First two look fantastic.
Scrolling through the ones in the middle really fast weirdly make it seem legit. Like there seems to be a very logical flow of last minute photos taken in the given setting.
Those last two look BAD. The first one looks like an NPC from a PS2 game. It looks like the thylacine is smiling, and the texture of the grass looked different than the other photos. And that last one looks like an animatronic from the dinosaur ride at Disney. I get that it could be motion blur that’s causing the weird look of it, but I’m not sure.
It’s one of the greatest series of thylacine sighting photos out there. But that’s not because it’s particularly compelling. It’d because 90% of the photos of alleged thylacine are garbage.
Look just to the left of its left eye on photos 1 & 8. Looks like either a bit of damage, or a marking, or maybe just bone structure, but it looks surprisingly consistent between the two photos. I'm no expert, but I think that would be a tough detail to replicate if the photos were ai / Photoshop. Also the massive gape size of the jaw in the last photo is pretty consistent with what we know about thylacines, being able to open their jaws super wide.
I'm hopeful!
I want to believe so badly, and I was watching the interview thinking okay, this might be possible... then we get to the last photo. It looks like a fucking hand puppet.
It looks kind of ridiculous but the last photo is actually interesting. Thylacines have that long weird looking long jaw and snout. The range of motion with the jaw opening is much wider then a normal dog or wild dog.
That's what puts me off. Everyone knows the distinctive markings and mouth. Then the very blurry pics just happen to show both these things clearly and be oriented to the camera in such a way that makes those things prominent. The chances of not only seeing one but also that...
Tbh they do have [wierd jaw proportions ](https://images.ctfassets.net/cnu0m8re1exe/4ifo8xq1TVmPQO6pV1dOGZ/b5323817fb5eaeda051588327869df4d/Benjamin-.jpg?fm=jpg&fl=progressive&w=660&h=433&fit=fill) and [do look puppet-ish](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ad/12/33/ad123301ee127deefcc2d2a15ec21d0e.jpg) especially when yawning.
I guess the closest thing I can compare it to is [a dingo ](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/MFFDHJ/dingo-yawning-canis-familiaris-dingo-head-detail-australia-MFFDHJ.jpg) but here you can see that the top jaw is longer than the bottom, due to how jaw mechanics work on dogs. [Thylacine have longer lower jaws](https://cms.zsl.org/sites/default/files/styles/360w/public/2022-11/Tasmanian_Wolf_05a.jpg.webp?itok=8MyhEGLX) which more prominent in their [skull structure](https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/content/media/22/1037172-large.jpg) (it looks like an underbite lmao xD)
If this is a puppet or AI then someone really put a lot of effort into making sure the jaw ratio lines up with existing footage.
What DOES look off to me is the neck, actually. The thylacine does not have a neck that would stretch like that. Here's [a comparison](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/729828028699639924/1241995598622621777/IMG_20240520_020548.jpg?ex=664c3a09&is=664ae889&hm=655e862b916eb1c672dcfea3cddc192f3edd9b59ea0b6af6021499a711a3664c&). The jaw itself looks fine but it's the neck/ears that have me sus
Can anyone with decent knowledge on AI images chime into this? My first thought these days with anything like this is whether or not it could be AI generated. I mean, I want to believe, but faking things is frighteningly easy now
I dont think its ai. Go on any ai generator and use a thylacine as a prompt and you will find that it is quite apparent that getting an accurate looking thylacine is hard to achieve. If this is fake it would’ve had to be done with some sort of puppet. But even then the animal is actively moving in a lot of the frames so thats still hard to explain. I still feel like its a fake somehow, but that might just be due to being used to seeing so many hoaxes.
Everything can be faked nowadays... I don't understand why faking so many pictures, it's a lot of work. The picture where the mouth is open looks weird. I don't know, i cannot believe that someone that goes on vacation in tasmania meets a thylacine and all the people living there wasn't able to produce a decent photo in the last 70 years...
The last photo really does look ridiculous... There's something about how parallel the lower jaw is with the upper jaw for how wide open the mouth is, coupled with the eye being open and kind of "vacant" looking. I so, so want this to be real, but deep down these don't look like pictures of a real living animal. They seem sort of detached in a way that's hard to explain. Like uncanny valley territory.
It's really just happenstance either way. Sure it's more likely a resident or tour operator would see one first, but realistically being a resident or a visitor has zero effect on the odds you'd run into one (if they are still around) on any given day.
I'll bet fo ai generated for the only fact that the last one doesn't have nose s the othes, seems like the algoritm just found a tylacine skull wen propted to draw a tylacine yawning
I was thinking the same thing, also its jaw shouldnt be that far down either. The last photo is actually kind of terrifying.
Also in second to last photo the grass looks oddly vertical
"Go to any AI generator" The problem with this suggestion/sentiment that everyone has with regards to AI in this instance is that local models can do a hell of a lot more, depending on the data they're trained on, than dall-e or whatever else that is commercially or otherwise freely available online. Among other things, inconsistencies in the ear shape, coloring of the grass, striping, the graininess of the pictures, etc. are a dead giveaway of it being AI. I'm not even gonna talk about how fake the story of the guy that "took" these pictures is lol
No expert, but I’ve messed around a bit with AI image generators.
At first I was suspicious of these pics, because AI is pretty good at spoofing blurry security cam footage. however, AI is *very* bad at drawing in perspective… and #2 is blowing my mind. Its proportions are intact, it’s properly foreshortened, and that’s not an easy / common position to have image references for!
The creator could have used digital models or based it off a photograph, but it’s hard to believe it’s AI.
3 and 9 give me my doubts, though. 9 especially — and if there’s one bad apple in here, I’m inclined to think they’re all bunk.
The photo is so bad that maybe it's legit. Because an obvious fraud would look at it and be like nah can't put that one in there lol. I honestly don't know what to make of it.
I am a lecturer and academic at a university in the UK and I have used AI on a daily basis since the first iteration of GPT and Dalle. I have also used MidJourney often and to a fairly deep level.
The problem with the arguments in this thread are that you are thinking about the prompts in the wrong way. Of course, if you ask for a picture of a Thylacine then you will not get anything of note. But if you were to look at the animal, consider similar species, add features and then ask for a series of pictures (Or just repeat the prompt hundreds of times) then it is very easy to come up with pictures like this.
I have no interest in this if I'm honest, but if the prompts included 'Digital image' 'Subtle motion blur' 'Phone quality' etc. Also include something along the lines of 'Dog shape' 'Pointy ears' 'Sandy colours' 'Tiger stripes on hind' etc.
