From Timothy Haas, Binalong Bay, Tasmania, Australia
As a Tasmanian, it seems to me that the jury is still out on the survival of our “tiger” (6 May, p 40). With 40 per cent of Tasmania protected in reserves, much of it is very wild country.
But Cape York in the far north of Australia is a very different place. I don't know about the Tasmanian tiger, but I can say I saw a numbat there, even though textbooks confine these marsupial “banded anteaters” to the south-west of Western Australia.
I got separated from my friends on an expedition to the Jardine swamp area of Cape York in the mid-1980s. I was left at a track junction to wait. A numbat trotted past not more than 2 metres away. I was naturally thrilled, and as a keen field naturalist I knew what it was: but I didn't know it wasn't supposed to be there.
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