From pest to quest: how the Tasmanian tiger captured the imagination

The last Tasmanian tiger in captivity, a female known as Benjamin, died in 1936 – the same year the animal was finally given protected status – after being accidentally locked out of her cage in Beaumaris zoo on a freezing winter’s night. Photograph: NFSA

As a one-time Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service officer, Nick Mooney devoted much of his career to investigating the more credible thylacine sightings in the state.

In 1982, for instance, he spent months in the bush near Smithton after an experienced parks officer called Hans Naarding reported a night-time encounter with an adult male thylacine.