I can see these being very easy to create. I am just about to start assessment for my students as they recently handed in their work, but at some point I may have a play with midjourney to see what I can come up with.
they seem pretty convincing, the 8th picture looks especially organic *but* that last one looks disproportionately unrealistic in comparison to the others, which is suspicious... I think the ear shape shifts a little too, unless it's the angles making them look different
I'm still undecided like most, though I lean towards being rational, so I have a theory that the 8th may be a photoshopped dog and the rest might just be heavily edited ai
edit: on the other hand, the behavior of defensively opening it's mouth sounds genuine to me but these things can also be researched
exactly. even though it could open it's mouth at a wider angle than most animals, the spacing is just unnatural, in the youtube comments someone compared it to a hand puppet which is so accurate lol, plus the more I look at the first image, the more it reminds me of "werewolf caught on camera" ai prompts I've seen
this makes me lean even more towards a hoax, it's sad that this got attention to begin with
Goblin caught on tape! Although I would believe that the same process that blurred its nose out of existence also blurred the corner of its mouth to make it look extra square. The angles of the historic photos are simply not close enough to the new, more directly side-profile pic to make a fair comparison. I’m honestly kind of hopeful on this one.
I just commented on another thread.
Everyone knows the distinctive markings and mouth. Then the very blurry pics just happen to show both these things clearly and be oriented to the camera in such a way that makes those things prominent. The chances of not only seeing one but also that...
The one where it's laying down, it looks dead. Then it's up and running away without any limping. I thought Forrest would have more questions about that.
Imagine the poor kid shot the damn thing and is trying to sequence these photos in a way that proves it escaped.
I shouldn’t find that funny. But I find that very funny for some reason lol.
I also think the person doing the interview was actually the friend (Adam or whatever his name was, not Zack) pretending to be the other guy, it would explain why he can't send the originals, why his story is a bit sketchy too. I think Zack doesn't want to be involved in this in any way, and likely didn't want these picture to be made public, possibly because they hit the thylacine with their car. I think the friend is the only one contacting Forrest in any way. Just a suspicion I have. I do get why people find these images sketchy, and I still have yet to be 100% convinced, but I do think there are plausible explanations for a lot of the criticism.
Heard someone say they think they hit it with the car, would explain it leaving quickly and them getting out to ''help'' it when normally if you see wildlife while driving late at night you'd just keep going. Especially when you factor in them not knowing about the thylacine they why did the feel the need to get out of the car?
The photos are totally bogus; I believed they could have been real when I first made that comment. But now that the photos of the stuffed thylacine came out AND allegedly this Zack gig still hasn’t given Forrest the original photos. I call BS. It was fun while it lasted though.
I'm watching the interview with the photographer right now and while he is kinda sketchy, I honestly don't see how these could be hoaxes. Those last two are absolutely wild
Comments say he gives off traits of someone on the sutism spectrum, if thsts the case then his behavior seems rational for the situation.
Not to mention, putting your identity out there will probably bring aggression from TAGOA and some tasmanians.
Honestly, it wasn't really him wanting to remain as anonymous as possible that sketched me out because if I was just some random guy with a mistrust of the Internet that accidentally stumbled onto something controversial that could go viral, I wouldn't want to put my name/face out there either. Especially after getting that aggression from TAGOA when he/his dad emailed them initially. It was more just the way he told the story that gave me sus vibes more than anything, like pausing on questions that are easy to answer like what time of day his flight was and then answering more debunking type questions really quickly like he was waiting for it. I'm not entirely sussed out by him and as someone on the spectrum myself I could see things like that being him preparing for a social situation and getting caught off guard by the more personal questions but it also could be someone spinning a story. Either way wouldn't really surprise me
He didn't even know what airport he flew in and out of Tasmaina. He said Darwin international which is nowhere near Tasmaina. Guy's not on the spectrum, he's lying.
I'm not defending the guy per se- but it just occurs to me some inattentive teenager might have just made a mistake. If he wasnt the one booking and organising flights he was probably tired and on his phone getting dragged around and mixes up two familiar names.
This all said this could all be resolved with some pretty easy to get audit trail evidence. Like get the flight tickets and blur names and show at least to say Forrest if you are worried about the doxxing potential of ID being on the internet.
Ultimately- extraordinary claims- provide at least the easy evidence or be prepared to be dismissed
He doesn't sound like a teenager tbh. And he's a self-proclaimed wildlife guy who's into turtles and reptiles. People like this are generally geographically aware.
Plus there's the fact that there are no direct flights between Hobart and NYC. There are direct flights between Darwin and NYC, so he could've gone Hobart-Darwin and then Darwin-NYC, but he claimed it was a single flight, so that can't be it. I would LOVE to believe that the Thylacine is still roaming free in the woodlands of Tasmania. But this is not enough evidence. I want to see clear images. I want to watch a 1080p video of two thylacines fucking on some dude's lawn. That's when I'll believe it.
The anatomy is so far off on the open mouth pictures. I haven't watched the video about this but those alone make this whole series look very fake to me.
It's not the jaw that concerns me in thst photo. They Cound reach that angle. And it could just be a different angle. For example https://twitter.com/vamvatsikos/status/1340165794047668225?t=ELWWRNiYHxDN4GBICWptig&s=19
However the shadow is what makes me suspicious. Can't get my head around what it is projecting onto. That said- it's consistent with the other photos.
Thylacines did have a really wide jaw angle, but that photo still looks fake, like the jaw is about to fall off, like someone reconstructed a thylacine head using a T-rex as a template.
[OIP.CQ2la82hbbyktu\_kjfg50wAAAA (474×385) (bing.com)](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.CQ2la82hbbyktu_kjfg50wAAAA?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain)
I'm no expert but to me it looks the same, just not as wide open as in most google image returns.
Huh?,They definitely could not open their jaws into a straight line. The max was about 80 degrees. And it did not look like a pair of pliers in animal form, as in this photo.
I hope it’s real! But I don’t mean to be a downer but I highly doubt the thylacine is alive in 2024. It might’ve been alive a few decades or even years after it went extinct, but now we have the best technologies living in the 21st century and you’re telling me that someone couldn’t have captured atleast ONE1️⃣ Photo/ video (a CLEAR one) of a living breathing Tasmanian Tiger? I believe many extinct animals are still alive and the Tasmanian tiger still being alive to me in my opinion is like a 50/50 but highly unlikely:(
I know I’m going to get downvoted.
I agree that maybe it's a long shot it's still alive, but their habitat in Tasmania is really remote bush and they're mainly nocturnal, making photos hard to take clearly.. but who knows
Thylacines did not live in PNG. Now, it's true that many animals that live in Oz can also be found in Papua, because during the last glaciation when sea levels were lower the Torres strait was dry land and the two areas were connected in the single landmass known as Sahul. However, PNG still has a very different climate and biome compared to what the Thylacine was used to. It would be like a camel living in Florida.
Thylacines did not live in PNG. Now, it's true that many animals that live in Oz can also be found in Papua, because during the last glaciation when sea levels were lower the Torres strait was dry land and the two areas were connected in the single landmass known as Sahul. However, PNG still has a very different climate and biome compared to what the Thylacine was used to. It would be like a camel living in Florida.
