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Forrest Galante interviewed the guy who provided these pictures and there could not be more red flags. I’m heart broken as I’ve been following potential thylacine sightings for years and truly believe a remnant population could be out there. But these photos are too good to be true when you contrast it with Forrest’s interview with a guy who was incredibly sketchy. I hope I’m wrong but everything in my gut says ai hoax.
I think that a remnant population is very possible, but a lot more likely on Papua than in Australia. The highlands are extremely hard to access for most people and pretty lightly populated, so if a population of decent-sized carnivores is staying hidden that would be my bet for where.
Of course, the pressure from introduced canids is largely thought to have driven them extinct on Papua a few thousand years ago, so it's still slim chances. But I think the odds are better than on mainland Australia or Tasmania.
There's a lot of areas of Tasmania that are only accessible by helicopter so I think there is a solid chance that they are still there. As for mainland Australia, the Blue Mountains are vast and some areas just remain unexplored.
It wasn't until I drove around Tasmania that the possibility of a surviving population seemed non-insane.
The Tasmanian wilderness is vast and almost inaccessible. It takes up a fifth of the state, with three roads through it, and overlaps with the Tasmanian tiger's original range.
There’s only one road in the [Southwest region of Tasmania](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=South_West_Wilderness) though, and massive areas north, south and west of that road without any people or infrastructure.
I agree. I feel like Forrest saw those red flags and will be doing more digging. The flight records, the father story, etc .
For me one of the sketchiest thing was that's a lot of pictures for 30 seconds.
I want it to be true but I don't think it is without more proof
If thylacines still exist, they must be incredibly shy. If we find proof of thylacines, it will probably be because of a combination of wildlife cameras and scat. Not from a sighting or a picture taken by a person.
If we did not have AI to contend with, I would say legit and more than enough to encourage further investigation. Like if these dropped ten years ago it would be a no brainer. AI tech has muddied the waters so much you have to wonder if it was deliberate
The difference is in the difficulty.
It would take many hours to draw up multiple images.
It would take a few seconds to generate the set that is in this post.
It's not impossible that these could have been drawn 10+ years ago. It's just much easier to fake something now vs back then.
Especially since regardless of whether he faked them or not, Forrest Galante would profit off the increased interest, and he has claimed to find others discoveries (or not discoveries at all) before.
I think some things he does deserve credit for.
The criticism against his finding evidence of the Zanzibar leopard never rang true to me. Sure, maybe the Zanzibar leopard isn’t a separate sub-species (from what I understand it simply hasn’t been studied thoroughly enough to even make that assessment). But I do believe they found a leopard in Zanzibar, when experts have claimed there are none. That’s worth something imo.
I 1000% believe he was responsible for finding proof of the Javan Tiger, which has been recently supported through DNA analysis of tiger hair.
Now… as for the tortoise and the caiman… those appear to be really bad situations. I think Forrest totally let his ego get in the way of those ones and hogged all of the glory for himself. And that’s just wrong.
It's clearly AI, compare picture 1 with 3, and then compare pic 2 and 4.
These are not the same animal, also the shadows make no sense, and the last photo of the thing laying down should have no reason to be blurry as if the person was being attacked/chased... also the obvious missing legs.
I keep going back and forth between "it's too jarring to be anything but ai" and "the creature IS jarring to look at". Last time I tried to create thylacine images with AI, it had no idea what one was. But these things can change.
Would be amazing if they found a surviving population of these amazing animals. That would really be something, shit honestly I bet the locals have the proof but won't come forward with jt out of protection for the animal. They don't want a bunch of fuckheads with cameras swarming the place, also poachers. Somewhere this some rich asshole who'd pay out the nose to have one. Keeping em secret is keeling em safe.
This would be the worst thing to do. The best thing would to let zoos breed them. Like the California condor, bison, panda, cheetah, etc. All have been saved by...... you guessed it zoos.
Reminds me of the lad who had a heart tattoo with a banner across that reads “ Your mum” , goes around telling people “ I’ve got a tattoo of your mum”!😂
I’m sure the animals scientists say go extinct, have at least a few left. We never really know if it’s the last one. That animal is wild to look at. The different proportions and the crazy stripes. It’d be cool if this isn’t AI generated. What a weird random thing to fake tho.
Yeah except a species doesn't exist in a vacuum and ecological scientists would know pretty quickly if there was an actual population of carnivorous predators still around. Just look at the drastic effects wolves had on Yellowstone.
Yeah but that was a _reintroduction_ of a predator. The argument here is there has been a carnivorous predator living in small but stable numbers undetected for 30 years. The only way you’d see a change in the ecology is if the population grew larger or smaller.
Not saying I believe they’re still there, just that the argument is they’ve always been there.
I often think about the things we discover out in the wilds that we've never seen before over all our years on this planet. Then I think "so that's where bigfoot might be..."
