One of the weirder footnotes in the storied legend of the Tasmanian Tiger involves media mogul Ted Turner and a rather sizeable reward that he once offered to anyone who could prove the creature still existed.
The odd bounty came about back in December of 1983, when the CNN founder was in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart for a yacht race.
According to a newspaper article from the time, a visit to one of the city's museums led to Turner learning about the declared-extinct creature presumably by way of an exhibit detailing how the last living thylacine in captivity had died at the Hobart Zoo.
It would seem that the display featured some kind of note regarding the debate over whether or not the Tasmanian Tiger was truly extinct as Turner reportedly "made a spontaneous offer" of $100,000 dollars to anyone who could prove that the creature was still alive.
His reasoning for the reward, which would be around $250,000 in today's dollars, was that he hoped to "encourage a vigorous search for the animal" and, ostensibly, assumed that such a significant amount of money would make it happen.
It would appear that the idea was successful, in a sense, as it did inspire a number of thylacine hunters to go searching for the creature in the hopes of acquiring the prize.
However, none of the expeditions were able to produce the proof necessary to claim the money and when a Tasmanian Tiger researcher wrote to Turner in 2000 to inquire about the reward, he received a rather disappointing response.
In a brief, albeit laudatory letter, Turner replied, "unfortunately, the reward for proof that the Tasmanian Tiger exists is no longer in effect. However, your dedication and determination to continue researching sightings is certainly admirable."
One can't help but wonder why the billionaire cable television pioneer would decide to rescind the reward which was, relative to his personal fortune, a pretty small sum.
And, alas, Turner offered no explanation in his letter, opting to instead simply wish the researcher good luck in his quest to find the thylacine.
Perhaps the savvy businessman realized that, should someone actually settle the thylacine debate once and for all, a couple hundred thousand dollars would be small potatoes compared to the money they could make selling the proof to the highest bidder.
Source: Canberra Times / TassieTiger.org