On July 5th, 2017, you-tuber Paul Day uploaded a video to his channel "AuthorPaulGDay" titled "Could This Be A Tasmanian Tiger".
While out filming a sunrise, Paul captured an animal running across a field, at first he just thought it was a fox or dog, but later thought he may have captured rare footage of a thylacine.
It is easy to see why one would ponder this theory, the animal appears to have an unusual gait, a skipping motion not too dissimilar to the gait attributed to the thylacine, an animal that is officially presumed extinct.
Unfortunately, due to copyright reasons, my enhancement of the video can not be added to this blog, however I can provide a link to Paul's original video HERE
For my own private research, I ran this footage through video editing software. Through this process I was able to zoom in on the animal, and make the view angle follow the animal across the field, at a zoom level which allowed a good understanding of how this animal was using its limbs. This observation was made easier by being able to slow the footage down considerably.
Before jumping to a conclusion that it was a thylacine, which was very tempting given the unusual gait (I was nearly convinced it could be), I had too rule out other possibilities. The most plausible explanation, given that the thylacine is thought to have been extinct on the mainland for at least 2000 years, was that the animal was a canidae with some kind of disability. The canidae family includes foxes and dogs
This list of disabilities was worked through until I came upon the condition of Hip Dysplasia, this condition is particularly prevalent in German Shepherds, an animal very similar in build to the animal in the video.
Firstly, let's analyse the gait attributed to a thylacine when running, an animation showing this gait can be seen HERE on the naturalworlds website. You will see that a thylacine uses its back legs in unison to spring into a leap, landing on its front legs, which work almost in unison to pull it forward until the back legs are in position to propel it forward again, this is similar to other quadrupedic marsupials.
However on close examination the animal in Paul's video does not use its limbs in unison, rather its gait matches a canidae suffering from Hip Dysplasia. View a German Shepherd with Hip Dysplasia running in this video HERE from youtube.
Like the dog in the afore mentioned video, you will see that the animal in Paul's video is not using its front legs in unison, it lands on one and then follows with the other. The front legs can appear shorter than the rear, due to the fact the animal is placing most of its wait on the front legs to minimise the pain in its hip.
More telling is the way the animal is using its rear legs. The animal is holding the limb connected to the affected hip off the ground completely, forcing it to spring off the un-affected leg, this is what appears to make the gait look similar to a thylacine, especially when viewing without sufficient magnification.
In fact the gait of the animal is typical of a dog with Hip Dysplasia at a full run. Another observation of note is that the ears appear to flop up and down, this is not fitting with the short stiff ears of a thylacine.
While I hold out hope that a population of thylacines is hiding out in a remote part of Tasmania, maybe even Mainland Australian or New Guinea, I believe that the animal in Paul's video is far more likely to be a canidae suffering from Hip Dysplasia, especially given the above mentioned observations.
POST SCRIPT
I am receiving some great feedback on this analyses, it is clear that this theory does not put the issue of this animal's identity to rest.
Paul Day has made the good point that the animation linked above is only an educated guess at how the Thylacine ran. He commented that "Early descriptions of the Thylacine stated that it ran with an unusual, irregular, even clumsy gait".
The mystery continues...
While out filming a sunrise, Paul captured an animal running across a field, at first he just thought it was a fox or dog, but later thought he may have captured rare footage of a thylacine.
It is easy to see why one would ponder this theory, the animal appears to have an unusual gait, a skipping motion not too dissimilar to the gait attributed to the thylacine, an animal that is officially presumed extinct.
Unfortunately, due to copyright reasons, my enhancement of the video can not be added to this blog, however I can provide a link to Paul's original video HERE
For my own private research, I ran this footage through video editing software. Through this process I was able to zoom in on the animal, and make the view angle follow the animal across the field, at a zoom level which allowed a good understanding of how this animal was using its limbs. This observation was made easier by being able to slow the footage down considerably.
Before jumping to a conclusion that it was a thylacine, which was very tempting given the unusual gait (I was nearly convinced it could be), I had too rule out other possibilities. The most plausible explanation, given that the thylacine is thought to have been extinct on the mainland for at least 2000 years, was that the animal was a canidae with some kind of disability. The canidae family includes foxes and dogs
This list of disabilities was worked through until I came upon the condition of Hip Dysplasia, this condition is particularly prevalent in German Shepherds, an animal very similar in build to the animal in the video.
Firstly, let's analyse the gait attributed to a thylacine when running, an animation showing this gait can be seen HERE on the naturalworlds website. You will see that a thylacine uses its back legs in unison to spring into a leap, landing on its front legs, which work almost in unison to pull it forward until the back legs are in position to propel it forward again, this is similar to other quadrupedic marsupials.
However on close examination the animal in Paul's video does not use its limbs in unison, rather its gait matches a canidae suffering from Hip Dysplasia. View a German Shepherd with Hip Dysplasia running in this video HERE from youtube.
Like the dog in the afore mentioned video, you will see that the animal in Paul's video is not using its front legs in unison, it lands on one and then follows with the other. The front legs can appear shorter than the rear, due to the fact the animal is placing most of its wait on the front legs to minimise the pain in its hip.
More telling is the way the animal is using its rear legs. The animal is holding the limb connected to the affected hip off the ground completely, forcing it to spring off the un-affected leg, this is what appears to make the gait look similar to a thylacine, especially when viewing without sufficient magnification.