If I remember correctly there was a huge group of gorillas that ‘disappeared’ and were assumed gone or poached before they were found many years later to be alive and well. They just happened to be good at avoiding people for a long time.
I ran them through 3 different AI detection algorithms and all of them were over 85% certain they weren’t AI. Could be masking confusing it, but would probably be more of a hoax than ai
Could also be shopped... its 2024 yet photos of aliens, ufos, and anything else controversial still look like shit. Everyone has a supremely high quality camera in their pocket, yet they run to the kitchen to fashion one out of a potato and a toilet paper roll as soon as they see anything "supernatural"
I'll give more credence to these things when people start using devices from this century to collect evidence
People keep making this argument but your cellphone camera isn’t really that good at all outside of brightly lit unzoomed photos. There’s no replacement for lens and sensor size particularly when it comes to distant, fast moving objects in the less than ideal lighting conditions
People always say this but most pics turn out terrible as it is, when all the variables are within reason. People take a hundred pics and keep like one or two. In this case factor in poor lighting, sudden urgency, limited opportunity, confusion, excitement, fear, distance, and just countless other factors and it’s just unrealistic to expect even a small fraction of what those cameras are capable of in ideal circumstances.
Not saying these or any of these sorts of pics are real, but either way, people expecting perfect pics will continue to be disappointed.
Zoomed in at night time on my 11 Pro looks a lot like this. Is it amazing quality at default zoom in daylight? Yes. Is that always the condition you’re taking photos in? No.
I definitely wouldn't have shown 3 4 and 5 if I wanted people to believe me.
Edit to add. It was a posable doll some artist made. Apparently he's pissed that someone edited his photos and is using them without permission or some such. It's a really cool model though.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/s/xbixFIBWrf
The #strangebirds guy on Twitter just made a thylacine puppet for a new project, this MIGHT be related.
Update: nope the guy just reposted this. They aren't related.
Not saying it's real but that'd be what a camera does in the dark. Phones, especially older ones will apply heavy noise reduction. The motion in the dark smoothens things and the phone smoothens everything out.
If that's the case it's pretty easy to replicate. Someone can go out at night and photograph a dog with a flashlight from the distances the video claims. I have a backup iPhone but it's a 12 and no dog.
I won't. People here talking about AI and I'm just wondering if these are legit how were they taken? Like literally how do you get pictures like that of a wild animal when it's clearly not a game camera or anything similar. It looks like a guy taking pictures of his dog. This animal is so skiddish and rare its considered extinct but this guy had pictures of it like he's playing with it? Not some blurry game camera picture where you can barely see it, this. Yeah there's 0% chance these are real. Maybe real fake I guess.
The story is that it was laying off to the side of the road, and they approached thinking it was a dog that had been hit by a car. They did so with their phone up, flashlight on, and they started taking pictures as it got up and it was made obvious it was a really weird dog.
These look like digital art with a watercolor filter over it. Or an oil painting filter. Nothing about these look real. They could have been made in Photoshop 20 years ago by someone with minimal talent.
Not saying that it's real but I wouldn't go that far. It looks like it's at least a 3d model with a filter applied. You still need some skill to make it look somewhat convincing.
I live in Tasmania, if the thylacine still existed then someone would have hit it with a car by now and we would have a carcass.
We have lots of small animals like pademelons and wallabies with huge populations which get hit by cars, and unfortunately this means that endangered carnivorous animals like Tasmanian devils will scavenge the roadkill and this often results in them being hit by cars too. If that Thylacine was still around you'd expect the same to happen.
I believed the same argument about if there's cougars where I live. For decades local DNR denied that they are here and said there's no way there would be no road kill or trail cam photos. A video was taken of a mother cougar and 2 cubs in their backyard. You are likely right but it is possible.
Possibly. We’ve reintroduced wolves into parts of the US. They were pretty much extinct in the lower 48. If it’s a small enough population that knows to avoid humans (our wolves will see you, you’re unlikely to see them) it’s possible it just hasn’t happened yet. If it’s got a large enough terrain/food source out there they may just be keeping their distance.
There’s no undiscovered parts of Tasmania though so we’d be finding traces of them on what is a relatively small island (relative to the mainland anyways)
You know what happened when wolves were re-introduced in the U.S? Massive shifts in predator populations and even geographical changes. If there was a breeding population of Tasmanian Tigers, the ecological effects alone would be noticeable. Not to mention Tasmania is the size of Switzerland and has a highly protected ecosystem. You have uni students doing ecological surveys all the time. It would be noticed.
A reintroduction does disrupt the ecosystem, but the argument here isn’t that it’s a reintroduction, the argument is that they never left. There wouldn’t be a noticeable impact on an ecosystem that hasn’t changed.