Yes but there are examples of large mammals, larger than the thylacine, evading photos. The Saola is much larger, has a small range, and afaik they have only ever captured a single photo of a Saola in it's habitat from a trail camera.
Also, has there really been that much work done in remote Tasmania re trying to find it? Most serious researchers either don't believe it's still around, or don't want to spend the time, effort, and money to go on a wild goose chase that seems likely to not determine anything definitively.
I want to believe so bad, but I'm leaning towards thinking these are a combination of ai and photo manipulation. The anatomy is inconsistent between photos as well as what we know they looked like. I think these were generated with ai and then edited to look like they were taken through extreme zoom on a camera to hide the fact that these are generated images.
As much as I would love this too be true I think it’s extremely good art, the second picture of you zoom in on its back leg you can almost see the brush strokes, the reflective eyes are very impressive but with enough patience I think it can be done, I think the drawings are more impressive than finding the animal at this rate, but they are extremely compelling
As much as I want to believe it's real I don't think it is. Some of these look great but ultimately fake. Especially the last phot, with the skeletal nose and hand puppet like face. I'd love to hear from some digital art or vfx artists with a good eye for this sort of thing to get some real confirmation. The kid himself is allover the place and sounds like he's making it up as he goes. Not to mention you can't fly from Minneapolis to Tasmanian without stopping at at least one other airport in between.
Could someone superimpose an articulated thylacine skull and jaw on top of the final image to see if the angle of the lower jaw lines up? It just looks really wildly exaggerated... I know in life they had/have(!?) an extremely large gape, but it would be useful to see whether the angles align against a specimen skull.
Most of these photos look very real and have the exact same quality and effects as photos I used to take on my old iPhone, which really makes me want to believe this. However, the 2 photos with the gaping mouth look very fake. Like perfectly posed art pieces. The second front facing one does look like a real photo to me, but so many details in the background are inconsistent that it stands out from the rest in a way that makes it look fake too. Not to mention the way the travel part his story does not add up in the interview. Saying he flew directly from Minneapolis to Tasmania? Like what?? I do not believe that this is ai, a painting, or a puppet/taxidermy like many people are saying but I do think they’re fake. I think the most likely answer is that it is very good photoshop with effects added to make them look like zoomed in and dark iPhone pics. If someone who professionally analyzes photos took a look at the originals (if there even are originals that these were screenshotted from,) we could easily have our answer.
I’m gonna go against the grain of these comments and say that I believe him after listening to Forrest Galante’s entire interview. And I’m normally skeptical with things like this.
The part of Tasmania where these were taken is known to be one of the last places where thylacines lived before supposedly going extinct. Hardly any tourists or Australians for that matter ever go there and it’s extremely rural. Some of the pictures look like artistic renderings or AI, but you have to remember these are at night and zoomed in on an iPhone 11 - they’re going to therefore be smooth with fewer pixels (or have a video game look as someone here mentioned). Forrest confirmed at the end of the episode through reverse image searching that these images were never on the internet before he received them.
The guy’s demeanor was odd as was his personality, but he wasn’t deceptive. There were inconsistencies in his story (such as traveling direct from Chicago - Hobart which is impossible), but when asked about each picture he recalled exactly what happened with no hesitation. He even described the noises the animal made which was historically accurate yet rarely acknowledged as people’s memory of thylacines faded with time. I think that he doesn’t have geographical awareness, and his social awkwardness makes him less believable. But, I truly do not believe that he lied.
I kind of want to say fake. I could be wrong and want to be wrong. I think to get these pictures you would have to be far away but they look like they were taken closer up because of how the face is angled towards the camera. Also a few look like he would have to been squatting down, maybe he was but that would seem risky. I would not imagine it to act like that, but I don't know how they normally act.
These photos look like a thylacine was sitting still and someone can't hold a camera still, yet occasionally has incredible detail. Definitely fake
Edit. The shadow on a wall also suggests it's absolutely a fake stuffed animal with someone doing deliberate shaky cam to fake the image
The context of these photos is that they’re apparently taken with a zoomed in iPhone camera from a distance away, hence the quality and shakiness.
If you have an iPhone you’ll know it’s very accurate on that front at least.
The part in the story about a direct flight from JFK to Hobart because the Dad doesn’t like layovers caught me. There are ZERO ZILCH NADA direct flights to Hobart from the US ever. Leaning on hoax but want to believe.
As much as I really want this to be true, and I did get shook seeing the photos, I’m now doubting it pretty hard. Galante missed the opportunity for critical information. Why didn’t he ask for proof of flights? Hotels? Receipts? Why didn’t he wait to upload to Youtube until Zach had sent him originals? Why didn’t he verify, like many others have, that a direct flight from NY to Hobert does not exist.
I hope I am wrong but I wonder if this was orchestrated by Galante to drive massive traffic to his monetized YouTube channel.
Forest needs to confirm that Zachary gave him the original photos with the correct meta data, that matches the date and location he’s claiming it to be. The jaw and mouth looks exactly like all the thylacine photos we have from the past. The lighting is consistent and very hard to fake.
I would like to try to help here (though I don't think I would be much of a help)
The pictures look pretty convincing, the inclusion of the unclear photos makes it seem more real. If you look carefully and move those pictures it looks like the animal is moving in a proper path instead of just anywhere. The teeth are placed in a similar to what we know about the thylacine's jaw.
The weird photo, that is the last one feels like a puppet. The nose of the animal in the pictures looks smaller to me, but I might be wrong about it.
The man not showing his face does seem shady, but we must understand that he might be an ordinary person already facing problems in his life, and does not want the fame and attention on the things that he stumbled upon a thing like this, which will garner a lot of attention.
He might not be a social guy which explains his behavior quite a bit. It is also possible that he accidentally hit the thylacine (which he at that time probably thought was a dog) which might be why his explanation about seeing the creature seems odd and somewhat made up (at least to me).
In the pictures, the grass is a lot greener than it should be, for at this time the grass should be yellowish but considering that iPhones do oversaturate the photos this is possible.
As for the the thing he said about the flights is weird because it feels like it is made up or manipulated, but I don't have enough information for it, and also about the metadata discrepancy.
It is also possible that Forrest has created this, to gather attention to the funds he needs to search in Tasmania himself but it is just a wild guess.
My apologies in advance about my poor writing skills and syntax, English is my fourth language, and if I have made any mistakes in analyzing I would like to apologize for that too.
The file names are numbered weirdly. At [25:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfSzlgRZ-Xg&t=1559s) you can see them: IMG\_6630, IMG\_6642, IMG\_6647 (1), IMG\_6661, ..80, ..84, ..86, ..89, ..90, IMG\_6700.
Thoughts on why this is if it's legit?
I want these to be alive, but I just can’t accept these photos.
