Sceptic recalls day he came face-to-face with a Tasmanian Tiger

GREG Booth was a sceptic, until the day he came face-to-face with a thylacine.

GREG Booth was a sceptic, until the day he came face-to-face with a thylacine.

The Tasmanian wood chopper said he wasn’t looking for a thylacine on the day that one sat in front of him.

He didn’t believe in the rumours and tales about the continued existence of Tasmanian tigers in the state’s wilderness.

“I didn’t believe in him. Simple,” said Mr Booth, from Ouse, in the Central Highlands.

But that all changed in April 2015, on a day he took a detour on an old convict track in southern Tasmania, during a bushwalk with his dad, 80-year-old George “Joe” Booth.

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Mr Booth set off alone down the track 50km from Maydena when the tiger “came out”, only 3m in front of him.

Greg Booth describes what he believes was a Tasmanian tiger that he saw up close in 2015 Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“It had a really big head and a really long snout,” he said.

“It had a scar up here [forehead] and its ears were not so much pointed but really flared.

“It had white around the eyes, really dark brown eyes and set well back in the skull of the animal.”

The animal then sat down in front of him, staring for about six seconds.

“You could see its stripes,” Mr Booth said.

He said the most striking thing about the animal was a backwards-facing pouch, which he noticed when it turned to leave.

“It was something I’ve never seen before. I was gobsmacked.”

As it left and walked away, he noticed how it held its long distinctive tail.

“The tail was dead straight,” he said.

Mr Booth’s dad Joe said he didn’t see the thylacine that day, but had seen one decades before in the 1950s near his home of Ellendale, in the Derwent Valley.

“I always knew the Tasmanian tiger was still here. Always,” he said.

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