Most of us notice nocturnal wildlife when it darts across the road. Gary Opit has spent decades listening to people who reckon they have seen something rather harder to identify.
Credit: Alchemy Films Australia
Tonight (Thursday, October 29), he is inviting those with unusual wildlife encounters to share their stories at Marvell Hall, Byron Bay.
His 7pm presentation accompanies a screening of Eyes Like Diamonds, a documentary following Neil Waters’ search for evidence that the Tasmanian tiger survives.
For Opit, the evening is also an invitation to consider the busy landscape beyond our headlights and living-room windows.
‘The darkened landscape vibrates with millions of lives that know little of us,’ he said.
Opit says listeners to his long-running Wildlife Weekend broadcasts on ABC North Coast have spent 30 years phoning and emailing for help identifying animals.
He says those encounters formed a citizen science study published in Australian Zoologist in 2017, following a presentation to the Royal Zoological Society of NSW.
‘What fascinated our top zoologists assembled were the reports of large carnivores supposedly extinct or completely unknown,’ he said.
Those accounts are reports of sightings, rather than confirmation that extinct or unidentified animals inhabit the region.
Opit believes some residents are reluctant to discuss what they have encountered around isolated homes or on country roads. He hopes tonight’s gathering will give them an opportunity.
The documentary screening is listed for 7.30pm at the hall, 37 Marvell Street, with a question-and-answer session featuring Waters, director Jonathon Buckland and cinematographer Gourav Gandhi. Tickets are listed at $12.50.
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