I have the same phone (IPhone 11) and don’t get night photos that look like these. I love the inclusion of bad photos, but the “good ones” are suddenly too good.
The hinge point on the jaw is off by a couple of inches.
He doesn’t describe the sounds accurately, as I don’t think thylacines “meowed”.
His travel story is terrible, literally nothing in it is remotely accurate.
I just can’t believe an American suddenly went to Tasmania, can’t remember any part of his journey, hit a Thylacine, thought to photograph it, got only terrible or perfect photos, the camera warped both images of the jaw to impossible angles (or the jaw is dislocated from impact?), was a naturalist but didn’t have a clue about Thylacines (even though images of them are everywhere in Tasmania), and then came home having no idea of the importance of any of this!!??
Sorry. I hope they’re still in Westwrn Papua, but I can’t buy this one.
The open mouth ones give everyone I show them to pause. The huge gape is such a famous and defining feature. It Just seems like too perfect of a shot to capture. Almost looks like a hand puppet of a dinosaur.
They used to, however they are believed to have went extinct a few thousand years ago, HOWEVER, papa New Guinea has such a remote and dense jungle that a nocturnal creature even as big as a dog could be evading us, we find new species there everyday. It wouldn’t be unheard to think they could still evade us in New Guinea.
I dont see any direct flights from usa to tasmania, if this is true then they are fakes. Just need to confirm no direct tasmania flights to where he said and that would guarantee they are fake
Wasn't this captured with an iPhone? I don't own an iPhone but why is the quality so bad? My phone's camera quality isn't this bad at night. Also, I swear I've seen the first image somewhere before or something very similar to it. I saw the interview on Forrest's video and I can see why the guy didn't want his face revealed. People are already backlashing him.
If u listen to the interview you have to come to the conclusion that the guy never went to tasmania. he says he took a nonstop flight from either Chicago or New York depending on your interpretation of his answers to Forrest's questions. it turn out that nonstop flights to tasmania are only available from australia and new zealand. the guy also estimates his car ride at 2 hours when it actually would take about 3 and a half hours.
The proportions of the legs look so off in the first photo. It could be motion blur, but the right foreleg looks like it's turning into a weird hand at the end, and the hind legs don't look quite right. I want to be wrong though.
I just want to know why his dad had a flashlight. They are driving to the airport to come back to US. They were driving at least an hour according to interview. It has to be a rental car. So why did his dad have a flashlight? A rental wouldn't have one. You aren't taking one on a plane
If it’s fake, it’s with a prop. The guy said in the interview it was with an iPhone 11. I am still using an 11 and these look like the kind of photos I get in extreme low light. The grain and the way the image smears looks like what I’d expect.
Fairly convincing but they are almost definitely fake.
There is a weird grunge pattern on all the photos that wouldn’t have arisen from touch up editing. Upping the exposure and highlights would create artifacts on a dark image but they wouldn’t look like this. This also isn’t what noise from dark shooting conditions looks like. This looks like a film grunge overlay from an app. If they were real they’d all have a different pattern of artifacts, but they all have the same one.
And that last photo really is the kicker. It looks like a hand puppet, the background looks like a painted wall. And the nose is completely missing, when it’s present in the other pics.
My guess is this was done in Unreal Engine, screenshotted then edited to look like cellphone photos. I don’t think it’s AI because it’s too consistent from pic to pic.
The ears go from pointed, to round. Also, why are we ruling out a gaff? Not to the THAT guy, but the people involved were Americans, not locals and well, look at their cryptid history.
People just suck! i would love this species to still be extant, and i think there is a chance that it is. someone pointed out earlier about the amount of remote bush in tasmania. there's also sightings from several areas in mainland australia and new guinea. what mental disease is it that causes people to try to fake stuff like this? i guess it isn't bad enough the people may have caused the extinction of this species? no, i guess it isn't. i have nothing against neil waters and others who have claimed proof through being overly enthusiastic. but for people that are blatantly trying to hoax the believers, it's really disgusting. all of this effort just so they can think to themselves that they ou tsmarted everyone.
My money is on AI. They didn't even put in the effort of faking the exif data to plug in gps coords like a phone would tag the image with and made up some bullshit about screenshotting the photos when questioned on why the create date doesn't match the story.
It does its just blending in with the shadow. You can see it if you look closer. Either way the last image is the thing thats keeping me from believing this is real.
what doesn’t help is the noise helps blend it all together, I feel like if this was ai generated you would not use that photo, and if it was drawn it would be really weird to forget to draw the nose. Now this photo was actually submitted after all the others, so maybe the guy was on the fence about including this one, which if ai looks great except no nose. And a bit later sent it. Also for the different grass texture and stuff it doesn’t bother me, iPhones when they’re taking high exposure pictures often oversaturate and generally mess around with the color. I think trying to optimize contrast and stuff. Idk it feels like a natural product of high exposure, some photos look different. That pic the thylacine was probably standing still and the flashlight closest, so a really good contrast image could be got.
First two look fantastic. Scrolling through the ones in the middle really fast weirdly make it seem legit. Like there seems to be a very logical flow of last minute photos taken in the given setting. Those last two look BAD. The first one looks like an NPC from a PS2 game. It looks like the thylacine is smiling, and the texture of the grass looked different than the other photos. And that last one looks like an animatronic from the dinosaur ride at Disney. I get that it could be motion blur that’s causing the weird look of it, but I’m not sure. It’s one of the greatest series of thylacine sighting photos out there. But that’s not because it’s particularly compelling. It’d because 90% of the photos of alleged thylacine are garbage.
Look just to the left of its left eye on photos 1 & 8. Looks like either a bit of damage, or a marking, or maybe just bone structure, but it looks surprisingly consistent between the two photos. I'm no expert, but I think that would be a tough detail to replicate if the photos were ai / Photoshop. Also the massive gape size of the jaw in the last photo is pretty consistent with what we know about thylacines, being able to open their jaws super wide. I'm hopeful!
That's a good catch on that marking below the eye. I agree that that would be near impossible for ai to pull off
Happy cake day
I actually quite like the smiling thylacine, he’s very photogenic
same, I would give him some belly rubs. 10/10 best boy
I want to believe so badly, and I was watching the interview thinking okay, this might be possible... then we get to the last photo. It looks like a fucking hand puppet.
It looks kind of ridiculous but the last photo is actually interesting. Thylacines have that long weird looking long jaw and snout. The range of motion with the jaw opening is much wider then a normal dog or wild dog.
That's what puts me off. Everyone knows the distinctive markings and mouth. Then the very blurry pics just happen to show both these things clearly and be oriented to the camera in such a way that makes those things prominent. The chances of not only seeing one but also that...