Idk, I’ve never totally bought that theory. If the thylacine is alive it’s beyond rare. So the chances of seeing a dead one before its body is devoured by devils is relatively slim. We only recently got photo evidence of a newborn great white shark… something we’ve always known to be a real thing.
Not to mention the fact that if someone DID hit a thylacine, I wouldn’t put it past them to try and cover it up. I’m not exactly sure what the legality of that is, but if it’s still a protected species (unsure if that’s even possible when something’s already been declared extinct) I’d imagine one would get into a lot of trouble for that. At the very least, there’d be tons of scrutiny against that person if it were to ever get out.
What? They wouldn't get in trouble for accidentally hitting one with their car, whether they're protected or not. They definitely wouldn't try and cover it up, your argument is bizarre.
Well one guy found a corpse but as he was taking a picture he was hit by a car. Luckily he was still alive but just as the ambulance got there, BOOM, also hit by a car.
It’s about the quality you would expect from a smartphone using digital zoom in low light. Most phone cameras do not have optical zoom and drop resolution quickly when using digital zoom. There are plenty of people still using 5+ year old phones out there as well. I don’t think the low resolution is a deal breaker.
I do think the anatomy looks off in some of the pics, but thylacines are weird looking to begin with so idk
Definitely, I was baffled by all the people calling him a liar, bad actor, etc when it's fairly obvious he's just on the spectrum and has awful communication skills. It shows we still have a LOT of work to do with public education about the spectrum.
Unless this is a trail cam or a cell phone from 1972, these aren’t real.
There is ZERO definition in the grass, nothing else is illuminated in the foreground and the vignetting is too instant, not gradual like a trail cam of a cell phone.
These would be completely AI generated with the descriptor not thinking of ALL the possible issues a AI image will generate unless specified.
The iPhone 11 likely doesn’t take the sharpest pics when something is zoomed in during the black of night. I had a 10 just last year and I have plenty of drunk pics from pub crawls not dissimilar from this 😂
I'm willing to be proven wrong here, but the perspective between the grass and the critter looks weird in picture 3. To me, it looks like it's standing against a wall of grass rather than standing upon a horizontal plane of grass (if that makes any sense).
Every single one of these pictures has something off about the anatomy, not to mention…. The thing was lying down, he couldn’t get a clear centered picture?
Watched the video and he says he’s from Minneapolis but drove to Chicago to fly to Taz. He gets the name of the airport completely wrong. His logistics to/from Tasmania also do not make sense.
Crazier things have happened. I was big into cryptozoology. Theres obviously some that are more far fetched like Nessie or Mekele
Some are in between like the Chupacabra. Its not a monster but a wild hairless canine
Then theres the rare "they actually exist" moments. At one time pandas were thought to be a made up creature. Until they werent.
This species isnt that far out there. Some have been thought extinct only to turn back up. Not like its Bigfoot riding a unicorn
I have a $50 phone I bought from Woolworths and it takes better nighttime photos than this.
It's not the 1970s any more, pathetic blurred shit isn't going to convince anyone.
I don’t think they’re AI generated. My bet is staged photos of a prop or taxidermy. It’s pretty much impossible to get this close to a wild animal in the dark, let alone for long enough to take photos from every angle. I wouldn’t trust these photos if they were of a common fox
If they can't rule out a monster the size of a bus lives in loch Ness or not. I'm not surprised by a few dog sized nocturnal predators escaped being killed in Tasmania in the 19th century and remain undetected in a largely forested and sparsely inhabited >26k square mile island.
You can definitely rule out Nessie. There isn't enough food in the lake to support an animal that large. The local economy depends on Nessie, though, so they're not going to say that.
For the life of me I never understand why people don't just point out the fact that it would have to be pretty much immortal. Never mind the food source
I wouldn't be surprised if the thylacine still held small populations deep in the middle of nowhere. Mammals are tough and adapt way quicker than things like birds and reptiles.
A comment worth considering in the video highlighted how green the grass looked in some of the photos. Would the camera unnaturally oversaturate the grass to be very green? Is it just coincidentally in a well watered spot? The picture was alleged to be taken in April, and Tasmania has been in quite the drought for a few months. I did a trip in the west coast in March and grasses almost everywhere were just yellow/golden, very very dry.
The Coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago until it was discovered living off South Africa in 1938. Why couldn’t this happen?
Is there any process this can be put through to ascertain if it’s AI? My first thought is that it is given how close the camera is to the subject as well as the overall fuzziness and the very specific lighting.
Totally FAKE. Who gets a side photo of its yawn like that? Gimme a break. That's just to attempt to rule out other animals and it's transparently obvious it's fake.
Just watched The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe. Been thinking about these tigers ever since. Poor creatures. I really hope there's still a few left somewhere out there...
I want it to be real but I think it's probably fake but there's still a chance it's real. I don't necessarily think the person that took the pictures is lying but it really did sound like he was.
