One
of the projects that I have been working on for the last few years is an
analysis of the thylacine photographs by Harry Burrell. There is presently a debate surrounding the authenticity of the images, but I
believe that I have strong enough evidence to prove that they are genuine.
The debate surrounding the images was triggered by a
report published in 2005 in Australian Zoologist magazine, in which animal
studies writer Carol Freeman put forward her belief that the images had been
staged using taxidermied specimens. I have great respect for the work of Carol Freeman, who has an understandably high and well
deserved international reputation as a thylacine researcher. But unfortunately I
strongly disagree with her findings, I think that it is very important that the
case for the authenticity of the images be put forward.Read on...
I asked my father as a Taxidermist and in his professional opinion he believes the photograph to be of a live Thylacine. At this particular time Taxidermists were still wrapping the interior body with woodwool and coating it with clay as apposed to the foam bodies of today. This means unless it was mounted to a very high standard (like the work of Roland Ward Co etc) we would see more shrinkage. This seriously alters the appearance of the finished product making it less natural looking (everyone must have seen old taxidermy at some point and thought this looks bloody awful lol).
ReplyDeleteNot only does the Thylacine look alive so does the chicken, it appears one wing is still moving and slightly blurring the image.
Looks like it may have been startled to me! maybe there was someone else present standing out of shot behind the chicken wire in front of the animal and they were the one who initially disturbed it.
Some might say it looks static but it could also just be alert. Taxidermists and the public at that time used to like the piece to be mounted in a position to look as if it was doing something, usually in an aggressive stance with predators and this is obviously not the case here. In our opinion this Thylacine was very much alive when photographed just shocked.