While I don't think it's impossible, I'm not sure what's new here except the fact that almost everyone now carries a camera yet we're still to get clear images ;)
But I'm biased, I'm a moose believer (or as I like to call it, a moother) based on the circumstantial evidence, but a lot of people are skeptical a creature as large as a moose could keep a low profile that long.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103196185/new-zealands-moos...
Similar story of US Airmen releasing their mascot pumas into the wild.
From what I've seen personally, feral gets can get BIG. Like mastiff-sized. So I tend to believe these rumours but take their origins with various grains of salt.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-11-28/tests-reveal-super-si...
The fact that no-one saw them while helicopters were beating the bush during the goldrush red deer helicopter hunting years counts against them, but my pet theory is that moose love water, and there's plenty of swamps in Fiordland (if there's a flat bit, it's probably a swamp) to hide from helicopters in.
I love how big the world is sometimes.
Great stuff, in a mix of Māori and laid back NZ English.
Exactly this. The absence of clear photographs has much more negative predictive value now that almost everyone is carrying a cell phone with a camera almost all the time they are away from home.
They weren't silent animals either, and were fond of raiding sheep, chickens etc., from farms (the reason they were exterminated). It doesn't seem plausible to me that they'd survive with such a low profile for circa 90 years.
Animals are also hard to take pictures of. I've been trying to get a good picture of a squirrel from my yard for a friend of mine for weeks now but the little bastards are quick. By the time I get the camera app open they're gone.
I have no idea what these people are thinking and like you would prefer to actually experience it myself, but I'd expect at least one of them to have reached for their phone before they even realized what they were recording.
There's also been dedicated people heading out with night vision cameras, they've found nothing either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_devil > Tasmanian devils can eliminate all traces of a carcass of a smaller animal, devouring the bones and fur if desired.
The poo one is interesting - no matter how hard I google, I can't find an image of thylacine shit, so not sure how you'd differentiate it from other animals' scat.
>They are also found near roads where roadkill is prevalent, although the devils themselves are often killed by vehicles while retrieving the carrion.
From the Tasmanian Devil wiki page.
Surely it must be that the feline predator looming deep in the human psyche is what lies beneath these apparitions.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/apr/14/britains-big-...
Considering the quality of the average person's pictures, I don't think the proliferation of cameraphones will help us get clear picture.
Pictures, yes. Pictures of blurry, smeary things in the corner of the frame. But clear, well-framed pictures are beyond the capability of 95% of the public.
Like the Loch Ness monster, but ore likely to be real.
(Which is not saying much!)