Foreword

Dr Stephen Sleightholme

 

I first met Col on a visit to Tasmania in November of 2002, in the lounge of the historic Hadley’s Hotel in the centre of Hobart, as part of my work on the International Thylacine Specimen Database. It would be no understatement to say that I was somewhat sceptical at that point in time as to the possibility of the thylacine’s continued survival. In the two hours or so that we spent together, Col argued his case for the continuance of the species so well that he had a convert on his hands by the time our meeting ended. We have remained good friends ever since.

Col describes himself as an ‘amateur researcher’, which always makes me smile. I know of no other individual, and I include myself in that number, who has the depth of field experience that he has gained over 40 years and who has been privileged to interview at first hand so many of the central characters in the thylacine’s more recent history. He is an amateur in name only.

Col’s first book Tiger Tales is a nostalgic glimpse into the lives of the old bushmen who trapped and snared thylacines in the early part of the twentieth century. These men, as Col rightly states, were the real experts on the ‘tiger’. His new book Shadow of the Thylacine follows on from many of those tales and brings the story of the thylacine right up to date. In doing so, a number of startling revelations are made that fly in the face of current scientific opinion.

Anyone who knows Col Bailey well will attest to the fact that he is an honourable man whose integrity is beyond question, so these revelations cannot be disregarded as comments from an individual who does not know the thylacine. In many ways they are a clarion call to act before it is too late.

I once said to Col that he was the last of the great thylacine hunters and in many ways this is a befitting title.

 

Dr Stephen Sleightholme

Project Director, International Thylacine Specimen Database

Winner of a Whitley Award from the Royal Zoological Society in 2005