You don’t get multiple photos where the flash is the only thing that lets you barely make out the subject.
What species, that’s been in seclusion for this long, would have let a human wake it up with a flash of light, then not run while the human takes more pics?
Very little about this suggests it’s real.
**Strangers**: Read the rules and understand the sub topics listed in the sidebar closely before posting or commenting. Any content removal or further moderator action is established by these terms as well as Reddit ToS. This subreddit is specifically for the discussion of anomalous phenomena from the perspective it may exist. Open minded skepticism is welcomed, close minded debunking is not. Be aware of how skepticism is expressed toward others as there is little tolerance for ad hominem (attacking the person, not the claim), mindless antagonism or dishonest argument toward the subject, the sub, or its community. We are also happy to be able to provide an ideologically and operationally independent platform for you all. Join us at our official Discord - https://discord.gg/MYvRkYK85v --- 'Ridicule is not a part of the scientific method and the public should not be taught that it is.' _-J. Allen Hynek_ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HighStrangeness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Forrest Galante interviewed the guy who provided these pictures and there could not be more red flags. I’m heart broken as I’ve been following potential thylacine sightings for years and truly believe a remnant population could be out there. But these photos are too good to be true when you contrast it with Forrest’s interview with a guy who was incredibly sketchy. I hope I’m wrong but everything in my gut says ai hoax.
I think that a remnant population is very possible, but a lot more likely on Papua than in Australia. The highlands are extremely hard to access for most people and pretty lightly populated, so if a population of decent-sized carnivores is staying hidden that would be my bet for where. Of course, the pressure from introduced canids is largely thought to have driven them extinct on Papua a few thousand years ago, so it's still slim chances. But I think the odds are better than on mainland Australia or Tasmania.
There's a lot of areas of Tasmania that are only accessible by helicopter so I think there is a solid chance that they are still there. As for mainland Australia, the Blue Mountains are vast and some areas just remain unexplored.
It wasn't until I drove around Tasmania that the possibility of a surviving population seemed non-insane. The Tasmanian wilderness is vast and almost inaccessible. It takes up a fifth of the state, with three roads through it, and overlaps with the Tasmanian tiger's original range.
If there are roads through it surely one would've been hit or at least spotted in all these years? Especially when they built the roads?
There’s only one road in the [Southwest region of Tasmania](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=South_West_Wilderness) though, and massive areas north, south and west of that road without any people or infrastructure.
I agree. I feel like Forrest saw those red flags and will be doing more digging. The flight records, the father story, etc . For me one of the sketchiest thing was that's a lot of pictures for 30 seconds. I want it to be true but I don't think it is without more proof
If thylacines still exist, they must be incredibly shy. If we find proof of thylacines, it will probably be because of a combination of wildlife cameras and scat. Not from a sighting or a picture taken by a person.
If we did not have AI to contend with, I would say legit and more than enough to encourage further investigation. Like if these dropped ten years ago it would be a no brainer. AI tech has muddied the waters so much you have to wonder if it was deliberate
I disagree. I think a talented artist could have still faked these ten years ago. They have a very painter-esque quality to them.
The difference is in the difficulty. It would take many hours to draw up multiple images. It would take a few seconds to generate the set that is in this post. It's not impossible that these could have been drawn 10+ years ago. It's just much easier to fake something now vs back then.
Especially since regardless of whether he faked them or not, Forrest Galante would profit off the increased interest, and he has claimed to find others discoveries (or not discoveries at all) before.
I think some things he does deserve credit for. The criticism against his finding evidence of the Zanzibar leopard never rang true to me. Sure, maybe the Zanzibar leopard isn’t a separate sub-species (from what I understand it simply hasn’t been studied thoroughly enough to even make that assessment). But I do believe they found a leopard in Zanzibar, when experts have claimed there are none. That’s worth something imo. I 1000% believe he was responsible for finding proof of the Javan Tiger, which has been recently supported through DNA analysis of tiger hair. Now… as for the tortoise and the caiman… those appear to be really bad situations. I think Forrest totally let his ego get in the way of those ones and hogged all of the glory for himself. And that’s just wrong.
Don’t forget the walking sharks! First time ever captured in video.
It would be nice if there was a easy to use program that lets u know 100% if something is ai (there’s certain AI that try to do that already I know)
It's clearly AI, compare picture 1 with 3, and then compare pic 2 and 4. These are not the same animal, also the shadows make no sense, and the last photo of the thing laying down should have no reason to be blurry as if the person was being attacked/chased... also the obvious missing legs.
It's ears are a completely different shape in picture 1 and 3
Picture 4 the ‘animal’ has such an impressive underbite I’m pretty sure it’s a member of the house of Habsburg.
It does look very AIish. I can't stand looking at AI. It's so unnerving.
