Tasmanian bluetongues

[ROBSTA]

years ago i was in tasmania,and i was bushwalkin lookin for tigersnakes
and i came across a blue tongue cruising along the forest floor
Now i didnt have a camera but if my memory serves me correctly(it was along time ago about 17 years)
it was of eastern bluetongue appearance
no diferent to the mainland form
anyone else been to tasmania and seen wild blueys?

[Leigh]

Not me, but I cant wait to see pic's if there are any.

[Zach]

Tasmania is supposed to only contain the Blotched species but they are also found in NSW and Victoria. I haven't heard any easterns being in Tasmania, but the two lands are so close, I can't imagine some easterns not making their way over there if not by anything but human relocation over the years....

Thoughts by any folks with experience?

[thesilverbeast]

Its not that close, other than plane, theres only one or two boats you can take (that i know of, im probably wrong) and they take around 8 hours to make the trip.


im not sure that people would bother? even then i think its illegal to own reptiles in tasmania. maybe not though.


and then from there to have it happen almost 20 years ago when they weren't common pets to bring over and it was maybe harder to go by boat im not sure that many would have been taken over to start a population big enough to survive.





BUT the odds of a population of isolated-undiscovered easterns living in tasmania are probably more unlikely so im guessing it was an individual brought over that was released. and against all odds this user happened to stumble on it.










oh, one more wild theory, maybe easterns are common over there but no-one thought it would be worth mentioning? kinda like how one day a new species of insect or mammal can be found and then several towns put their hand up after its discovery and say theyd seen them for years but not known they were anything special? i doubt this one though

[ROBSTA]

yea thats why i thought id bring the point up,

i cant remember any unusual colouring about it but i could be wrong,and i cant remember seeing a blotched bluey in the wild,but it was a long time ago


was hoping someone might shed some light

[ROBSTA]

i did a bit of reading and there is definantly only blotched blueys in tassy,
but the one i saw was prob like this one in pic i googled up of tassy blueys

[Geoff Gates]

Yes. only blotchies in Tasmania.

Blotchies are the cold weather specialists and can handle conditions that other bluey species can not.

...and that is a nice looking Tassy blotchie.

[Blotch]

BLOTCHIES!!!

I was reading through this Thread, and wondered, Are there any alpines in Tassie? I've never heard of any, Just lowlands.

Anyway, Zach - you know Blotchies range from Tassie through to Vic and NSW. And as Silver said - There's a heap of water to cross between VICTORIA and Tassie.

Geoff - You think there's a difference in the way a tassie blotchie looks as opposed to a Vic Blotchie?

[shingleback aus]

yea only blotchies in tas i wonder if theres any differences between vic and nsw to tas blotchies??

[Geoff Gates]

Geoff - You think there's a difference in the way a tassie blotchie looks as opposed to a Vic Blotchie?

Yes, though I haven't had a really close look at a Tassy blotchie.

Apparently there are some differences from one regional population to another on the mainland too.

[Scotts1au]

Tassie was only seperated from the mainland depending on what you read, something like 5000 years ago if that helps which is extremely recently.

Scott

[Zach]

Anyway, Zach - you know Blotchies range from Tassie through to Vic and NSW. And as Silver said - There's a heap of water to cross between VICTORIA and Tassie.

"Tasmania is supposed to only contain the Blotched species but they are also found in NSW and Victoria. I haven't heard any easterns being in Tasmania, but the two lands are so close"

Yep...

It's only 150 miles... with lots of bits of land in between. I can't help but wonder if there's a single specimen naturally living in Tasmania..... I've always given it a lot of thought for absolutley no reason at all.

[Blotch]

well 80 - 90% of Tassie is Uncharted National Park (can't get there) - so it's a definite possibility. It's also a possibility that the tassie tiger is still kicking about somewhere, as well as that black panther that has been speculated to be roaming Tassie for years. I'm not talking about the big black feral cat that was killed early last year either.

[Zach]

I love all the hullabaloo about the tasmanian tiger! Hey, they found the ivory-billed woodpecker alone in Arkansas a few years back...it'd been considered extinct for like 80 years....

[ROBSTA]

i attended a book launch about the Tasmanian tiger,and the author is an american who has been out here looking for them for years and a good freind of my mothers cousin who was there aswell hes a mammal expert

anyway they had a debate at the book launch for and against whether or not the tassy tiger still exists
and there is strong scientific evidence that
it is extinct as it was a more open plains hunter and did not favour the thick inpenetrable scrub
so would have been sighted by people
but many claim to have seen them but keep quiet
about it
i hope somewhere it still exists,but there is a very good chance that it does not
but you never know for sure till one is found i guess

[ROBSTA]

oh on the plus side there has been large animals thought to be extinct but lived in close proximety to humans yet remained un rediscovered for years
and turned up
nature finds away

[Scotts1au]

More likely to be wild dogs I think you'lle find that it is adios amigo for the Tigers and Devils heading that way too.

Also Aus feral cats can get pretty big. I used to spend a lot of time in gippsland and came across several very large jet black ones prowling for rabbits especially in the Yarram,Tarraville, Manns Beach area. One was that I found strung up over a fence - had been shot - and its paws touched the ground on both sides of a 3 foot high fence that it was slung across. Granted that the fence was a bit slack in the middle but we are talking bigger than a cockaspaniel and a massive puma like head. This is a very similar environment to much of Tassie.

Scott

[herp boy]

Couldn't human help with bringing the bluys across?