Some scientists say the thylacine could be brought back from extinction, but a tiny town in Western Australia's South West believes the ancient marsupial never really left.
Tales of giant paw tracks and unidentified animals that move unlike any other creature have circulated the town of Nannup for decades.
The thylacine — better known as the Tasmanian tiger — was a carnivorous marsupial which once roamed the entirety of Australia.
It died out on the mainland thousands of years ago, and the last one left in Tasmania perished in a Hobart zoo in 1936. "Tassie tigers" were declared extinct in the 1980s.
But deep in the Karri forest, the legend of the creature is alive and well.
It is known as the Nannup Tiger.
True believers
Many South West residents believe they have seen thylacines in the bush.
They tell stories of unexplained prints and huge creatures with bodies like a dog and tails like a kangaroo.
Wendy Slee is a true believer — her father Syd spent decades trying to prove the existence of the Nannup tiger, to no avail.
"I've seen them a few times in my life," she said.
"You can scoff at it, but I've seen them enough times now to know they exist."
Tales like Ms Slee's have attracted hardcore thylacine seekers to Nannup, which was the subject of film by the national Thylacine Awareness Group in 2020.
But even for those who don't buy into the stories, thylacines are cemented in the identity of the town.
Tiger stripes decorate the pub, a thylacine silhouette is the mascot of the annual music festival, and local shops are decked out in Nannup Tiger merch.
Australian blues icon Matt Taylor even has a song about the beloved story, written while he was living in the region with his band Western Flyer in the 1970s.
The lyrics paint a picture of the local legend:
"She doesn't mind if you don't believe in her — she don't believe in human beings either. The Nannup Tiger's a flash in the bush running by."
"You wait around a few hours [in Nannup] and you'll hear the story," Taylor said.
"As soon as I heard that, I couldn't not write a song about it."
Stripes in the forest
In the bush around Nannup, you can see a thylacine — albeit, in model form.
Local councillor Ian Gibb championed the "stripes in the forest" project, which saw life-sized thylacine models dotted throughout the dense Nannup bush.
"When I came to Nannup about 13 years ago I saw the history, and I thought there's got to be a tourist attraction here," he said.
"The reaction is amazing.
"People come for the tiger."