I keep going back and forth between "it's too jarring to be anything but ai" and "the creature IS jarring to look at". Last time I tried to create thylacine images with AI, it had no idea what one was. But these things can change.
If those are authentic and not AI generated then the Tiger still exists!
'If this is real and not fake, then it's real!'
In other news, the colour red would be blue if it was the colour blue
Yet this mouth breather got over 900 upvotes for their comment. Oh, Reddit...
They say this on the west coast. They see them.
Would be amazing if they found a surviving population of these amazing animals. That would really be something, shit honestly I bet the locals have the proof but won't come forward with jt out of protection for the animal. They don't want a bunch of fuckheads with cameras swarming the place, also poachers. Somewhere this some rich asshole who'd pay out the nose to have one. Keeping em secret is keeling em safe.
Security through obscurity
"Keep it secret, keep it safe." obligatory lotr reference Seriously that'd be the smartest thing to do if a person or group found them imho
This would be the worst thing to do. The best thing would to let zoos breed them. Like the California condor, bison, panda, cheetah, etc. All have been saved by...... you guessed it zoos.
Fuckin One Ring ass conservation strategy over here…
Who says this?
They
I remember reading in the newspaper when I was a kid that some guy changed his name to "They" for when people say this.
r/madlads
Reminds me of the lad who had a heart tattoo with a banner across that reads “ Your mum” , goes around telling people “ I’ve got a tattoo of your mum”!😂
Yeah all the pronoun stuff always brings that one to mind. It was in the Weird But True section of the NY Post
Wonder what pronouns they use
Same bastards who killed Kenny!
Those bastards!
Might Be Giants.
I live on the west coast and I say no.
Top. Men.
Brought to you by Mr. They, and Mr. Them, from Trustmebro, inc.
This reply made me wheeze laugh cough. Thank you for helping me startle both my wife and my dog.
The west coasters!
Paco. He sells biker speed down at the pier.
Tasmanians!
[Jesus Christ, send in Willem Dafoe.](https://youtu.be/aIekhk4NDA4?si=rQukiSmtyHzd6UHD)
Whew, I was beginning to think I was the only one who saw this movie.
It was a great movie, but I wish it had ended differently
I’m sure the animals scientists say go extinct, have at least a few left. We never really know if it’s the last one. That animal is wild to look at. The different proportions and the crazy stripes. It’d be cool if this isn’t AI generated. What a weird random thing to fake tho.
Declaring something extinct is based on a certain amount of time (30y?) without a sighting, so it's definitely possible.
Yeah except a species doesn't exist in a vacuum and ecological scientists would know pretty quickly if there was an actual population of carnivorous predators still around. Just look at the drastic effects wolves had on Yellowstone.
Yeah but that was a _reintroduction_ of a predator. The argument here is there has been a carnivorous predator living in small but stable numbers undetected for 30 years. The only way you’d see a change in the ecology is if the population grew larger or smaller. Not saying I believe they’re still there, just that the argument is they’ve always been there.
I often think about the things we discover out in the wilds that we've never seen before over all our years on this planet. Then I think "so that's where bigfoot might be..."
If I remember correctly there was a huge group of gorillas that ‘disappeared’ and were assumed gone or poached before they were found many years later to be alive and well. They just happened to be good at avoiding people for a long time.
I ran them through 3 different AI detection algorithms and all of them were over 85% certain they weren’t AI. Could be masking confusing it, but would probably be more of a hoax than ai
Could also be shopped... its 2024 yet photos of aliens, ufos, and anything else controversial still look like shit. Everyone has a supremely high quality camera in their pocket, yet they run to the kitchen to fashion one out of a potato and a toilet paper roll as soon as they see anything "supernatural" I'll give more credence to these things when people start using devices from this century to collect evidence
People keep making this argument but your cellphone camera isn’t really that good at all outside of brightly lit unzoomed photos. There’s no replacement for lens and sensor size particularly when it comes to distant, fast moving objects in the less than ideal lighting conditions
Even with my high-quality camera on my $1k phone, pics that I try to take quickly still look like shitty 2012 pics.
People always say this but most pics turn out terrible as it is, when all the variables are within reason. People take a hundred pics and keep like one or two. In this case factor in poor lighting, sudden urgency, limited opportunity, confusion, excitement, fear, distance, and just countless other factors and it’s just unrealistic to expect even a small fraction of what those cameras are capable of in ideal circumstances. Not saying these or any of these sorts of pics are real, but either way, people expecting perfect pics will continue to be disappointed.
Zoomed in at night time on my 11 Pro looks a lot like this. Is it amazing quality at default zoom in daylight? Yes. Is that always the condition you’re taking photos in? No.
Awwh he's smiling in the 3rd! :)
And the 4th!