In fact the gait of the animal is typical of a dog with Hip Dysplasia at a full run. Another observation of note is that the ears appear to flop up and down, this is not fitting with the short stiff ears of a thylacine.
While I hold out hope that a population of thylacines is hiding out in a remote part of Tasmania, maybe even Mainland Australian or New Guinea, I believe that the animal in Paul's video is far more likely to be a canidae suffering from Hip Dysplasia, especially given the above mentioned observations.
POST SCRIPT
I am receiving some great feedback on this analyses, it is clear that this theory does not put the issue of this animal's identity to rest.
Paul Day has made the good point that the animation linked above is only an educated guess at how the Thylacine ran. He commented that "Early descriptions of the Thylacine stated that it ran with an unusual, irregular, even clumsy gait".
This footage HERE of a quoll running has been bought to my attention, which shows this distantly related marsupial using its front legs in a very similar way to the animal in Paul's video.
Interestingly, in 1973 an animal was filmed in South Australia which could possibly show a thylacine (The Doyle Footage). It has a gait matching exactly to the gait suggested in the animation on Natural World's website (linked above), an animation that is based on a lot of research. If we take the Doyle footage to be a Thylacine, that would make the animation a near perfect demonstration of how the thylacine ran in the wild. The jury is out on whether the Doyle footage is a thylacine. You can see the Doyle footage HERE. The gait is markedly different to that of the animal in Paul's video.The mystery continues...
Interesting analysis. There are several possibilities here. Clearly not a fox, with or without mange. Canid of another type is certainly possible. The front legs appear shorter, this may be the case or it may be an illusion, difficult to be sure. The tail aspect is interesting, particularly the length of it. I will say that tail is unlikely to be a German Shepherd. The point about dysplasia is valid enough, though it occurs to me that it could also be a thylacine with an injury rather than a dog. It will be interesting to see where the investigation leads. If it's a dog, I'm a little surprised, given the amount of press it's getting, that the owner hasn't put their hand up and said, 'Well, that's my big ole black lab with the gammy leg.'
ReplyDeleteAn appearance is in the eye of the beholder and the difference from an observation is how the first is an unstudied natural assessment while the later is empirical, whether studiously or freely undertaken or not, as a considered assessment of fact! There is no apparent flopping from the opening 0.00 min of the 12 sec video as that can be observed at the 0min.37-8sec view of the 0min.54sec multiple plays of that 0min.12sec. At the 0min.00-0.01sec opening view of that initiating shot in the highest zoom view on the news.com.au video, the animal momentarily turns with raised head and pricked ears to face towards the camera after the original shot and with its rump first higher than its lower head and with ears readying to cock up. But the pricking up ears cannot be from the upward fling in the 0min.1sec of that opening shot in it raising its head given that this motion would make the alleged floppy ears fall down and not prick or cock up. SEE this U-Yube clip of running kelpies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-OFyED40xs Therefore there must have been a muscular control that naturally controlled the two ears. Just after that 0min.1sec the ears then directionally alerted with a focussed hearing in the direction of the camera operator by a left turn of its head in that line of its common hearing and sight, and towards which direction the animal turned, and in fact by nature presumably at the mechanical sound of the camera (which is a fact that the camera operator ought to be the best person to confirm or answer for). At the start of this first shot starting at 0min.38sec of 0min.54sec, the horizontal line of the rump of the animal is much higher than the lowered head and more horizontal ears while the two rear legs are relatively together and raising the rump to that vertical height while that upward flexing of the rear spine has stiffly protruded the tail with its broad connection to the rump narrowing at an approx 45 degrees all the way sloping to a long extended tip. If the ears were flopping as those of a kelpie dog, then this upward flexing of the rear spine to bend the head downward would have the ears half-cocked (if not seem pricked up) owing to the relative upward thrust of the air surrounding the lowering head. On the contrary the moving head only ought to have the ears flopping down owing to their inertia at the point that the head began its upward return as the contraction of the rear spine brought the past horizontal line of the flexing rump down beneath the rearing head with its floppy ears then beginning to be carried upward in drag behind the upward momentum of the very much more massive and muscularly controlled head and the thick neck at the front of the spine to exhibit the standard floppy ears in motion like that of some of these handfed pet kelpies as seen in the clip. In fact the ears in the entire 0min.12sec clip follow a rhythm that exhibits a total muscular control that has the ears cocked (if not pricked up) whenever the horizontal line of the rump is well above the lowering head, and as the ears are being moved by some natural forces within the control of the animal, as the head is raised equally well above the line of the lowering rump, with their paired horizontal extension as nearly perpendicular to its rising head. This exhibits the natural security measure of a wild animal whose hearing is evidently well attuned to hear the slight mechanical, and easily measurable, click of a camera button well afar off from it, and as it would need to be alert for prey food beneath its loping gait (and that would be an opportunistic meal well placed to be heard rustling, if not scurrying away), in the ground beneath or to the side of its forward progress of approx 25 flexing rump upward thrusts as accompanied by cocked if not pricked ears, and not accompanied by anywhere near some corresponding 25 flopping downward turns of its ears in beat with those some 25 upward head raising as the kelpies U-Tube clip exhibits.
ReplyDelete