Sydney amateur naturalist stumbles upon rare hairs in envelope belonging to extinct Tasmanian tiger

Australian man buys small package of pink animal hairs at an auction in the UK – only to discover they belong to the extinct Tasmanian tiger

•  Amateur Sydney naturalist Chris Rehburg bought the hairs at auction in 2016 
• He wanted to uncover their mysteries by putting them under the microscope
• Scientists in Geelong offered to investigate them under their powerful lenses 
•  The findings revealed the rare hairs belonged to the now extinct Tasmanian tiger

A small package bought at auction by an amateur Sydney naturalist has been confirmed to contain rare hairs belonging to the extinct Tasmanian tiger.

Chris Rehberg bought the mystery hairs when they were put up for auction in the UK in 2016 – as part of a collection believed to belonged to famous British botanist David Bellamy.

Mr Rehberg bought the small envelope labelled ‘thylacinus cynocephalus’ with the aim of investigating the true extinction date of the carnivorous marsupial.

A small package (pictured) bought at auction by an amateur Sydney naturalist has been confirmed to contain rare hairs belonging to the extinct Tasmanian tiger.

He created a crowdfunding campaign to raise the money needed to buy a microscope, but was then given a helping hand by CSIRO – the government agency responsible for scientific research.

Colin Veitch, who works in the CSIRO microscopy laboratory at Geelong, said he read about the hairs in an online article.

He said: ‘I saw it online and thought I should help.’

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Put under the microscope at a perspective of one-tenth of a millimeter, scientists were able to confirm the hair was indeed from a Tasmanian tiger

Mr Rehrberg bought the small envelope labelled ‘thylacinus cynocephalus’ (pictured) with the aim of investigating the true extinction date of the carnivorous marsupial.

‘We’ve got microscopes that can zoom in 2-5,000 times, so I offered our services to help him a look at the fibres.’

A photo taken by the microscope, which shows one the hairs up close, was enough for the CSIRO team to know that the hair was indeed from a Tasmanian tiger.

The researchers said each of the three hairs were different and likely represented a different part of the tiger’s skin and fur.

They added it was likely the thylacine’s additional level of hair meant the species had evolved to suit cooler, damper climates.

Mr Veitch said: ‘Those fibres would have been taken some time in the 1800s and some naturalist had taken them back to the UK.’ 

The microscopy team at CSIRO joked they were now on the lookout for Tibetan Yeti hair so they could prove the existence of the abominable snowman, 

CSIRO scientist Veitch said: ‘Those fibres would have been taken some time in the 1800s and some naturalist had taken them back to the UK.’

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