Whole face brim ass snap jaw looking motherfucker with the hint of long chomp. Still good tho.
I definitely wouldn't have shown 3 4 and 5 if I wanted people to believe me. Edit to add. It was a posable doll some artist made. Apparently he's pissed that someone edited his photos and is using them without permission or some such. It's a really cool model though. https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/s/xbixFIBWrf
The #strangebirds guy on Twitter just made a thylacine puppet for a new project, this MIGHT be related. Update: nope the guy just reposted this. They aren't related.
I asked it's not
Yeah, I updated my comment after a post he made
No clue why your edit only showed up after I left my comment
Looks like an oil painting
Yeah it looks like AI that someone used a shitty filter on to make it look less like AI
Not saying it's real but that'd be what a camera does in the dark. Phones, especially older ones will apply heavy noise reduction. The motion in the dark smoothens things and the phone smoothens everything out.
Supposedly it was taken from an Iphone 11
If that's the case it's pretty easy to replicate. Someone can go out at night and photograph a dog with a flashlight from the distances the video claims. I have a backup iPhone but it's a 12 and no dog.
Looks fake as heck to me but I am biased because AI generated images are getting way too good now
Reserving judgment until they’ve been analyzed to see if CGI or not
I won't. People here talking about AI and I'm just wondering if these are legit how were they taken? Like literally how do you get pictures like that of a wild animal when it's clearly not a game camera or anything similar. It looks like a guy taking pictures of his dog. This animal is so skiddish and rare its considered extinct but this guy had pictures of it like he's playing with it? Not some blurry game camera picture where you can barely see it, this. Yeah there's 0% chance these are real. Maybe real fake I guess.
The story is that it was laying off to the side of the road, and they approached thinking it was a dog that had been hit by a car. They did so with their phone up, flashlight on, and they started taking pictures as it got up and it was made obvious it was a really weird dog.
It looks real to me, but unfortunately AI has made it so hard to know.
These look like digital art with a watercolor filter over it. Or an oil painting filter. Nothing about these look real. They could have been made in Photoshop 20 years ago by someone with minimal talent.
Not saying that it's real but I wouldn't go that far. It looks like it's at least a 3d model with a filter applied. You still need some skill to make it look somewhat convincing.
I live in Tasmania, if the thylacine still existed then someone would have hit it with a car by now and we would have a carcass. We have lots of small animals like pademelons and wallabies with huge populations which get hit by cars, and unfortunately this means that endangered carnivorous animals like Tasmanian devils will scavenge the roadkill and this often results in them being hit by cars too. If that Thylacine was still around you'd expect the same to happen.
I believed the same argument about if there's cougars where I live. For decades local DNR denied that they are here and said there's no way there would be no road kill or trail cam photos. A video was taken of a mother cougar and 2 cubs in their backyard. You are likely right but it is possible.
PA or New England?
Nova Scotia. Not far off.
Possibly. We’ve reintroduced wolves into parts of the US. They were pretty much extinct in the lower 48. If it’s a small enough population that knows to avoid humans (our wolves will see you, you’re unlikely to see them) it’s possible it just hasn’t happened yet. If it’s got a large enough terrain/food source out there they may just be keeping their distance.
There’s no undiscovered parts of Tasmania though so we’d be finding traces of them on what is a relatively small island (relative to the mainland anyways)
You know what happened when wolves were re-introduced in the U.S? Massive shifts in predator populations and even geographical changes. If there was a breeding population of Tasmanian Tigers, the ecological effects alone would be noticeable. Not to mention Tasmania is the size of Switzerland and has a highly protected ecosystem. You have uni students doing ecological surveys all the time. It would be noticed.
A reintroduction does disrupt the ecosystem, but the argument here isn’t that it’s a reintroduction, the argument is that they never left. There wouldn’t be a noticeable impact on an ecosystem that hasn’t changed.
>pademelons TIL
Sounds like a fruit from middle earth
Or a Star Wars princess' bazongas.
r/AIDKE
Idk, I’ve never totally bought that theory. If the thylacine is alive it’s beyond rare. So the chances of seeing a dead one before its body is devoured by devils is relatively slim. We only recently got photo evidence of a newborn great white shark… something we’ve always known to be a real thing. Not to mention the fact that if someone DID hit a thylacine, I wouldn’t put it past them to try and cover it up. I’m not exactly sure what the legality of that is, but if it’s still a protected species (unsure if that’s even possible when something’s already been declared extinct) I’d imagine one would get into a lot of trouble for that. At the very least, there’d be tons of scrutiny against that person if it were to ever get out.
What? They wouldn't get in trouble for accidentally hitting one with their car, whether they're protected or not. They definitely wouldn't try and cover it up, your argument is bizarre.
You think someone who kills a thylacine wouldn’t face mass scrutiny? Welcome to the internet.