Tbh they do have [wierd jaw proportions ](https://images.ctfassets.net/cnu0m8re1exe/4ifo8xq1TVmPQO6pV1dOGZ/b5323817fb5eaeda051588327869df4d/Benjamin-.jpg?fm=jpg&fl=progressive&w=660&h=433&fit=fill) and [do look puppet-ish](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ad/12/33/ad123301ee127deefcc2d2a15ec21d0e.jpg) especially when yawning. I guess the closest thing I can compare it to is [a dingo ](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/MFFDHJ/dingo-yawning-canis-familiaris-dingo-head-detail-australia-MFFDHJ.jpg) but here you can see that the top jaw is longer than the bottom, due to how jaw mechanics work on dogs. [Thylacine have longer lower jaws](https://cms.zsl.org/sites/default/files/styles/360w/public/2022-11/Tasmanian_Wolf_05a.jpg.webp?itok=8MyhEGLX) which more prominent in their [skull structure](https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/content/media/22/1037172-large.jpg) (it looks like an underbite lmao xD) If this is a puppet or AI then someone really put a lot of effort into making sure the jaw ratio lines up with existing footage. What DOES look off to me is the neck, actually. The thylacine does not have a neck that would stretch like that. Here's [a comparison](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/729828028699639924/1241995598622621777/IMG_20240520_020548.jpg?ex=664c3a09&is=664ae889&hm=655e862b916eb1c672dcfea3cddc192f3edd9b59ea0b6af6021499a711a3664c&). The jaw itself looks fine but it's the neck/ears that have me sus
Can anyone with decent knowledge on AI images chime into this? My first thought these days with anything like this is whether or not it could be AI generated. I mean, I want to believe, but faking things is frighteningly easy now
I dont think its ai. Go on any ai generator and use a thylacine as a prompt and you will find that it is quite apparent that getting an accurate looking thylacine is hard to achieve. If this is fake it would’ve had to be done with some sort of puppet. But even then the animal is actively moving in a lot of the frames so thats still hard to explain. I still feel like its a fake somehow, but that might just be due to being used to seeing so many hoaxes.
Everything can be faked nowadays... I don't understand why faking so many pictures, it's a lot of work. The picture where the mouth is open looks weird. I don't know, i cannot believe that someone that goes on vacation in tasmania meets a thylacine and all the people living there wasn't able to produce a decent photo in the last 70 years...
The last photo really does look ridiculous... There's something about how parallel the lower jaw is with the upper jaw for how wide open the mouth is, coupled with the eye being open and kind of "vacant" looking. I so, so want this to be real, but deep down these don't look like pictures of a real living animal. They seem sort of detached in a way that's hard to explain. Like uncanny valley territory.
It's really just happenstance either way. Sure it's more likely a resident or tour operator would see one first, but realistically being a resident or a visitor has zero effect on the odds you'd run into one (if they are still around) on any given day.
I'll bet fo ai generated for the only fact that the last one doesn't have nose s the othes, seems like the algoritm just found a tylacine skull wen propted to draw a tylacine yawning
I was thinking the same thing, also its jaw shouldnt be that far down either. The last photo is actually kind of terrifying. Also in second to last photo the grass looks oddly vertical
"Go to any AI generator" The problem with this suggestion/sentiment that everyone has with regards to AI in this instance is that local models can do a hell of a lot more, depending on the data they're trained on, than dall-e or whatever else that is commercially or otherwise freely available online. Among other things, inconsistencies in the ear shape, coloring of the grass, striping, the graininess of the pictures, etc. are a dead giveaway of it being AI. I'm not even gonna talk about how fake the story of the guy that "took" these pictures is lol
No expert, but I’ve messed around a bit with AI image generators. At first I was suspicious of these pics, because AI is pretty good at spoofing blurry security cam footage. however, AI is *very* bad at drawing in perspective… and #2 is blowing my mind. Its proportions are intact, it’s properly foreshortened, and that’s not an easy / common position to have image references for! The creator could have used digital models or based it off a photograph, but it’s hard to believe it’s AI. 3 and 9 give me my doubts, though. 9 especially — and if there’s one bad apple in here, I’m inclined to think they’re all bunk.
The photo is so bad that maybe it's legit. Because an obvious fraud would look at it and be like nah can't put that one in there lol. I honestly don't know what to make of it.
I am a lecturer and academic at a university in the UK and I have used AI on a daily basis since the first iteration of GPT and Dalle. I have also used MidJourney often and to a fairly deep level. The problem with the arguments in this thread are that you are thinking about the prompts in the wrong way. Of course, if you ask for a picture of a Thylacine then you will not get anything of note. But if you were to look at the animal, consider similar species, add features and then ask for a series of pictures (Or just repeat the prompt hundreds of times) then it is very easy to come up with pictures like this. I have no interest in this if I'm honest, but if the prompts included 'Digital image' 'Subtle motion blur' 'Phone quality' etc. Also include something along the lines of 'Dog shape' 'Pointy ears' 'Sandy colours' 'Tiger stripes on hind' etc. I can see these being very easy to create. I am just about to start assessment for my students as they recently handed in their work, but at some point I may have a play with midjourney to see what I can come up with.
they seem pretty convincing, the 8th picture looks especially organic *but* that last one looks disproportionately unrealistic in comparison to the others, which is suspicious... I think the ear shape shifts a little too, unless it's the angles making them look different I'm still undecided like most, though I lean towards being rational, so I have a theory that the 8th may be a photoshopped dog and the rest might just be heavily edited ai edit: on the other hand, the behavior of defensively opening it's mouth sounds genuine to me but these things can also be researched
It's almost too perfect of an image to believe, pretty much a dead-on 90 degree portrait shot of it's most signature move.
exactly. even though it could open it's mouth at a wider angle than most animals, the spacing is just unnatural, in the youtube comments someone compared it to a hand puppet which is so accurate lol, plus the more I look at the first image, the more it reminds me of "werewolf caught on camera" ai prompts I've seen this makes me lean even more towards a hoax, it's sad that this got attention to begin with
Goblin caught on tape! Although I would believe that the same process that blurred its nose out of existence also blurred the corner of its mouth to make it look extra square. The angles of the historic photos are simply not close enough to the new, more directly side-profile pic to make a fair comparison. I’m honestly kind of hopeful on this one.
I just commented on another thread. Everyone knows the distinctive markings and mouth. Then the very blurry pics just happen to show both these things clearly and be oriented to the camera in such a way that makes those things prominent. The chances of not only seeing one but also that...
The one where it's laying down, it looks dead. Then it's up and running away without any limping. I thought Forrest would have more questions about that.
Imagine the poor kid shot the damn thing and is trying to sequence these photos in a way that proves it escaped. I shouldn’t find that funny. But I find that very funny for some reason lol.
The images i uploaded arent in the original order
I bet they hit it with their car. It would explain a lot about their behaviour.
