Australian Cryptozoology Gary Opit

07/05/2026

Happy 100th Birthday David Attenborough! Here are the photos we took of him when he signed our copy of his book The First Eden, The Mediterranean World and Man, in Brisbane in 1987.

31/03/2026

Tasmanian tiger extinction has been questioned after fourteen previously undocumented cave paintings were found inside caves at northwest Arnhem Land showing thylacines and devils, dated by Griffith University researchers as just 1,000 years old.
"The artists who made the more recent paintings may have seen actual living thylacines, and some of these creatures may have survived longer in Arnhem Land,” said the university’s chair of rock art research, Professor Paul Taçon. "There's still a wealth of Indigenous information about the species that isn't widely known.
Working with Traditional Owners to document the species' cultural and scientific significance. Co-author Dr Andrea Jalandoni noted that the paintings had been retouched multiple times, indicating they held significance for multiple generations. “These depictions show that the thylacine held a meaningful place in everyday life and local knowledge long before it went extinct,” she said.

Djalama man and co-author of the study, Joey Nganjmirra, explained the animals were important to his ancestors.
“They used to tell stories about going hunting with thylacines,” he said. Referred to as the djanggerrk in the Kunwinjku language, the tigers played a cultural role as protectors during stream crossings. In the mid-1800s, Indigenous groups in Tasmania also told European settlers about the marsupial’s incredible swimming ability. It’s believed tigers were more culturally important than devils on the mainland, because there had previously only been 150 tiger images documented, versus just 23 of devils.

The newly documented images consist of 14 showing tigers and two of devils, and they were painted using clay and ochre. They are located at Awunbarna, on Australia’s north coast, and Injalak Hill, which is further inland, along East Alligator River. Some had been known since the 1990s but had never been documented in detail, while others have been painstakingly researched over the last three years. The research has been published in the journal Archaeology in Oceania. Thylacine photo by Erwin van Maanen of a specimen in the Natural History Museum of Madrid, Spain.

20/03/2026

Washington State University anthropologist Dr. Grover Krantz classified Bigfoot as Gigantopithecus canadensis after studying the perfectly preserved footprints found by a ranger in a restricted area at Bossburg, Washington, which showed unique anatomical details, dermal ridges and one of the feet displayed a deformity. Krantz theorized that Gigantopithecus migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia to North America alongside many other species including people. He believed a small, remnant population of these giant apes survived in North America, adapting to a new environment and are now known as Sasquatch and Bigfoot. Some crypto researchers have theorized that the giant ape managed to reach Australia where it is now known as the Yowie. Giant ape-like footprints have been documented. However, other footprints, if legitimate, resemble huge human-like footprints and unique three-toed footprints perhaps indicating a giant marsupial-ape-like animal. Gigantopithecus blacki for two million years walked the forests of Southeast Asia. Standing upright, it would have looked you in the eye from a second-story window. It weighed as much as a grand piano. Its jaw fossils alone are larger than a gorilla's entire skull. Its nearest relatives, three species of orangutan, are being rapidly exterminated by billionaire corporations bulldozing the last rainforests for palm oil plantations thus exterminating all life on the planet, including humanity, as the essential planetary life-support systems that absorb our CO2 pollution from burning fossil fuels are annihilated, thus causing runaway global warming cooks our planet.

The Real King Kong Left Behind a Quiet, Dying Cousin

The largest ape to ever live stood 10 feet tall. Its closest living relative is going extinct — and most people don't know either one exists.

This is Gigantopithecus blacki — a real animal, not a myth. For nearly two million years, this absolute unit walked the forests of Southeast Asia. Standing upright, it would have looked you in the eye from a second-story window. It weighed as much as a grand piano. Its jaw fossils alone are larger than a gorilla's entire skull.

Now meet its closest surviving relative: the Bornean orangutan. Quiet. Intelligent. Gentle. And critically endangered — fewer than 104,000 remain in the wild, a number dropping every single year due to deforestation and palm oil farming.

One giant vanished from the fossil record. The other is vanishing from the living world — right now, in real time, on our watch.

300,000 years ago, Gigantopithecus disappeared, likely because its forest habitat shrank and it couldn't adapt.

Today, we're repeating the same story with the orangutan.

History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme. 🦧

Does this comparison change how you see extinction?

16/03/2026

AI generated videos give us a glimpse of what it may be like to encounter one of the world's most astounding animals, the thylacine. As to be expected, the English hated everything Australian, they probably still do, and were desperate to exterminate the astounding Australian people, hunting families down in the remotest deserts and mountains even in the 20th century, regarded as vermin that must be exterminated. The Liberal National coalition still resent their survival!