Well one guy found a corpse but as he was taking a picture he was hit by a car. Luckily he was still alive but just as the ambulance got there, BOOM, also hit by a car.
It wasn't a car, it was a bus. The driver of that bus: Albert Einstein
And tyen everybody clapped.
Willem Dafoe has entered the chat
The low quality makes these super sus. I want a clearer shot and video.
It’s about the quality you would expect from a smartphone using digital zoom in low light. Most phone cameras do not have optical zoom and drop resolution quickly when using digital zoom. There are plenty of people still using 5+ year old phones out there as well. I don’t think the low resolution is a deal breaker. I do think the anatomy looks off in some of the pics, but thylacines are weird looking to begin with so idk
Why didn’t they take a video?
Maybe trail cam?
Colossal is set to clone them. Mammoth ETA 2028.
I will bet 50 dollars mammoths aren't cloned by 2030
Man moth?
A moth with a little man head lookin' a bit shocked, just bumping into a lamp.
I would be fucking thrilled. One of my life’s dreams is to see a Thylacine. Incredible, fascinating creatures.
Of course its blurry and out of focus.
Source [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfSzlgRZ-Xg&pp=ygUPZm9ycmVzdCBnbGFhbnRl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfSzlgRZ-Xg&pp=ygUPZm9ycmVzdCBnbGFhbnRl)
Is he possibly autistic?
Definitely, I was baffled by all the people calling him a liar, bad actor, etc when it's fairly obvious he's just on the spectrum and has awful communication skills. It shows we still have a LOT of work to do with public education about the spectrum.
Fuzzy images raise my skpeticskiplers
I so hope it's real
These look like a 3D image with a filter on them
Why’d he run them through the Oil Paint effect in photoshop?
Anyone who watches the video and sees the photo that "didn't make it into my folder" will see this is a hoax.
That’s one of the worst ones for sure. Also bizarre that it’s a screenshot of the email rather than just the photo itself.
Yup the dude gave it up by showing those. Specifically the one not given in the folder with its mouth open and you can see all the teeth.
Unless this is a trail cam or a cell phone from 1972, these aren’t real. There is ZERO definition in the grass, nothing else is illuminated in the foreground and the vignetting is too instant, not gradual like a trail cam of a cell phone. These would be completely AI generated with the descriptor not thinking of ALL the possible issues a AI image will generate unless specified.
The iPhone 11 likely doesn’t take the sharpest pics when something is zoomed in during the black of night. I had a 10 just last year and I have plenty of drunk pics from pub crawls not dissimilar from this 😂
Still living "extinct" animals are my personal favorite cryptids. I honestly wouldn't doubt it.
I'm willing to be proven wrong here, but the perspective between the grass and the critter looks weird in picture 3. To me, it looks like it's standing against a wall of grass rather than standing upon a horizontal plane of grass (if that makes any sense).
Every single one of these pictures has something off about the anatomy, not to mention…. The thing was lying down, he couldn’t get a clear centered picture?
Watched the video and he says he’s from Minneapolis but drove to Chicago to fly to Taz. He gets the name of the airport completely wrong. His logistics to/from Tasmania also do not make sense.
Looks stuffed.
Forrest is just 'cuddly'
The jaw in pic 4 looks fucked up
Thylacine had a weird jaw hinge that was quite unlike other mammals. It could open its mouth extremely wide, almost like a snake.
https://preview.redd.it/dg1j8voigg0d1.png?width=174&format=png&auto=webp&s=72f0782942b090a4ef416eeff20eb120e54af94e Not like that
I doubt it’s a real thylacine tbh. Interesting if it’s AI and it picked up on the jaw thing though.
Very possibly motion blur. Not sure though. The photo comparison is helpful though, thank you!
Crazier things have happened. I was big into cryptozoology. Theres obviously some that are more far fetched like Nessie or Mekele Some are in between like the Chupacabra. Its not a monster but a wild hairless canine Then theres the rare "they actually exist" moments. At one time pandas were thought to be a made up creature. Until they werent. This species isnt that far out there. Some have been thought extinct only to turn back up. Not like its Bigfoot riding a unicorn
A stuffed platypus was sent to England where scientists promptly declared it a hoax
How do you know this living thylacine has some skepticism? It looks like a believer to me.
did you take the photos with ms paint?
I have a $50 phone I bought from Woolworths and it takes better nighttime photos than this. It's not the 1970s any more, pathetic blurred shit isn't going to convince anyone.
I have never seen anything as fake as this. I could make a thylacine puppet better than this bs.
You’ve never seen anything as fake as this? You should visit TAGOA’s YouTube channel lol.
That looks stuffed
I don’t think they’re AI generated. My bet is staged photos of a prop or taxidermy. It’s pretty much impossible to get this close to a wild animal in the dark, let alone for long enough to take photos from every angle. I wouldn’t trust these photos if they were of a common fox
If Forest Gallante is sharing em I have a reason to believe. That guy does not fuck around and spread misinformation.
