and didn't really pay much attention to it.

Huey

[Yowie bait]

Hey Huey. Thanks so much for that post. Ive been searching for sightings
on fraser and found nothing. A freind and i had a close encounter with an aggressive black and red eyed yowie on fraser that scared the c**p out of us. Ive been through central station a lot of times. It is beautiful but a bit spooky. Wouldnt be suprised if they were in there. The aboriginals were on fraser .Maybe they have some stories.

[Hairy_man_Dan]

Interesting map. I was looking at one last night on feral pig distribution in Australia and there are quite a few similarities, particularly in the s/w and central Australia areas. The east coast is almost bang on too except for the Cape York area. Having spent a fair bit of time up the Cape I would put it down to nobody being around to witness a sighting, that is one of last true remote and wild places left in our beautiful country.


H_M_D

[Yowie bait]

Thats wild. Was wondering what yowies thought of feral pigs and cane toads.Be great if they were eating those mongrel pigs!

[Scarts]

Who completed this map? The reports coincide not only with the population concentrations in Australia, but in the case of the East Coast, coincides with the Great Dividing Range running through the middle. I must say, if the yowie were physical and trying to remain undiscovered, you would expect more reports in the less populated areas - remote. Yet, the opposite is the case. That said, if the great dividing range is relevant, then a more detailed map should show a higher concentration of reports within the range itself.

[ChrisV]

If Aboriginal communities can survive in the cooler climates of Tasmania it only makes sense that other similar species could do so also.
Like other opinions stated here, one would think that if there was a community of Yowie like creatures there that they would of been there for pretty much forever. With the remoteness in the majority of the island nothing can be confirmed as 'they don't exist down there' .
Personally - I'd be more interested in hearing 2016 tiger reports and whether a species that is supposedly extinct could actually be hiding away and prove that human ignorance and arrogance is flawed. If i was a Yowie I'd stay far away from even the nearest bush track!!!!

[Mad Academic]

If Aboriginal communities can survive in the cooler climates of Tasmania it only makes sense that other similar species could do so also.

Yes. If they ever went there....

Like other opinions stated here, one would think that if there was a community of Yowie like creatures there that they would of been there for pretty much forever.

Yes. "If".
And if they never went there, then they wouldn't have been there.

With the remoteness in the majority of the island nothing can be confirmed as 'they don't exist down there' .

Given the size of the island and the human activity, one would have expected many, many reports. There are no (reliable) reports.
(Don't forget, trappers went to every corner of the forest in early times to trap animals for fur. If Yowies were there, there would have been reports. There were none.)
Simplest conclusion: they are not there.


Personally - I'd be more interested in hearing 2016 tiger reports and whether a species that is supposedly extinct could actually be hiding away and prove that human ignorance and arrogance is flawed.

How does the existence (or not) of a thylacine "prove that human ignorance and arrogance is flawed"?!?

If i was a Yowie I'd stay far away from even the nearest bush track!!!!

Soooo.....you would bulldoze new tracks through the forest to show everyone where you had been...???
Brilliant strategy.

[Searcher]

Bass Straight formed a mere 12,000 years ago when polar ice from the last ice age melted. That’s only a blink of the eye in geological time scales. It does not take a great leap of the imagination to assume that any Yowies there would be trapped in Tasmania alongside the indigenous people.

It is generally accepted that the Australian aborigine has been on this continent for at least 40,000 years. Stories about their encounters with the hairy man go way back. It seems they have always co-existed with them.

As for the scarcity of Yowie reports on the apple isle, I have no answer. Perhaps like Truginini, the last of the full blooded Tasmanian aboriginals, they have all died out.

That said, the Tasmanian encounter as detailed in Reports/Sightings here on AYR is detailed and impressive. I would like to hear from that couple today and weigh up the veracity of their sighting of almost 30 years ago.

[Yowie bait]

Its a strange sighting. She says the light reflected back at them off its silver fur. Cant say ive heard that in any of the other sightings on here.

[ChrisV]

If Aboriginal communities can survive in the cooler climates of Tasmania it only makes sense that other similar species could do so also.

Yes. If they ever went there....

Like other opinions stated here, one would think that if there was a community of Yowie like creatures there that they would of been there for pretty much forever.

Yes. "If".
And if they never went there, then they wouldn't have been there.

With the remoteness in the majority of the island nothing can be confirmed as 'they don't exist down there' .

Given the size of the island and the human activity, one would have expected many, many reports. There are no (reliable) reports.
(Don't forget, trappers went to every corner of the forest in early times to trap animals for fur. If Yowies were there, there would have been reports. There were none.)
Simplest conclusion: they are not there.


Personally - I'd be more interested in hearing 2016 tiger reports and whether a species that is supposedly extinct could actually be hiding away and prove that human ignorance and arrogance is flawed.

How does the existence (or not) of a thylacine "prove that human ignorance and arrogance is flawed"?!?

If i was a Yowie I'd stay far away from even the nearest bush track!!!!

Soooo.....you would bulldoze new tracks through the forest to show everyone where you had been...???
Brilliant strategy.

