Yowiehunters Forum

Posted in the past few days. Interesting gait..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aY8yKaGJAUg

Certainly looks like it!

I've been following this story for past week or so.
Its very interesting to watch and I have no doubt that it could be a tiger.
The original poster - Paul Day - has been vigilant in defending his claims and has the support of a large group of 'believers' on Facebook.
Although once you get past all the cheering on and media hype, there really is a strong case for the affirmative.
Shape of the tail,Gait,Head shape and shorter front legs. These all point to a Thylacine.

Not that its 100% proof but its pretty compelling.

Posted in the past few days. Interesting gait..

Yes Dave. While people understandably tend to look for things like physical features, snout length, position of ears, length of tail and presence of coat patterning (in this case posterior stripes), it would be even more definitive if some research was done into the gait of the Thylacine. Often the video is of insufficient quality to distinguish much in the way of features but they way the walk and run is usually obvious.

Quadrupeds have distinctive gaits that change dependent upon species, physical characteristics and speed of locomotion.

The 1973 Doyle footage shows an animal running quite quickly. Faster than the speed of the subject in the video you posted.
Analysis has made much of the shape of the animal and it's tail length (although it doesn't seem to thin out like a marsupial tail) but I haven't seen much about it's gait.

The 1996 Charleville footage shows a more mature (adult) subject walking slowly. The grass and poor video quality tends to obscure much detail, however, this subject seems to display more physical similarities to the last known captive subject.

This clip from 2009 screams fox to me, not only because of it's tail but because of it's gait which is typically fox in the way it transitions to a trot and then to a gallop. This is classic fox. I can't see a thylacine trotting much with it's rear hip structure while a fox is recognised to straddle trot and side trot.

The one you posted is much clearer and does show a unique gait. All the early footage I have seen has never shown a known Thylacine in flight at any speed so it is difficult to compare it to anything. Perhaps by analysing the gaits of the other possible animals like, fox, dingo, wild dog a process of elimination could be used.

Perhaps there are some earlier descriptions of it from reports by naturalists or farmers who wrote about them while they were still alive. With all the bad press about them being a pest you would have thought at least one naturalist would have described them and their behaviours. If they did it might help identify a corresponding gait in the recent footage.

Thankyou Trevor.. very informative. Its the most intriguing video I've seen yet.

DaveR wrote:Thankyou Trevor.. very informative. Its the most intriguing video I've seen yet.

Hey Dave,

When i watched this video and it is zoomed in, it does look like one of the back legs isn't hitting the ground and it is lame. But the tail looks thick which is a trait of the tiger. It just could be a lame Tassie Tiger.

A few has said its a lame fox or dog.. it doesn't add up to the shape and gait in my opinion Dan. I'm leaning towards mainland thylacine.

I would really like to see some compelling evidence of a Tassie Tiger.
But, alas, I don't think this is one.
Just my opinion. I do agree with some , that whatever it is, is lame. One of its rear legs doesn't seem to be doing any work.
The length of the neck, being short-ish also doesn't fit with historical pictures.
Overall, the body seems "stumpy" to me.

The tail is attention-grabbing as it sticks out straight the way a Thylacine's tail would do. The movement of its body, however, looks to me like an animal that's been injured in some way.

The video isn't conclusive - I'm not convinced that the animal in the video isn't simply a dog with a leg or hip injury.