It has been more than eight decades since the last known Tasmanian tiger died. In that time, the marsupial has become the stuff of textbook sketches and yellowing photographs, little more than a memory aging into oblivion.But Thylacinus cynocephalus may still be out there.Recent "plausible sightings" have challenged the accepted wisdom that the animal has gone extinct — and have inspired researchers at Australia's James Cook University to commence a quest to find it themselves.Let's clarify one thing right away: this animal is no feline. In fact, it's a marsupial — in the same family as kangaroos — but its face looks a lot like a dog."It's a dog with a pouch," the university's Sandra Abell tells All Things Considered. She's one of the people leading the search in Queensland, Australia."It has a very dog-like face," she says, "but its back and the tail in particular looks a little bit kangaroo-like. Its hind quarters are very distinctive — so they have stripes on the back end and that large tail, very interesting looking."The team is planning to place dozens of cameras in the area the elusive animal has reportedly been spotted, in hopes of catching it on tape.The researchers also plan to use the cameras to collect more general information about declining populations of mammals in Australia. Abell says that north Queensland has recently experienced "small mammal crashes," and the tapes might help explain why.Once common in Australia and Tasmania, the last known Tasmanian tiger died in 1936 at Tasmania's Hobart Zoo, according to the Australian government.That was more than 100 years after a prominent land company in Tasmania offered a bounty to settlers to kill the tigers, which were hunting newly introduced sheep, according to the Tasmanian government. It later introduced its own bounties and paid more than 2,000 of them between 1888 and 1909.In 1986, the species was declared "extinct by international standards," the Tasmanian government adds.Still, reported sightings have persisted ever since the death of the Hobart Zoo animal.There's even a group — the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia — that tracks reports and is dedicated to the idea that the Tasmanian tiger still exists.Some claims appear more credible than others. Australia's ABC reports that researchers were particularly intrigued by a recent account given by former tour operator Brian Hobbs about a camping trip in 1983:
Back From The Dead? Reported Sightings Fuel Hope For Return Of Tasmanian Tigers
