Northeast of Queensland, and indicate a fast and agile creature (Welfare & Fairley, 1981). Though these have diminished in number since the 1950s, they have continued (the Beast of Buderim being one recent example of the phenomenon). Such sightings in modern context, when able to be investigated further, have been universally identified as introduced domestic cats gone feral — natural selection tends favour proportions, markings and behaviours more commonly associated with actual wild species, after only a few generations in the wild. The domestic cat was introduced to Australia some hundreds of years ago, and have dispersed (and been dispersed) nationally, with only some islands remaining free from the declared pest. Thylacoleo, an animal of similar size and predatory habits, did live in Australia as recently as the late Pleistocene period, perhaps coexisting with the very first humans that arrived at Australia who were the ancestors of modern Australian Aboriginals. However, scientists estimate that Thylacoleo became extinct 30,000 years ago. Modern sightings of an animal described as remarkably like Thylacoleo have led some researchers to speculate that a small relict population has somehow survived in remote areas. Cryptozoologists who promote the theory of survival of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus, a Thylacinid, and also currently accepted as extinct, favour proposed survival of the Queensland tiger. The fundamental difference between the two cases, however, is that the last Tasmanian tiger in captivity died in 1936, and the species was not officially declared as extinct until 1986. This makes the prospect of species survival of the thylacine more likely than that of Thylacoleo. Thylacine or Thylacoleo? In his 1965 revision of the book Furred Animals of Australia, Ellis Troughton proposed that the Queensland tiger was merely a mainland variant of the thylacine. When discussing sightings of the Queensland tiger or animals thought to be the Queensland tiger, people sometimes refer to them as thylacines, though there are distinct and consistent differences in the descriptions of the animals (i.e.: head shape, position and colour of stripes, arboreal habits). While Cape York artist Percy Trezise believes the region is home to the thylacine, others have cited the popular urban myth of American soldiers bringing pumas to Queensland during World War II, with local Bob Whiston and tree kangaroo expert Roger Martin suggesting that sightings are of either Lumholtz's or Bennett's tree kangaroos, unfamiliar animals which walk on four legs when terrestrial and