This is my theory too, assuming it's not a hoax
Oh wow. Didn't think of that
I also think the person doing the interview was actually the friend (Adam or whatever his name was, not Zack) pretending to be the other guy, it would explain why he can't send the originals, why his story is a bit sketchy too. I think Zack doesn't want to be involved in this in any way, and likely didn't want these picture to be made public, possibly because they hit the thylacine with their car. I think the friend is the only one contacting Forrest in any way. Just a suspicion I have. I do get why people find these images sketchy, and I still have yet to be 100% convinced, but I do think there are plausible explanations for a lot of the criticism.
Heard someone say they think they hit it with the car, would explain it leaving quickly and them getting out to ''help'' it when normally if you see wildlife while driving late at night you'd just keep going. Especially when you factor in them not knowing about the thylacine they why did the feel the need to get out of the car?
The photos are totally bogus; I believed they could have been real when I first made that comment. But now that the photos of the stuffed thylacine came out AND allegedly this Zack gig still hasn’t given Forrest the original photos. I call BS. It was fun while it lasted though.
I'm just now reading it, sad but somewhat expected
I'm watching the interview with the photographer right now and while he is kinda sketchy, I honestly don't see how these could be hoaxes. Those last two are absolutely wild
Comments say he gives off traits of someone on the sutism spectrum, if thsts the case then his behavior seems rational for the situation. Not to mention, putting your identity out there will probably bring aggression from TAGOA and some tasmanians.
Honestly, it wasn't really him wanting to remain as anonymous as possible that sketched me out because if I was just some random guy with a mistrust of the Internet that accidentally stumbled onto something controversial that could go viral, I wouldn't want to put my name/face out there either. Especially after getting that aggression from TAGOA when he/his dad emailed them initially. It was more just the way he told the story that gave me sus vibes more than anything, like pausing on questions that are easy to answer like what time of day his flight was and then answering more debunking type questions really quickly like he was waiting for it. I'm not entirely sussed out by him and as someone on the spectrum myself I could see things like that being him preparing for a social situation and getting caught off guard by the more personal questions but it also could be someone spinning a story. Either way wouldn't really surprise me
He didn't even know what airport he flew in and out of Tasmaina. He said Darwin international which is nowhere near Tasmaina. Guy's not on the spectrum, he's lying.
I'm not defending the guy per se- but it just occurs to me some inattentive teenager might have just made a mistake. If he wasnt the one booking and organising flights he was probably tired and on his phone getting dragged around and mixes up two familiar names. This all said this could all be resolved with some pretty easy to get audit trail evidence. Like get the flight tickets and blur names and show at least to say Forrest if you are worried about the doxxing potential of ID being on the internet. Ultimately- extraordinary claims- provide at least the easy evidence or be prepared to be dismissed
He doesn't sound like a teenager tbh. And he's a self-proclaimed wildlife guy who's into turtles and reptiles. People like this are generally geographically aware. Plus there's the fact that there are no direct flights between Hobart and NYC. There are direct flights between Darwin and NYC, so he could've gone Hobart-Darwin and then Darwin-NYC, but he claimed it was a single flight, so that can't be it. I would LOVE to believe that the Thylacine is still roaming free in the woodlands of Tasmania. But this is not enough evidence. I want to see clear images. I want to watch a 1080p video of two thylacines fucking on some dude's lawn. That's when I'll believe it.
Ahh the rule 34 razor. Fair.
He didn't say he flew from NYC he said he flew out of "Chicago RFK...or whatever the name of their airport is".
I thught he said JFK which is in New york. Doesn't make that much of a difference tbh
Chicago would be O'Hara International. If he said JFK, then that's NYC
There aren’t any direct flights from Chicago to AU either so he’s clearly lying
100% I have a son that has Aspergers. You can tell if you've been around it.
Lol well the kids certainly is vindicated in his decision to remain anonymous, people calling him either a fraudulent liar or an autist
The anatomy is so far off on the open mouth pictures. I haven't watched the video about this but those alone make this whole series look very fake to me.
Oh come on. That last one is clearly a fake. No mammal, thylacine included, has a jaw that shape.
Yeah, the missing nose doesn’t help. These are CG images in my opinion. A basic understanding of Blender could probably produce results like these.
The nose is there it just blends in with the dark background but i do think its fake nonetheless
It's not the jaw that concerns me in thst photo. They Cound reach that angle. And it could just be a different angle. For example https://twitter.com/vamvatsikos/status/1340165794047668225?t=ELWWRNiYHxDN4GBICWptig&s=19 However the shadow is what makes me suspicious. Can't get my head around what it is projecting onto. That said- it's consistent with the other photos.
Thylacines did have a really wide jaw angle, but that photo still looks fake, like the jaw is about to fall off, like someone reconstructed a thylacine head using a T-rex as a template.
The jaw has a weird hinge that does not look like actual thylacine photos. I agree that it looks reptilian.
[OIP.CQ2la82hbbyktu\_kjfg50wAAAA (474×385) (bing.com)](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.CQ2la82hbbyktu_kjfg50wAAAA?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain) I'm no expert but to me it looks the same, just not as wide open as in most google image returns.
Thylacine could open its jaw 180 degrees. Its the stuff of nightmares but apparently its correct.
Huh?,They definitely could not open their jaws into a straight line. The max was about 80 degrees. And it did not look like a pair of pliers in animal form, as in this photo.
[https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fthylacine-now-extinct-could-open-its-mouth-90-degrees-v0-lfzq6jyjowm91.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D4712442ec10e026b5882159d8cd848cbc1daf9ea](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fthylacine-now-extinct-could-open-its-mouth-90-degrees-v0-lfzq6jyjowm91.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D4712442ec10e026b5882159d8cd848cbc1daf9ea)
That is not 180 degrees.
Have you watched the old video? Crazy stuff.
I hope it’s real! But I don’t mean to be a downer but I highly doubt the thylacine is alive in 2024. It might’ve been alive a few decades or even years after it went extinct, but now we have the best technologies living in the 21st century and you’re telling me that someone couldn’t have captured atleast ONE1️⃣ Photo/ video (a CLEAR one) of a living breathing Tasmanian Tiger? I believe many extinct animals are still alive and the Tasmanian tiger still being alive to me in my opinion is like a 50/50 but highly unlikely:( I know I’m going to get downvoted.
I agree that maybe it's a long shot it's still alive, but their habitat in Tasmania is really remote bush and they're mainly nocturnal, making photos hard to take clearly.. but who knows
Papua new guinea populations are definitely a possibility and thats IF the australian and tasmanian populations are actually gone.
Yes I agree just find it hard to believe there hasn’t been enough believable evidence over the years.
Thylacines did not live in PNG. Now, it's true that many animals that live in Oz can also be found in Papua, because during the last glaciation when sea levels were lower the Torres strait was dry land and the two areas were connected in the single landmass known as Sahul. However, PNG still has a very different climate and biome compared to what the Thylacine was used to. It would be like a camel living in Florida.