Ah - no! Not sure what tangent your trying to take with my response - maybe you should reread and try again.
Can't remember where I mentioned bulldozing new tracks or saying they were never there. I do agree with you that no reports would seem like there was little or no activity...
So as a consequence would'nt it be more practical and rational to investigate a species that has reports and has been sighted that was supposedly made extinct because of human ignorance and arrogance...like a particular tiger!?
....
and another thing, if any of these reports of yowie activity is confirmed in the future - I can assure you that the good ol' human ignorance and arrogance factor will rise again and threaten another species.... do we ever learn?

[Searcher]

Well said ChrisV. I understood exactly what you were saying.

Your opinions made sense... and postulating speculative viewpoints are all most of us can do with this absolutely weird but fascinating subject of Yowies.

[Yowie bait]

Not asking anyone in particular but if yowies trapped on islands would be more prone to inbreeding and in turn deformities then would they would die out quicker as a species?

[Scarts]

Tasmanian reports isn't an issue. Aren't they super fast human type creatures that have been sighted swimming and climbing, oh and are supposed to be really intelligent? What's stopping them hitching a ride on a large ship, swimming, or building their own boats? Theyre reported with opposable thumbs, yeah?

They're either intelligent enough to avoid capture by photo or human or too primitive and dumb to ride in a boat, swim, or build a boat. They can't be both, and there is no way a population of yowies in Tasmania is sustainable without being discovered by now.

Thank-you Tasmania!

[Hairy_man_Dan]

[quote="Scarts"]there is no way a population of yowies in Tasmania is sustainable without being discovered by now.



Hmmmm don't know about that ...... what is that comment based on? Tassie might look small on a map but there are some of the most remote and inaccessible forests in the country there. Every bit as plausible as the Pilliga yowie or or any other in my opinion.......

H_M_D

[Mad Academic]

Not asking anyone in particular but if yowies trapped on islands would be more prone to inbreeding and in turn deformities then would they would die out quicker as a species?

It's not an easy question to answer. It would depend on many things. For example:

1) What level of deleterious genes were present in the founding population.
2) How many "yowies" in the founding population.
3) How many offspring they had.
4) How often they bred.
5) How much territory they had.

In some cases, island populations have managed to adapt by "miniaturisation"...in other words, individuals become smaller so the island resources can support them. This is more an adaptation to limited food resources, but it is still a factor in island populations. So, for example, there are instances of miniature mammoths on ancient islands. Also, modern day Indonesian rhinos are smaller than their African cousins.

In other cases, species seem to go through an inbreeding bottleneck relatively unscathed. For example, (ALL) cheetahs are as closely related to each other as human twins, because they come from a founding population of just a few individuals at one stage. They have extremely low genetic diversity due to inbreeding for many generations. Their sperm count is very low due to malformed sperm. Yet, they manage to survive and breed.
Another example: Tassie Devils have very low genetic diversity. That is why the facial tumor virus kills them all...because they don't recognise it as "foreign" because they are all so genetically similar. Yet they survive.

I hope this helps. And, yes, I am a biologist.

MA

[Mad Academic]

there is no way a population of yowies in Tasmania is sustainable without being discovered by now.



Hmmmm don't know about that ...... what is that comment based on? Tassie might look small on a map but there are some of the most remote and inaccessible forests in the country there. Every bit as plausible as the Pilliga yowie or or any other in my opinion.......

H_M_D

I must agree with "Scarts" on this one. I am well aware of the thickness and vastness of the Tasmanian forests. However, I also remind myself that most of that forest has been logged at some time in the past. That which wasn't logged was (as I previously stated) literally festooned with wire snares and traps for animals for fur by trappers in earlier days.
I have never read of or heard of ANY trapper reporting anything like a yowie.
Rarely, they reported a thylacine. NEVER a yowie.

The Pilliga, on the other hand has never (correct me if I am wrong) been extensively logged or infiltrated by trappers.
Yet there are many reports of yowies by truck drivers, motorists, and land-owners there.

So there you have it: sightings where you would expect them (the Pilliga) and no sightings where you wouldn't (the Tarkine).

MA

[Hairy_man_Dan]

1. Not debating the lack of sightings.
2. Google logging in The Pilliga.

[Yowie bait]

Not asking anyone in particular but if yowies trapped on islands would be more prone to inbreeding and in turn deformities then would they would die out quicker as a species?

It's not an easy question to answer. It would depend on many things. For example:

1) What level of deleterious genes were present in the founding population.
2) How many "yowies" in the founding population.
3) How many offspring they had.
4) How often they bred.
5) How much territory they had.

In some cases, island populations have managed to adapt by "miniaturisation"...in other words, individuals become smaller so the island resources can support them. This is more an adaptation to limited food resources, but it is still a factor in island populations. So, for example, there are instances of miniature mammoths on ancient islands. Also, modern day Indonesian rhinos are smaller than their African cousins.

In other cases, species seem to go through an inbreeding bottleneck relatively unscathed. For example, (ALL) cheetahs are as closely related to each other as human twins, because they come from a founding population of just a few individuals at one stage. They have extremely low genetic diversity due to inbreeding for many generations. Their sperm count is very low due to malformed sperm. Yet, they manage to survive and breed.
Another example: Tassie Devils have very low genetic diversity. That is why the facial tumor virus kills them all...because they don't recognise it as "foreign" because they are all so genetically similar. Yet they survive.

I hope this helps. And, yes, I am a biologist.

MA

Yes thats a great little read and very informative . Thanks once again mad acedemic.