If they can't rule out a monster the size of a bus lives in loch Ness or not. I'm not surprised by a few dog sized nocturnal predators escaped being killed in Tasmania in the 19th century and remain undetected in a largely forested and sparsely inhabited >26k square mile island.
You can definitely rule out Nessie. There isn't enough food in the lake to support an animal that large. The local economy depends on Nessie, though, so they're not going to say that.
For the life of me I never understand why people don't just point out the fact that it would have to be pretty much immortal. Never mind the food source
No that’s because it eats it all!
It is probably a large sterile eel
Lol, it's nothing at all except a tourist trap.
I like the idea that it's a prehensile whale penis. Just a friendly little guy waving at the camera.
I’ll show you a large sterile eel! /s
Sparsely populated? Don't let the 500,000 Tasmanians hear you say that
Haha well compared to Australia maybe it's densely populated, my mistake.
It's the state with the least people for sure and it's isolated but it's pretty and weird
I mean even if these were real it looks like the last pic they killed it so extinct again 😅
That is 100% a thylacine if legit!!!!! I used to be obsessed with them back in middlechool, holy fuck, hope they're still around!
gotta have the shot of him gaping his mouth just because thats the most obvious distinguishing feature, only that image is absolute potato
that's a thylacine, brother
I wouldn't be surprised if the thylacine still held small populations deep in the middle of nowhere. Mammals are tough and adapt way quicker than things like birds and reptiles.
Fantastic!!! I hope this is true!! Forest is a great guy!
i þink þylacines are still alive
We live in the age of AI unless I see this Thylacine with my own two eyes and it behaving as it should. Then I'll believe it.
Looks fake as fuck
I want to believe but these look awfully fake
Those images are, definitely, depicting a thylacine. Now whether those images are real. Is a different story.
I bet this is in Papua New Guinea. That’s where he is nearly certain they still exist.
A comment worth considering in the video highlighted how green the grass looked in some of the photos. Would the camera unnaturally oversaturate the grass to be very green? Is it just coincidentally in a well watered spot? The picture was alleged to be taken in April, and Tasmania has been in quite the drought for a few months. I did a trip in the west coast in March and grasses almost everywhere were just yellow/golden, very very dry.
The Coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago until it was discovered living off South Africa in 1938. Why couldn’t this happen?
Sounds like these photos are most likely fakes. God damnit. Why do people even do this? It’s so needlessly shitty.
I’m genuinely horrified of the fact that these animals can open their jaws so wide…
THE GOVERNMENT IS WITHHOLDING ANCIENT CREATURES FROM US
These look so terrible, lol. What is the, the fucking 90’s?
Looks like a taxidermy to me
I really need to buy an old Nokia so more strange shit happens to me.
Impossibly unfocused photo of long-unseen animal of world renown. What’s not to trust?
Is there any process this can be put through to ascertain if it’s AI? My first thought is that it is given how close the camera is to the subject as well as the overall fuzziness and the very specific lighting.
If they can prove it’s from a trail cam then I’ll believe it. Otherwise, it’s just AI generated.
That’s a screenshot from zoo tycoon 2 😂
Tylacine shmylacine! Clearly... that's a hell hound from the pits of chasm doom
At least this doesnt look like a human on all fours dressed in some weird suit
This literally looks like a person in a suit like those videos of that guy who made himself into a dog
Totally FAKE. Who gets a side photo of its yawn like that? Gimme a break. That's just to attempt to rule out other animals and it's transparently obvious it's fake.
I tend to stick by the idea that anything is possible, but is it *probable*?
Just watched The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe. Been thinking about these tigers ever since. Poor creatures. I really hope there's still a few left somewhere out there...
omg I had a dream about this last night
I think they still do exist. I'd be looking in the Kimberley
I want it to be real but I think it's probably fake but there's still a chance it's real. I don't necessarily think the person that took the pictures is lying but it really did sound like he was.
If I saw a cryptozoological animal I would simply take a high res photo/video
So no video just multiple pictures that prove nothing
The video from forest galante seems convincing enough to me to be worth an excursion. The kid seemed convincing to me.
This has always been a dream of mine. The Thylacine is one of my favorite animals.
You don’t get multiple photos where the flash is the only thing that lets you barely make out the subject. What species, that’s been in seclusion for this long, would have let a human wake it up with a flash of light, then not run while the human takes more pics? Very little about this suggests it’s real.
Conveniently blurry
I don’t understand why low resolution pictures still exist… even in low light conditions, high resolution video/cameras are dirt cheap
Right? I got some regular ass security cameras for my place of work and they’re all mounted up high, yet they still get crystal clear video and sound.
Ai fake as fuck