09/03/2026

Pick up a copy of the latest edition of Nexus Magazine at your local newsagent to read about the identification of the greatest cryptozoological enigma of all time in my article 'The natural phenomena that terrifies NASA', Are some UAP / UFOs terrestrial plasma life forms?' These are those organisms that inhabit the upper atmosphere and at times are observed in the lower atmosphere and generally known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs), unidentified ariel phenomena (UAPs) and during WWII, foo fighters. These are not to be confused with aircraft / spacecraft / flying saucers, also known as UFOs and UAPs. These natural, terrestrial organisms have been the subject of study by a number of scientists examining film / video obtained by astronauts and fighter pilots and they have identified them as plasma entities; a previously unrecognised form of life. I extracted the information from a paper on unidentified aerial phenomena by six scientists from various relevant disciplines which was published in the
Journal of Modern Physics in 2024.

09/03/2026

Few people know that there is a pygmy kiwi (Apteryx oweni) inhabiting the ancient Gondwanan rainforests of New Zealand at higher altitudes, along with the well-known brown kiwi (Apteryx australis), which has three subspecies on different islands and the great spotted kiwi (Apteryx haasti). A fourth larger species was identified last century, though known only by its footprints, and may have been a recently surviving small species of moa, several sightings of such birds having been recorded at intervals, though no other evidence came to light.

The little spotted kiwi, one of New Zealand’s smallest and most elusive birds, has made a remarkable return after disappearing from the mainland for more than half a century. Once feared to be lost in the wild, this tiny nocturnal bird is now slowly reclaiming parts of its native habitat thanks to decades of careful conservation work. For many conservationists, its comeback represents one of the most hopeful wildlife recovery stories in recent years.

Historically, little spotted kiwis were devastated by habitat loss and introduced predators such as stoats, ferrets, and domestic cats. Because these birds evolved in isolation without mammalian predators, they were especially vulnerable once these species arrived. By the late 20th century, the remaining population had survived mainly on a few predator-free islands.

To prevent extinction, conservation programs began relocating kiwis to protected islands and fenced reserves where predators were strictly controlled. Scientists closely monitored nesting sites, tracked birds using radio transmitters, and implemented breeding programs designed to increase chick survival. Young kiwis raised in these safe environments gradually learned the essential behaviors they need to survive—finding food, navigating forest floors at night, and communicating through their distinctive calls.

Today, small but growing populations are beginning to establish themselves again. Each surviving chick represents a step forward for biodiversity and proof that long-term conservation efforts can work.

The return of the little spotted kiwi is more than a wildlife success story. It stands as a powerful reminder that when habitats are protected and species are given the chance to recover, even animals once on the brink of disappearance can find their way back into the wild.

09/03/2026

During nine months in 1973 and 1974 I was fortunate enough to have observed what may have been a member of a surviving population of Denisovans in the high-altitude forests of New Guinea and several times heard the vocalisations of a surviving species of Australian marsupial megafauna while working with ecologists, ornithologists, herpetologists, entomologists, mammalogists and botanists from the Bishop Museum, a natural history museum in Honolulu, studying the high-altitude rainforests of the Owen Stanley Ranges at Wau in Papua New Guinea. We were discovering many new species of small animals, invertebrates, frogs and reptiles. A surviving species of megafauna dwelling within the undisturbed rainforests, occasionally vocalised with a short sequence of bellowing roars, obviously a very large mammal, probably a marsupial. Every vocalisation was identical with no variation in the calls. that travelled for a kilometre or so through the forest and although I attempted to track the animal, never sighted it. Though I did observe a wild human, black, naked, alone, that wore no clothing and did not carry any weapons or anything else in its hands, observing an ornithologist in his bird hide in a very remote high-altitude mountain, far above where the indigenous people lived. Perhaps Denisovan? The New Guinea people have the highest percentage of Denisovan DNA. Two marsupial species thought long extinct, until now known only from fossils, were found alive in New Guinea through a collaboration of scientists, indigenous communities and citizen scientists.
The discovery of the pygmy long-fingered possum and the ring-tailed glider marks the first confirmation of live specimens in over 7,000 years, the Bishop Museum, a natural history museum in Honolulu, announced.
The two animals are known as “Lazarus species,” a term for organisms that reappear after being thought to be extinct. “The discovery of two Lazarus species, thought to be extinct for millennia, is unprecedented,” said Australian Museum’s Dr. Tim Flannery in the press release.

Two marsupial species thought long extinct, until now known only from fossils, were found alive in New Guinea through a collaboration of scientists, indigenous communities and citizen scientists.

