Lure of the Thylacine
True stories and legendary tales of the Tasmanian Tiger.
Publisher: Echo Publishing
Type: Soft Cover
Pages: 280
Genre: (True Stories)
Published: 2016
ISBN: 978-1-76040-088-0
The book itself is well made. Its a little over nine inches tall, six inches wide and a inch thick. I didn't notice any misspellings or grammatical errors. One slightly odd thing was that there are eight glossy pages of drawing and photographs, these are nice but are not in the center of the book. It doesn't distract from the book in any way its just a little different.
The book begins with longer bushmen stories that border on glorifying the old trappers and loggers. With stories of the Thylacine becoming as tame as a beloved pet to tales of the creatures vicious nature.
The book delves into the history of the Thylacine, the government bounty and the eventual conservation efforts. Most of the information concerns Tasmania but sometimes include West Papua and mainland Australia.
The "scientific community's" denial of evidence (sightings, photos, blood, hair, videos, footprint casts, and in at least one case a whole corpse,) provided to them infuriates me. I wonder if these creatures might have been saved from extinction if the "scientific community" had done its job instead of ridiculing witnesses. Even today those who witness the Thylacine are met with ridicule. The author doesn't seem quite as angry about this as i am, which is probably a good thing for the reader.
There is a little crossover when we get into more modern sightings especially with the Alien Big Cat or Australian Puma and Lions witness testimony. While some stories go for pages long, others are a few to a page. Indeed while there are 64 chapters some of those chapters are only two pages long.
There is an extensive chapter on the Newfoundland Wolf and its sad parallels with the Thylacine. In fact i should mention the Thylacines story is a sad one, and a lot of the pictures show it in the horrible zoo conditions of the time.
The chapter on the Aboriginal Australians relationship with the Thylacine was especially fascinating.
The end of the book lists source credits for each individual chapter.
This is a great read and got me through a day when i had no electricity. I would recommend it for anyone interested in Cryptozology, animals, and Australian history.
There
is an aspect of the Thylacine not covered in this book, and after
searching online i can not find any reference to it. So in the interests
of my own safety i am leaving it out of this review.
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