By NOEL MUPRHY
A TASMANIAN tiger could be marauding farms from Freshwater Creek through to the Otways, big cat watchers say after a fresh round of mystery attacks on stock.
Farmer Harry Cook, who lost a ram and a lamb last week at his Dickens Rd property, believed a Tassie tiger might be responsible because of the way his sheep were attacked.
They were attacked from the rear, unlike the usual frontal or side mauling attacks of dogs or foxes.
“When I found the dead lamb there wasn’t a mark on it. I thought ‘What the hell happened here?’ “The missing ram was found by people over the creek in a pool of blood. Both had been eaten out from the anus and all the innards dragged out from them.
“I thought it sounded like the Tasmanian tiger MO. I know it’s a leap of faith but that’s my theory.”
The Tasmanian tiger, a carnivorous marsupial, is believed to have become extinct in the 20th Century but Mr Cook claimed to have seen a similar metre-high striped creature near his property five years ago.
Researcher Michael Moss backed the tiger suspicion, believing that zoo figures secretly released the animal at Wilsons Promontory in the 1930s to preserve them.
“They were trying to preserve native species and the Tasmanian tiger would have been a prime candidate. It wouldn’t have been mentioned because of its reputation as a sheep-killer.”
Mr Moss said he had recorded alleged sightings of Tasmanian tigers back to the 1930s.