The discovery of the pygmy long-fingered possum and the ring-tailed glider marks the first confirmation of live specimens in over 7,000 years, the Bishop Museum, a natural history museum in Honolulu, announced.

The two animals are known as “Lazarus species,” a term for organisms that reappear after being thought to be extinct. “The discovery of two Lazarus species, thought to be extinct for millennia, is unprecedented,” said Australian Museum’s Dr. Tim Flannery in the press release.

Read more: nbcnews.app.link/9gpkGwagi1b

27/02/2026

For all those people that requested detailed information on the Yowie in an inexpensive publication, costing only $15, the book can now be pre-ordered at the following site:
https://holidaymakerrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/the-yowie-booklet By purchasing this book and recording and sharing descriptions, vocalisations and behaviour during encounters with this most iconic of all of our wildlife, you may be able to add vital information leading to its correct identification. Is it a living fossil like so many of our unique Australian animals? Is it related to Bigfoot, Sasquatch or Yeti? Is it Homo erectus or some other supposedly long extinct human relative? Is it Gigantopithecus, the giant ape thought long extinct by scientists? Is it related to the marsupial gorilla / panda / bear (Hulitherium thomasettii), the giant short-faced kangaroo (Procoptodon goliah), that walked instead of hopped, or the more ancient Balbaroo fangaroo, all known from their fossils. Anthropologist Neil Frost undertook a 30-year-long citizen science study of the animals in the Blue Mountains, assisted by many other local residents and obtained evidence that the Dooligahl, its southern NSW indigenous name, is a marsupial, as described in his book ‘Fatfoot, Encounters with a Dooligahl’.
The first ever Yowie town event, that included music, film and art, was held in Lismore on the 24th of January 2026 and attracted hundreds of people, many of whom shared their encounter reports with me. From the information provided by them it can be concluded that the population of Australia's largest native mammal, a still unclassified survivor of the megafauna extinctions, continues to increase with ever-more people encountering them. The event organisers, Holiday Makers Records, are publishing and distributing this book.

The Yowie (Booklet) from Holiday Maker Records

27/02/2026

An interesting video that captured a very unusual vocalisation that sounds too far away and too powerful for a superb lyrebird which can be heard giving its distinctive calls towards the end of the video. Lyrebird calls travel long distances covering their territory though they are a short series of distinctive vocalisations that include mimicry during display of other bird species calls and occasionally more unusual sounds that it has heard. These unusual vocalisations sound as if they come from an animal that has a huge territory and must be a very large and powerful animal to have produced such far-carrying calls. Only a Dooligahl can produce such far carrying vocalisations.

15/02/2026

I have received dozens of reports of these unclassified animals from farmers, national park indigenous rangers and other listeners to my wild life identification radio broadcasts on ABC North Coast NSW over the last 28 years. Several additional reports were received during the first ever Yowie town event held at Lismore on the 24 th of January 2026 that included two close encounters on Springbrook which forms part of the Wollumbim Mount Warning Caldera along with a family of two adults and an immature individual adjacent the western flanks of the range and a track of dozens of giant foot prints

The Yowie Encounter at Mount Warning (1977) – Australia

In 1977, a group of hikers exploring the remote rainforest near Mount Warning in New South Wales reported a terrifying encounter with what is now considered one of Australia’s most famous cryptids — the Yowie.

According to the witnesses, they began to notice an overwhelming foul odor, described as a mix of wet animal and decay. Soon after, they heard heavy footsteps moving through dense vegetation, far too loud to belong to any known animal in the area.

Moments later, a massive figure emerged near the treeline. The creature was described as over 7 feet tall, broad-shouldered, and covered in dark, matted hair. Its eyes reflected light, and it appeared to be watching the group intently.

As fear set in, the creature began throwing rocks and sticks, a behavior frequently reported in Yowie encounters. Deep, guttural vocalizations echoed through the forest, causing the hikers to retreat in panic.

The group fled the area, later reporting the incident to local authorities and researchers. Investigators found disturbed vegetation, unusually large footprints, and signs of something moving through the area with significant weight.

Yowie sightings have been reported across Australia for centuries, including in Indigenous oral traditions long before European settlement. The Mount Warning encounter stands out due to the number of witnesses and the consistency of their accounts.

Whether the Yowie is an undiscovered primate, a relic species, or something yet unknown, encounters like this one continue to fuel Australia’s most enduring cryptid legend — a reminder that some wilderness areas may still hide secrets best left undiscovered.

Read real-life encounters with various cryptids in my new book "Mysterious Creatures: Cryptid Encounters - In The Authors Words Volume 3"
Get your copy here 👇
www.intheauthorswords3.com