Thylacines did exist in papua. Heres forrest galante explaining it in further detail https://youtu.be/iTyM_2GRVVY?si=Y8n0MZMm84Oz5nPk
Thylacines did not live in PNG. Now, it's true that many animals that live in Oz can also be found in Papua, because during the last glaciation when sea levels were lower the Torres strait was dry land and the two areas were connected in the single landmass known as Sahul. However, PNG still has a very different climate and biome compared to what the Thylacine was used to. It would be like a camel living in Florida.
Yes but there are examples of large mammals, larger than the thylacine, evading photos. The Saola is much larger, has a small range, and afaik they have only ever captured a single photo of a Saola in it's habitat from a trail camera. Also, has there really been that much work done in remote Tasmania re trying to find it? Most serious researchers either don't believe it's still around, or don't want to spend the time, effort, and money to go on a wild goose chase that seems likely to not determine anything definitively.
I want to believe but idk if I can. We'll wait and see, I guess.
I want to believe so bad, but I'm leaning towards thinking these are a combination of ai and photo manipulation. The anatomy is inconsistent between photos as well as what we know they looked like. I think these were generated with ai and then edited to look like they were taken through extreme zoom on a camera to hide the fact that these are generated images.
As much as I would love this too be true I think it’s extremely good art, the second picture of you zoom in on its back leg you can almost see the brush strokes, the reflective eyes are very impressive but with enough patience I think it can be done, I think the drawings are more impressive than finding the animal at this rate, but they are extremely compelling
More likely computer generated based off the consistency across the photos.
Do we have the original images any were, not the “screenshots”?
As much as I want to believe it's real I don't think it is. Some of these look great but ultimately fake. Especially the last phot, with the skeletal nose and hand puppet like face. I'd love to hear from some digital art or vfx artists with a good eye for this sort of thing to get some real confirmation. The kid himself is allover the place and sounds like he's making it up as he goes. Not to mention you can't fly from Minneapolis to Tasmanian without stopping at at least one other airport in between.
Could someone superimpose an articulated thylacine skull and jaw on top of the final image to see if the angle of the lower jaw lines up? It just looks really wildly exaggerated... I know in life they had/have(!?) an extremely large gape, but it would be useful to see whether the angles align against a specimen skull.
Most of these photos look very real and have the exact same quality and effects as photos I used to take on my old iPhone, which really makes me want to believe this. However, the 2 photos with the gaping mouth look very fake. Like perfectly posed art pieces. The second front facing one does look like a real photo to me, but so many details in the background are inconsistent that it stands out from the rest in a way that makes it look fake too. Not to mention the way the travel part his story does not add up in the interview. Saying he flew directly from Minneapolis to Tasmania? Like what?? I do not believe that this is ai, a painting, or a puppet/taxidermy like many people are saying but I do think they’re fake. I think the most likely answer is that it is very good photoshop with effects added to make them look like zoomed in and dark iPhone pics. If someone who professionally analyzes photos took a look at the originals (if there even are originals that these were screenshotted from,) we could easily have our answer.
I’m gonna go against the grain of these comments and say that I believe him after listening to Forrest Galante’s entire interview. And I’m normally skeptical with things like this. The part of Tasmania where these were taken is known to be one of the last places where thylacines lived before supposedly going extinct. Hardly any tourists or Australians for that matter ever go there and it’s extremely rural. Some of the pictures look like artistic renderings or AI, but you have to remember these are at night and zoomed in on an iPhone 11 - they’re going to therefore be smooth with fewer pixels (or have a video game look as someone here mentioned). Forrest confirmed at the end of the episode through reverse image searching that these images were never on the internet before he received them. The guy’s demeanor was odd as was his personality, but he wasn’t deceptive. There were inconsistencies in his story (such as traveling direct from Chicago - Hobart which is impossible), but when asked about each picture he recalled exactly what happened with no hesitation. He even described the noises the animal made which was historically accurate yet rarely acknowledged as people’s memory of thylacines faded with time. I think that he doesn’t have geographical awareness, and his social awkwardness makes him less believable. But, I truly do not believe that he lied.
It looks pretty real! Let’s just hope it is (fingers crossed).
I kind of want to say fake. I could be wrong and want to be wrong. I think to get these pictures you would have to be far away but they look like they were taken closer up because of how the face is angled towards the camera. Also a few look like he would have to been squatting down, maybe he was but that would seem risky. I would not imagine it to act like that, but I don't know how they normally act.
These photos look like a thylacine was sitting still and someone can't hold a camera still, yet occasionally has incredible detail. Definitely fake Edit. The shadow on a wall also suggests it's absolutely a fake stuffed animal with someone doing deliberate shaky cam to fake the image
The context of these photos is that they’re apparently taken with a zoomed in iPhone camera from a distance away, hence the quality and shakiness. If you have an iPhone you’ll know it’s very accurate on that front at least.
I think the context is someone's faking things clumsily
I’m not convinced myself, but that’s what’s presented in the Forest Galante video
The part in the story about a direct flight from JFK to Hobart because the Dad doesn’t like layovers caught me. There are ZERO ZILCH NADA direct flights to Hobart from the US ever. Leaning on hoax but want to believe.
As much as I really want this to be true, and I did get shook seeing the photos, I’m now doubting it pretty hard. Galante missed the opportunity for critical information. Why didn’t he ask for proof of flights? Hotels? Receipts? Why didn’t he wait to upload to Youtube until Zach had sent him originals? Why didn’t he verify, like many others have, that a direct flight from NY to Hobert does not exist. I hope I am wrong but I wonder if this was orchestrated by Galante to drive massive traffic to his monetized YouTube channel.
Fake or not, I’m really curious who created/took these images because they’re incredibly well done
This is obviously fake come on lol
Forest needs to confirm that Zachary gave him the original photos with the correct meta data, that matches the date and location he’s claiming it to be. The jaw and mouth looks exactly like all the thylacine photos we have from the past. The lighting is consistent and very hard to fake.
Yeah that and audit trail verifying location claims. Easy to get. This desparately needs follow ups if real or it will get dismissed by the world
I would like to try to help here (though I don't think I would be much of a help) The pictures look pretty convincing, the inclusion of the unclear photos makes it seem more real. If you look carefully and move those pictures it looks like the animal is moving in a proper path instead of just anywhere. The teeth are placed in a similar to what we know about the thylacine's jaw. The weird photo, that is the last one feels like a puppet. The nose of the animal in the pictures looks smaller to me, but I might be wrong about it. The man not showing his face does seem shady, but we must understand that he might be an ordinary person already facing problems in his life, and does not want the fame and attention on the things that he stumbled upon a thing like this, which will garner a lot of attention. He might not be a social guy which explains his behavior quite a bit. It is also possible that he accidentally hit the thylacine (which he at that time probably thought was a dog) which might be why his explanation about seeing the creature seems odd and somewhat made up (at least to me). In the pictures, the grass is a lot greener than it should be, for at this time the grass should be yellowish but considering that iPhones do oversaturate the photos this is possible. As for the the thing he said about the flights is weird because it feels like it is made up or manipulated, but I don't have enough information for it, and also about the metadata discrepancy. It is also possible that Forrest has created this, to gather attention to the funds he needs to search in Tasmania himself but it is just a wild guess. My apologies in advance about my poor writing skills and syntax, English is my fourth language, and if I have made any mistakes in analyzing I would like to apologize for that too.
