Queensland Tiger - Thylacine or Thylacoleo?

Thylacine or Thylacoleo?

In his 1965 revision of the book Furred Animals of Australia, Ellis Troughton proposed that the Queensland tiger was merely a mainland variant of the Thylacine. Similar ideas have been promoted since then, most notably by Victor Albert and Peter Chapple - these theories and variants of them have been discussed in The Fortean Times, leading to some confusion. When discussing sightings of the Queensland Tiger or animals thought to be the Queensland Tiger, people sometimes refer to them as Thylacines, though there are distinct and consistent differences in the descriptions of the animals (i.e.: head shape, position and colour of stripes, arboreal habits).

While Cape York artist Percy Trezise believes the region is home to the thylacine, others have cited the popular urban myth of American soldiers bringing pumas to Queensland during World War II, with local Bob Whiston and tree kangaroo expert Roger Martin suggesting that sightings are of either Lumholtz's or Bennett's tree kangaroos, unfamiliar animals which walk on four legs when terrestrial and are found in the areas from which reports originate (this concurs with one of Bernard Heuvelmans' theories regarding some sightings).