The Yip Encounter
Amazing Stuff!
I’ve had a lot of fate and destiny things happen to me during my thylacine research of over 20 years. I’ve met people, had sighting encounters, found footprint evidence and have come across carcasses predated upon by thylacines.
I’ve had a couple of vocalisation encounters such as a penetrating “Ruff” and have had a close encounter where a thylacine has coughed 5 times at me whilst it has hidden in bracken fern bushes nearby. Plus I’ve also heard a penetrating “Arrgl…. Arrgl….” In the middle of the night during a hot summers evening that echoed right up the valley which I along with my 3 son’s awoke to. No other animal could have made this vocalisation!
People have often mentioned the thylacine “Yips” whilst it is hunting. I have never heard them before Saturday morning 11th October 2014. Here is my story.
I rose just before 2.30 am out of my sleeping bag to have a leak. There have been 3 full moon lit nights since the Lunar Eclipse on the 9th and I stood on the veranda after my relief peering down onto the grassed flats below the cabin which backed onto the river.
I could make out most of the wallabies feeding on the grasses in the dim light some 20 – 50 metres from where I was standing. I chose to count them and got up to around 20 when all of a sudden they became unsettled and they started darting like a plague of rats to the right and into the sanctuary of the bracken ferns and the blue gum woodlands in that area.
As they darted I heard the “Yips” penetrating the stillness and the silence of the night. They were close, in my estimate around 100 – 150 metres away and they were loud. My immediate hope was that the thylacine might pop out and that I might get a glimpse of him. But this was not to be and then I thought to myself what other associative animal makes that similar sound so that people would understand what I have heard. Immediately I thought to myself that the Yips sounded like a startled vocalisation of a Plover water bird and they kept up for at least 2 – 3 minutes and they appeared to be coming from the blue gums and the creek nearby.
I was hoping that a thylacine might dart out and make a kill right there in front of me and I kept peering into the darkness to see whether there was any movement of that nature happening. The vocalisations then stopped for at least 4 minutes and I thought to myself that he may be feasting on a fresh kill. The Yip vocalisations then recommenced for around 30 – 40 seconds before they stopped completely. I stood on the veranda for around another 10 – 15 minutes before closing the cabin door and returning to bed. Needless to say I couldn’t get the encounter out of my mind nor could I get back to sleep until around 4am. Every day is another adventure when you are in the thylacine zone and chasing thylacines!
I rose in the morning and walked extensively around near the areas where the vocalisations had occurred in the early hours to see if there might be a carcass. But none could be found. I also wondered whether it was a solitary animal hunting as there were no additional vocalisations happening in unison. Was it one animal spooking the wallabies into the direction of another animal which in turn made a kill for both of them to feed upon?
In terms of fate and destiny what if I had slept through the encounter and had not even realised that it had taken place? I’d be still wondering what the yips sounded like!
Murray McAllister