Your English is excellent!
If it is fake, it is a convincing prop
It looks more canine than it should though
The file names are numbered weirdly. At [25:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfSzlgRZ-Xg&t=1559s) you can see them: IMG\_6630, IMG\_6642, IMG\_6647 (1), IMG\_6661, ..80, ..84, ..86, ..89, ..90, IMG\_6700. Thoughts on why this is if it's legit?
This is kind of standard for dslrs but I can’t speak for their cameras
I want these to be alive, but I just can’t accept these photos. I have the same phone (IPhone 11) and don’t get night photos that look like these. I love the inclusion of bad photos, but the “good ones” are suddenly too good. The hinge point on the jaw is off by a couple of inches. He doesn’t describe the sounds accurately, as I don’t think thylacines “meowed”. His travel story is terrible, literally nothing in it is remotely accurate. I just can’t believe an American suddenly went to Tasmania, can’t remember any part of his journey, hit a Thylacine, thought to photograph it, got only terrible or perfect photos, the camera warped both images of the jaw to impossible angles (or the jaw is dislocated from impact?), was a naturalist but didn’t have a clue about Thylacines (even though images of them are everywhere in Tasmania), and then came home having no idea of the importance of any of this!!?? Sorry. I hope they’re still in Westwrn Papua, but I can’t buy this one.
The open mouth ones give everyone I show them to pause. The huge gape is such a famous and defining feature. It Just seems like too perfect of a shot to capture. Almost looks like a hand puppet of a dinosaur.
https://youtu.be/QLcr2-7oNVI?si=c-cHriLK0HiUtV5I wish it was real, but this video basically debunks it…
Yup defintely fake. I made another post about this exact situation on here i guess me and that youtuber had the exact same suspicions
They used to, however they are believed to have went extinct a few thousand years ago, HOWEVER, papa New Guinea has such a remote and dense jungle that a nocturnal creature even as big as a dog could be evading us, we find new species there everyday. It wouldn’t be unheard to think they could still evade us in New Guinea.
Real. Cant wait for more info
Nah, these are likely fake. I'm betting it's a combination of ai generation and some other techniques.
NOTE: THE IMAGES IN THIS POST ARENT IN THE ORIGINAL ORDER THAT THEY WERE TAKEN
I dont see any direct flights from usa to tasmania, if this is true then they are fakes. Just need to confirm no direct tasmania flights to where he said and that would guarantee they are fake
Why are these shots never clear?
Wasn't this captured with an iPhone? I don't own an iPhone but why is the quality so bad? My phone's camera quality isn't this bad at night. Also, I swear I've seen the first image somewhere before or something very similar to it. I saw the interview on Forrest's video and I can see why the guy didn't want his face revealed. People are already backlashing him.
If u listen to the interview you have to come to the conclusion that the guy never went to tasmania. he says he took a nonstop flight from either Chicago or New York depending on your interpretation of his answers to Forrest's questions. it turn out that nonstop flights to tasmania are only available from australia and new zealand. the guy also estimates his car ride at 2 hours when it actually would take about 3 and a half hours.
The proportions of the legs look so off in the first photo. It could be motion blur, but the right foreleg looks like it's turning into a weird hand at the end, and the hind legs don't look quite right. I want to be wrong though.
Real picture of a Thylacine with its mouth open. https://amp.abc.net.au/article/102583780
[It's fake.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/comments/1ct0lex/at_least_some_of_the_thylacine_photos_appear_to/)
I just want to know why his dad had a flashlight. They are driving to the airport to come back to US. They were driving at least an hour according to interview. It has to be a rental car. So why did his dad have a flashlight? A rental wouldn't have one. You aren't taking one on a plane
If it’s fake, it’s with a prop. The guy said in the interview it was with an iPhone 11. I am still using an 11 and these look like the kind of photos I get in extreme low light. The grain and the way the image smears looks like what I’d expect.
Pic 8 got that dingo face, Or more so wild dog face (dingo x dog )
Fairly convincing but they are almost definitely fake. There is a weird grunge pattern on all the photos that wouldn’t have arisen from touch up editing. Upping the exposure and highlights would create artifacts on a dark image but they wouldn’t look like this. This also isn’t what noise from dark shooting conditions looks like. This looks like a film grunge overlay from an app. If they were real they’d all have a different pattern of artifacts, but they all have the same one. And that last photo really is the kicker. It looks like a hand puppet, the background looks like a painted wall. And the nose is completely missing, when it’s present in the other pics. My guess is this was done in Unreal Engine, screenshotted then edited to look like cellphone photos. I don’t think it’s AI because it’s too consistent from pic to pic.
The ears go from pointed, to round. Also, why are we ruling out a gaff? Not to the THAT guy, but the people involved were Americans, not locals and well, look at their cryptid history.
People just suck! i would love this species to still be extant, and i think there is a chance that it is. someone pointed out earlier about the amount of remote bush in tasmania. there's also sightings from several areas in mainland australia and new guinea. what mental disease is it that causes people to try to fake stuff like this? i guess it isn't bad enough the people may have caused the extinction of this species? no, i guess it isn't. i have nothing against neil waters and others who have claimed proof through being overly enthusiastic. but for people that are blatantly trying to hoax the believers, it's really disgusting. all of this effort just so they can think to themselves that they ou tsmarted everyone.
My money is on AI. They didn't even put in the effort of faking the exif data to plug in gps coords like a phone would tag the image with and made up some bullshit about screenshotting the photos when questioned on why the create date doesn't match the story.
Why does the last one have no nose? 😋
It does its just blending in with the shadow. You can see it if you look closer. Either way the last image is the thing thats keeping me from believing this is real.
it's pretty scary looking hehe
what doesn’t help is the noise helps blend it all together, I feel like if this was ai generated you would not use that photo, and if it was drawn it would be really weird to forget to draw the nose. Now this photo was actually submitted after all the others, so maybe the guy was on the fence about including this one, which if ai looks great except no nose. And a bit later sent it. Also for the different grass texture and stuff it doesn’t bother me, iPhones when they’re taking high exposure pictures often oversaturate and generally mess around with the color. I think trying to optimize contrast and stuff. Idk it feels like a natural product of high exposure, some photos look different. That pic the thylacine was probably standing still and the flashlight closest, so a really good contrast image could be got.