By Tim Binnall
A motorist cruising down a city street in Australia filmed a curious creature dashing along a sidewalk and some suspect that the odd animal could be the legendary Tasmanian Tiger. The wild video, which can be seen here, was captured earlier this month by a man in the Melbourne suburb of Strathmore and subsequently wound up being posted to TikTok shortly after the eerie encounter. In the footage, his drive down a desolate road takes an unexpected turn when two passengers in the car excitedly ask "what is that" when they see a strange creature lingering in the road.
Upon spotting what his two companions noticed, the man exclaims "oh my god" and a caption in the video wonders if the creature is "an extinct Tassie Tiger." The animal in question, which the witness aptly describes as "very weird and aged," appears to sport the iconic stripes of the thylacine and quickly scrambles up onto a sidewalk. Amazingly, the video then cuts to the driver having exited his vehicle in pursuit of the suspected Tasmanian Tiger. Clearly not too keen on being caught, the creature quickens its pace and runs away from the man, although it it still close enough to be seen on the video.
Although in the footage he marvels that he is chasing a Tasmanian Tiger, the caption to the video concedes that it "could be just a very sick fox." The chase culminates with the creature vanishing into a field as the motorist lets out a rather colorful response to the unknown animal disappearing into the darkness of night. Reaction to the footage has been largely divided with some viewers saying that the critter could be proof that the thylacine may not actually extinct. However, others argue that the animal is most likely a fox or a dog suffering from mange, which are actually the sort of 'mystery creatures' that get confused for chupacabras in other parts of the world. Check out the motorist's footage and share your theory on what he saw at the C2C Facebook page.